Are Federal Program Procedure Manuals Really Necessary?
Are federal program procedure manuals essential? As much as I hate to say it, the answer is yes. The procedure manual for federal programs is addressed at conferences and during every monitoring visit. The next question is, what does the procedure manual include? The manual should consist of the procedures undertaken by the federal programs […]
Maintenance of Equity
Welcome to Federal Programs where there is always something new! 😉 The MDE introduced maintenance of equity (MOEquity) to us this month. MOEquity is a provision brought to us by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP Act). The State departments and LEAs must show MOEquity as a condition of receiving ARP ESSER funds. […]
Supplement Not Supplant and Maintenance of Effort
I learned today that the supplement not supplant (SNS) provision no longer applies to Title I district-level budgeted expenditures. Federal program directors were initially told SNS applied to Title I schools, not district-level costs, since LEAs had to provide a methodology for funding schools. Maybe I missed it along the way, but I did not […]
Are Your Schools Comparable?
Many of us are now in the process of determining if our schools are comparable. In Mississippi, we use a comparability workbook provided by MDE to complete the process. Even though MDE hosted a helpful technical assistance, questions often arise once one starts on the project. Due to Covid, this is another year for which […]
Parent and Family Engagement FY22 – Still COVID
Last year at this time, I wrote a blog on Parent and Family Engagement during the COVID pandemic. At the time, I thought that I was only having to address that topic for that unique time frame. Well, unfortunately, I was wrong. Here we are a year later, and the topic is still relevant and […]
More COVID Relief on the Way
For all those dealing with federal dollars for K-12 schools, are you ready for more money? There’s more money on the way. So far, we here in Mississippi are spending funds from the (1) CARES Act (ESSER I) passed in March 2020 and are currently (2) completing applications for the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental […]
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 […]
Revisions to Title Plans
About now, many districts are looking at making revisions to their FY19, FY20, or even FY21 plans. In addition, Title reallocations should be released soon. Revisions can be cumbersome and time consuming. I would like to share with you some hints I’ve discovered over the years that help me complete my revisions and help with […]
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, […]
ESSER Equitable Services Update
In my previous post, I made note of the limitations on spending funds based on Betsy DeVos’s ruling. It looks like the limitations I noted are now inaccurate due to a new interim rule. From the recent email from MDE and from additional reading I have done on the topic, it looks like if all […]