CIFR 2022 Part B Communities of Practice (CoPs)

In 2022, CIFR’s second round of four CoPs brings together state staff with shared interests in IDEA Part B fiscal issues:

• Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS),
• IDEA Allocations to LEAs,
• LEA Maintenance of Effort (MOE), and
• New State Fiscal Staff.

Facilitated by CIFR staff, CoPs will meet monthly for 1 to 2 hours through November, depending on the needs and interests of participants. Each CoP will explore practical concerns and solutions for the topic of interest and will allow for discussion and questions about additional issues that address the needs of state participants. By meeting the networking and learning needs of state staff and tackling problems of practice, CoPs help improve the quality of states’ implementation and reporting around of IDEA Part B fiscal requirements.

State staff with IDEA fiscal responsibilities should register for as many CoPs as they have the time and interest to commit to. Please register to join us at the introductory sessions below! Members will set future dates at these kickoff meetings. Register here.

Upon registering, watch for a confirmation email from CIFR. The facilitator of the CoP(s) that you signed up for will contact you to coordinate your participation.

New State Fiscal Staff CoP: January 25, 4:00–5:30 (ET)

Are you new to IDEA fiscal work within the past 18 months? This CoP will be guided by the IDEA Part B Fiscal Timeline and the Understanding the IDEA Grant Funding Cycle and Different Fiscal Years resource. The focus will be on what states should be working on at any given time to meet IDEA fiscal requirements. New-to-fiscal staff will learn how to navigate the CIFR website and see demonstrations of CIFR’s most popular resources and tools. Most importantly, the CoP will respond to participants’ questions about the when, why, and how of meeting IDEA fiscal requirements and provide opportunities and support for developing state processes. Here are examples of questions that will be addressed:

• What should I be working on now?
• What comes next?
• What questions should I be asking?
• What resources are available to help me answer these questions and guide me with my tasks?

Please note: If you were a member of the New to Fiscal CoP in 2021, we welcome you to continue with us in 2022.

Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS) CoP: January 26, 3:00–4:30 (ET)

LEAs implementing CEIS, either voluntary or comprehensive, are experiencing unprecedented circumstances amid the COVID-19 pandemic while planning how best to use their supplemental IDEA funds provided through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act. This CoP will focus on how SEAs can help LEAs understand the fiscal implications of CEIS and support their strategic use. SEA staff will share specific situations, strategies, and resources they have developed for addressing CEIS challenges. Facilitators from CIFR and NCSI FST will review relevant resources. Sessions will cover:

• Fiscal implications
  • Spending funds during the availability period
  • Potential effects on LEAs meeting maintenance of effort
  • Monitoring
• Allowable costs for voluntary CEIS
• Potential allowable costs by areas identified for significant disproportionality for comprehensive and voluntary CEIS
• Coordinating fiscal, program, and data offices to assist LEAs in implementing comprehensive and voluntary CEIS plans.

LEA Maintenance of Effort (MOE) CoP: January 27, 1:30–3:00 (ET)

LEAs across the country received supplemental IDEA funds through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act, and some states have added or reduced LEAs’ funding for special education. This CoP will focus on how SEAs can help LEAs meet LEA MOE requirements or minimize failures amid the shifting funding landscape and the continuing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. State participants will share challenges experienced by LEAs and strategies or resources they have developed for addressing them. CIFR facilitators will highlight CIFR resources on LEA MOE. Sessions will cover:

• Calculating adjustments resulting from an increase in IDEA allocation, including eligibility requirements and the use of freed-up funds,
• Calculating the five exceptions to LEA MOE,
• State special education funding methodologies and how each method impacts the tracking and reporting of special education expenditures used for LEA MOE calculation,
• Challenges of tracking and identifying local funds’ sources for the purposes of MOE, and
• Short- and long-term impacts of state funding increases and reductions on an LEAs’ ability to meet the MOE requirement.

