New Quick Reference Guide on IDEA Part C Maintenance of Effort

Understand Part C MOE and why it’s important for the state lead agency to ensure compliance. Learn what funds to include when calculating, circumstances when allowances may be made, and the consequences for the state of not meeting the requirement.

 

Ready to go beyond collecting and reporting IDEA fiscal data to find ways to improve your state’s programs for supporting infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities? Where to start?

CIFR’s new resource—From Data to Action: Using IDEA Fiscal Data—helps Part C and Part B state staff explore their data and initiate conversations to improve state systems. The Ask, Reflect, Find approach serves as a starting point for identifying and acting on important trends that may inform decisions about technical assistance, monitoring activities, policies, and practices.

 

Understand the basics of state set-aside funds, build common knowledge, and engage your state educational agency partners—from state officials to local educational agencies—in budget discussions with this new quick reference guide for SEA staff. Learn how OSEP calculates minimum and maximum amounts and how to report on the anticipated uses of the funds. The question-and-answer format breaks down the essential content and prompts thinking around key concepts.

Laura Kender, who is in charge of helping families with children from before birth until they turn 18 in Tarrant County, TX, will give the keynote address at CIFR’s Part C IDEA Fiscal Forum (IFF) on May 9, 2023. The IFF provides opportunities for Part C coordinators, state directors of special education, and state IDEA fiscal specialists to build knowledge and capacity by connecting and sharing with peers and staff from CIFR and other national technical assistance centers.

Kender is the chief of child and family services at My Health My Resources of Tarrant County, which helps families by providing a range of community-based services for youths and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, mental health conditions, and substance use disorders, as well as for babies and young children with developmental delays.

She is helping the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention promote their “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” program, and for 22 years she has been a member of Texas’s Early Childhood Intervention Advisory Committee. In 2020 she received First3Years’s T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., Infant Mental Health Advocacy Award. Kender has a master’s degree in educational administration with a focus on early childhood and special education.

“Laura has been advocating for children with disabilities and their families at national, state, and local levels for more than two decades. She will speak about building and financing a coordinated, comprehensive, and sustainable family-focused early childhood system,” said CIFR’s IDEA Part C Co-Lead Leslie Fox.

The CIFR team is very much looking forward to welcoming Part C Coordinators and other state staff across the country to Atlanta on May 9–11. For more on the conference program:

• Review the preliminary agenda.
• Watch “Meet Us in Atlanta: What to Expect from CIFR’s 2023 IDEA Part C Fiscal Forum” (2:04):

• • Video transcript
• Learn about the conference theme. Watch “Purpose-Driven Data: Putting the ‘Why’ Into Fiscal Processes” (1:48)

• • Video transcript

For more information about the event, contact us.

State Interagency Coordinating Councils (ICCs) provide crucial input on funding the state Part C system. The strategies in this new practice guide from CIFR help Part C lead agency staff build the fiscal knowledge of ICC members and engage them in meaningful budget discussions. The fiscal issues and data analysis questions in the guide are designed to prompt ICC members’ feedback.

 

Version 2.0 of CIFR’s Maintenance of State Financial Support (MFS) Data Collection and Reporting Tool (DCRT) enables SEAs to document and review whether MFS was met for up to 12 years. Enter special education fiscal data from the SEA and other state agencies. A summary table displays MFS results for each year, and summary charts display MFS total and per capita amounts over time.

This CIFR practice guide helps SEAs and LEAs develop effective practices for reviewing and applying exceptions to the required level of effort. It describes each of the five allowable exceptions, with helpful tips and examples showing how to calculate total and per capita amounts. It also demonstrates how the subsequent years rule and intervening years provision work.

A new budget calculator from CIFR helps Part C programs develop their annual budget and track expenditures across the life of the IDEA grant, supporting timely obligation and liquidation of the funds. State staff can use the calculator to complete the required information on the use of funds in the annual grant application and make decisions about future budgets.

CIFR invites state staff with shared interests in IDEA Part B fiscal issues to attend a new round of Communities of Practice (CoPs) focusing on:

• Differentiated Monitoring and Support (DMS)
• IDEA Fiscal Timelines
• Part B State Set-Aside

Transcript

Facilitated by CIFR TA staff, CoPs are specially designed to meet the learning and networking needs of state staff to help improve the quality of states’ collecting, reporting, analysis, and use of IDEA Part B fiscal data. State staff will have opportunities to expand their knowledge and solve problems of practice through discussion and sharing of expertise. CoPs will meet 1 to 2 hours per month for at least 8 sessions from January to November 2023.

Interested staff should discuss with their colleagues which CoPs will meet the needs of their state. Joining more than one CoP is encouraged depending on your ability to commit the time. Please review each description before registering and plan to attend the introductory kickoff session in January.

