Comprehensive Needs Assessment Part II
This is the time of year Federal Program Directors are beginning the planning process for FY22. In my last post, I talked about conducting surveys of all stakeholders to not only garner input for planning but to evaluate the prior year’s plan implementation. Once you have obtained the feedback from the surveys, the planning process […]
Comprehensive Needs Assessment I
It’s time for LEAs to start planning for use of federal funds for the FY22 school year. This is a time to look ahead and project how we will spend our federal dollars based on the LEA’s needs. It’s a time of gathering data to enable an efficient review of the current year and prior […]
NEW COVID-19 RELIEF PACKAGE IMPACT ON K-12 SCHOOLS
Happy New Year! May 2021 bring an end to Covid-19 quickly! As we wait for Covid-19 to end, it looks like the Covid-19 Relief bill signed by President Trump will give K-12 schools more ESSER funds. According to FutureED, the new relief package will provide 54.3 billion dollars to K-12 schools. The earlier CARES Relief bill […]
ESSERF Equitable Services Update #2
As I’m sure you are now aware, a summary judgment was issued against the ESSERF Interim Rule which resulted in it being thrown out by the courts. ESSERF is now to be allocated in the same manner as for equitable services for Title I schools. If this has caused problems for you like it has […]
Schoolwide Plans FY21
It’s time to update our Title I Schoolwide Plans. Since our plans are a three-year plan, the schools do not have to update all of the plan. Schools only have to revise the sections in MCAPS that have changed. In addition, since standardized tests were not given in the spring, we don’t have test scores, […]
Parent and Family Engagement During Covid-19
It’s September, and we are still in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Some schools are back in traditional settings, some are in virtual, and some are in hybrid mode. Some schools have delayed opening. It is certainly strange times, isn’t it? As a superintendent friend of mine has said, the word for the year […]
ESSERF and Equitable Services
I’m sure most of you are aware that MDE chose to allocate equitable services based on poverty as opposed to private school student enrollment, as guidance from the US Department of Education detailed. There has been much disagreement on Capitol Hill with DeVos’s interpretation of the Act. Members from both sides of the aisle in […]
Don’t Forget About Maintenance of Effort
As we approach the CARES ESSER funding period, along with one year extensions for spending FY19 and FY20 monies, and with FY21 carryover requirements waived, districts may find themselves with what is perceived to be extra funds. The temptation may be to use schoolwide federal dollars to pay for personnel previously funded by district dollars. […]
FY21 CFPA Completion Hints
As you are aware, the FY21 CFPA is due June 19th. Most of us submit and wait for MDE to return the plan to us for correction. As a means of reducing the chance of plans being returned, let me suggest a few hints. If you have any amount of money left on the PPA […]
Getting Started with the FY21 Title Plan
I know everyone is busily working on their FY21 Title Applications. If you have not yet started, that’s okay. You can still get this done. If you are new at this, let me offer some suggestions that have worked well for me over the years. Gather all personnel costs for the district and each school; […]
Private Schools and ESSER/CARES Funds
Those of you with private schools may want to read this in regards to ESSER/CARES funds. It sounds like a fight may be a brewing! http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2020/05/public-school-backlash-grows-devos-coronavirus-aid-private-school.html
MDE in the LEA ESSER Application
Want to know what MDE must include in the LEA ESSER application?