Allocations CoP: January 31, 2:00–3:30 (ET)

SEA participants will identify, share, and respond to IDEA Part B subgrant allocation challenges. The emphasis will be on how SEAs can refine practices and procedures to ensure accurate calculation and distribution of IDEA Part B subgrants to LEAs. Participants will collaborate with their peers on current topics in their IDEA fiscal work generally and share challenges and successes. Participants will engage in conversation and share resources and ideas in both whole and small group virtual settings and contribute to the identification of topics and agendas for the community. Anticipated session topics include:

• Considerations related to population and poverty amounts, including revising allocations to new and expanding charter school LEAs during the year,
• Potential reallocation of available funds to other eligible LEAs or use of available funds for other state-level activities,
• Base payment adjustments because of changes in LEAs, including charter school LEAs,
• Supplemental funding amounts provided by the ARP, and
• Other timely topics and problems of practice identified by participants.

If you are interested in signing up for one or more CoP, please register here.

If you have any questions or need further assistance with the CoPs, please contact your state TA Liaison or Lizann Salazar at lsalaza@wested.org.

Thank you,

CIFR Part B TA Staff

When charging indirect costs an IDEA Part C grant, states must do so through an approved restricted indirect cost rate or a cost allocation plan that calculates costs on a restricted basis. To inform lead agency staff about these provisions, CIFR developed the Quick Reference Guide on Restricted Indirect Costs and Cost Allocation Plans for IDEA Part C Grants.

This resource provides state Part C and finance staff with information about restricted indirect costs that may be charged to the Part C grant, the regulatory requirements for calculating costs on a restricted basis, and the approval process.

If you have any questions or need further assistance related to restricted indirect costs, please contact your state TA Liaison.

CIFR’s Quick Reference Guide on the Use of IDEA Part C Funds provides lead agency staff, policymakers, and stakeholders a high-level overview of regulatory requirements related to the state’s management of IDEA Part C funds.

With this guide, readers will learn about the permissive use of Part C funds and costs that require prior approval. The resource also provides a summary of key reporting obligations relating to the use of funds in the federal Part C grant application and raises questions for states to consider. The guide may be particularly useful to new staff as they better understand the fundamentals, leading to improved data collection processes and state management of IDEA funds.

This graphic-based resource presents a foundational view of how states reserve state funds and allocate IDEA Part B subgrants to LEAs. It describes the key formula components, such as state set-aside, base payments and base payment adjustments, as well as population and poverty calculations. The one-page at-a-glance format can be used to communicate with key stakeholders and policymakers as well as orient new state fiscal staff to the process of allocating IDEA Section 611 and Section 619 grants.

Our popular planning tool, the IDEA Part B Fiscal Timeline, helps SEA staff meet high-stakes IDEA Part B fiscal requirements with prepopulated recommended activities and month-by-month schedules. The IDEA Part B Fiscal Timeline was updated to reflect changes to the liquidation timeline for federal awards and includes clarifications on excess cost and proportionate share. Its companion resource, Understanding the IDEA Part B State Grant Funding Cycle and Different Fiscal Years, was also updated and illustrates the various periods of the funding cycle across years.

We recommend replacing the original resources in your records with these updated versions. If you customized the original Timeline for your state planning, you can contact your CIFR liaison for assistance with updating your existing version.

The IDEA Part B Fiscal Timeline was co-developed by CIFR, IDC, and NCSI.

Developed by CIFR, CEDS, and CIID, this video presentation provides a quick overview of the Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) and helps states think about ways to simplify reporting MOE/CEIS data to OSEP using CEDS. It describes how three TA centers are collaborating to identify ways to define and analyze special education fiscal data using CEDS. Once this connection is developed, states align their data systems to CEDS and streamline the reporting of MOE/CEIS data to help improve program decision-making.

Version 2.0 of the Local Educational Agency (LEA) Maintenance of Effort MOE Calculator calculates LEA MOE for up to 10 fiscal years. Improvements to version 2.0 include

• Flexible years, covering any 10-year period selected by the SEA or LEA
• A new summary tab for each fiscal year, displaying results for both the eligibility and compliance standards simultaneously
• Decreased burden for entry of historical data

Download the calculator at https://cifr.wested.org/resource/lea-moe-calculator/

Comprehensive instructions accompany the LEA MOE Calculator 2.0, including a checklist to help users enter data in the tool in a logical order. A one page Instructions At a Glance is also available.

