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:
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.
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:
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.
Register at https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/889b6d4b53b94d918698c6ab2869ff38
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.
Register at https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/889b6d4b53b94d918698c6ab2869ff38
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.
Register at https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/c5c55cb4849b45d083d93d50933fa3ce
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:
Register at https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/889b6d4b53b94d918698c6ab2869ff38
Questions? Please email your state TA liaison or CIFR’s Lizann Salazar at lsalaza@wested.org.
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.
A new toolkit developed by the Early Childhood Technical Assistance (ECTA) Center in collaboration with CIFR and the Center for Early Childhood Data Systems (DaSy) helps states plan and implement Part C fiscal monitoring at the state and local early intervention system levels. It includes state Part C fiscal indicators, a checklist, and a template as well as sample EIS-provider fiscal monitoring indicators and considerations for developing them.
Until passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, states were prohibited from subgranting for the provision of early intervention services. Now that they may, with certain restrictions, a new guide from CIFR helps lead agencies understand the differences between a contract and a subgrant and decide whether to pursue subgranting and why.
This updated practice guide from CIFR helps state staff develop effective data notes to respond to LEA allocation, MOE reduction, and CEIS data warnings and data quality inquiries from OSEP. The guide helps Part B fiscal specialists understand OSEP’s data quality review process and provides examples of inadequate and exemplar data notes for two common warning messages. Contact your state TA liaison for assistance.
The IDEA Part C grant cycle has several stages and timelines. CIFR’s Understanding the IDEA Part C State Grant Funding Cycle and Different Fiscal Years helps Part C coordinators and fiscal staff understand each stage and visualize how they overlap across years. This new graphic-based guide demonstrates the timeline for each stage to help lead agencies ensure that each grant is fully obligated and expended by the end of the grant cycle.
The Center for IDEA Fiscal Reporting (CIFR) is a partnership among WestEd, AEM Corporation, American Institutes for Research (AIR), Emerald Consulting, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Center for Technical Assistance for Excellence in Special Education (TAESE) at Utah State University, and Westat. The Improve Group is CIFR's external evaluator.
The contents of this website were developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, #H373F200001. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. Project Officers: Jennifer Finch and Charles Kniseley.
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