Differentiated Monitoring and Support (DMS) CoP

• First Meeting: January 18, 2023, 2:00–3:00 p.m. ET
• Meets the second Wednesday of the month for 90 minutes at 2:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. CT/12:30 p.m. MT/11:30 a.m. PT/10:30 am AK/9:30 a.m. HI

In federal fiscal year (FFY) 2021, OSEP launched DMS 2.0 which established a five-year monitoring cycle focused on both SEA compliance and improved results to monitor each SEA’s general supervision system. Co-led by CIFR and the NCSI Fiscal Support Team (FST), the DMS CoP will help SEA staff:

• understand the Fiscal Management and Integrated Monitoring components of OSEP’s DMS 2.0 Framework;
• navigate the critical fiscal requirements monitored by OSEP;
• be prepared to participate in DMS fiscal activities;
• develop compliant policies, procedures, and practices; and
• increase understanding of IDEA fiscal requirements.

Discussion topics will include local educational agency (LEA) allocations, subrecipient monitoring, coordinated early intervening systems (CEIS), comprehensive CEIS (CCEIS), significant disproportionality, LEA maintenance of effort (MOE), and equitable services/proportionate share. Each online session will include an overview of the fiscal requirements, a preview of each DMS fiscal protocol, a review of historical findings and issues, and time for state sharing.

• After registering, you will receive a confirming email, and a CoP facilitator will contact you before the end of December to coordinate your participation. Priority will be given to state staff in DMS cohorts 2 and 3. Other registrants will be notified of their acceptance before the first meeting.
• This CoP’s schedule includes at least one onsite meeting for SEA staff to develop and revise selected fiscal procedures (TBD).

Register at https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/889b6d4b53b94d918698c6ab2869ff38

IDEA Fiscal Timelines CoP

• First Meeting: January 4, 2023, 2:00–3:00 p.m. ET
• Meets the first Wednesday of the month for 60 minutes at 2:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. CT/12:00 p.m. MT/11:00 a.m. PT/10:00 a.m. AK/9:00 a.m. HI

Co-led by TA staff from CIFR and NCSI, this CoP will follow the IDEA Part B Fiscal Timeline Tool through an entire calendar year of Part B fiscal activities and provide timely information on CIFR and NCSI’s topical areas. At each meeting, CIFR and NCSI TA providers will review both federally required and recommended timelines of upcoming fiscal activities and additional resources. Participants will be invited to discuss their current activities, challenges, and successes and give each other feedback.

• After registering, you will receive a confirming email, and a CoP facilitator will contact you before the end of December to coordinate your participation.

Register at https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/889b6d4b53b94d918698c6ab2869ff38

New IDEA State Fiscal Staff CoP

• First Meeting: January 18, 2023, 3:00–4:30 p.m. ET
• Meets on the third Wednesday of the month for 90 minutes at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT/1 p.m. MT/12 p.m. PT/11 a.m. AK/10 a.m. HI

Meet with colleagues across the country who, like you, are new to their state educational agency (SEA) role with IDEA fiscal responsibilities. Open only to staff who began their IDEA fiscal role on or after August 1, 2021, the goal of the New IDEA State-Fiscal Staff CoP is to increase participants’ knowledge of Part B fiscal requirements and foster strong connections between IDEA fiscal staff in other states. We will hear from content experts from CIFR, the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI), and veteran staff from other states on a range of topics. The focus of this CoP is on idea sharing and relationship building. Ask questions, share challenges, and discuss solutions collaboratively in a safe and informal setting. Explore a new topic each month, such as finding your way around the CIFR website and using CIFR tools and guidance resources, understanding basic IDEA fiscal processes, navigating within your SEA to meet the fiscal requirements, and other topics generated from your feedback. Because this is a closed group, attendance will be taken at each meeting.

• The schedule includes one in-person meeting in March. Details to come.
• After registering, you will receive a confirming email, and a CoP facilitator will contact you before the end of December to coordinate your participation.

Register at https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/c5c55cb4849b45d083d93d50933fa3ce

Part B State Set-Aside CoP

• First Meeting: January 19, 2023, 3:00–4:00 p.m. ET
• Meets on the third Thursday of the month for 90 minutes at 3:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. CT/1:00 p.m. MT/12:00 p.m. PT/11:00 a.m. AK/10:00 a.m. HI

To support SEAs with IDEA Part B state set-aside, this CoP is tailored for state directors, IDEA program staff, and IDEA fiscal staff responsible for tracking, reporting, and making decisions about these funds. Meetings will feature presentations by CIFR TA liaisons and state staff, reviews of CIFR products, discussion and Q&A, and practice with the interactive spreadsheet.

Proposed content includes:

• understanding state set-aside calculations and required and permissive uses;
• planning and prioritizing the use of funds, and using the interactive spreadsheet;
• tracking expenditures and potential budget adjustments, including the 10% variance for OSEP approval;
• other aspects such as high cost funds, commingling, and implications of reallocating LEA subgrants; and
• similarities and differences between Section 611 and Section 619.
• After registering, you will receive a confirming email, and a CoP facilitator will contact you before the end of December to coordinate your participation.

Register at https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/889b6d4b53b94d918698c6ab2869ff38

Questions? Please email your state TA liaison or CIFR’s Lizann Salazar at [email protected].

State Interagency Coordinating Councils (ICCs) advise the state lead agency (LA) and help it meet the fiscal requirements under IDEA Part C. To do this, ICC members and state LA staff must understand and engage with each other about the regulations and how they translate into practice. This CIFR quick reference guide provides a foundational understanding and examples of the ICC’s role to advise and assist.