The new version was created to improve performance and user experience. Current users of the LEA MOE Calculator may choose to continue using version 1.4, but CIFR recommends switching to the new LEA MOE Calculator 2.0. CIFR will continue to support version 1.4.

When downloading the LEA MOE Calculator 2.0, we strongly encourage you to register your calculator with CIFR to receive important alerts and supporting information.

Watch for these new CIFR Quick Reference Guides in our Resource Library this summer on:

• Restricted Indirect Costs and Cost Allocation Plans for IDEA Part C Grants
• IDEA Part C Use of Funds

If you have any questions about Part C resources, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your TA liaison.

CIFR is launching the first round of Communities of Practice (CoPs) for 2021 to bring together state staff with a shared interest around four IDEA Part B fiscal issues: LEA Maintenance of Effort (MOE), IDEA Allocations to LEAs, Maintenance of State Financial Support (MFS), and New State Fiscal Staff. The CoPs are specially designed to meet the networking and learning needs of state staff to help improve the quality of states’ collection, reporting, analysis and use of IDEA Part B fiscal data. Each of these CoPs will provide opportunities for state staff to extend their fiscal learning and to solve problems of practice through a collective experience facilitated by CIFR staff. For this first round, the CoPs will meet monthly, for 1 to 2 hours per month, for 4-6 months depending on the needs and interests of the members. Each state staff with fiscal responsibilities wil be able to select one CoP to join for this first round of CoPs. In the fall, a second round of CoPs will begin with topics identified based on states’ interests and needs at that time. Again, state staff will have an opportunity to join a CoP of their choice from the several that will be offered.

For this first round, each CoP may include 1-2 staff members from the same state, with approximately 5-10 states represented in each CoP. Membership is voluntary and staff may choose the CoP in which to participate.

State staff with IDEA fiscal responsibilities are encouraged to register for one of our upcoming CoPs described further below.

Communities of Practice (CoP): May — October 2021 (at least 4 months)

1.  LEA Maintenance of Effort (MOE):

• LEAs across the country will be receiving supplemental IDEA funds through the American Rescue Plan (ARP). SEAs will need to be ready to support LEAs in continuing to meet the LEA MOE requirements amid this unprecedented funding increase and the continuing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This CoP will focus on how SEAs can assist LEAs in meeting LEA MOE or in minimizing LEA MOE failures. State participants will share specific situations from their LEAs where exceptions may or may not apply and other participants will share strategies or resources they have developed for addressing those situations. CIFR facilitators will highlight CIFR resources on LEA MOE. Sessions will cover:
  • Calculating adjustments resulting from an increase in IDEA allocation, including eligibility requirements and the use of freed-up funds
  • Calculating the five exceptions to LEA MOE

2. LEA Allocations:

• The LEA Allocations CoP will provide SEA participants from across the country a platform for identifying, sharing, and responding to IDEA Part B subgrant allocation challenges, particularly those related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This CoP will focus on how SEAs can lean into practices and procedures, share strategies for addressing specific situations facing participating SEAs, and use CIFR resources to anticipate and adapt to these challenges and ensure accurate calculation and distribution of IDEA Part B subgrants to LEAs within their state. Anticipated session topics include:
  • Challenges and considerations related to population and poverty counts
  • Additional IDEA funding amounts provided by the American Rescue Plan (ARP),/li>
  • Base payment adjustment scenarios due to changes in LEAs, including charter school LEAs
  • Other timely problems of practice identified by participants

3. Maintenance of State Financial Support (MFS):

• Is your state facing a decline in state revenue due to COVID-19? The MFS CoP will provide states strategies to respond to concerns collecting, calculating, reporting and grappling with state funding complexities in meeting the requirements of MFS. This group will explore what state education agencies can do to ensure a stronger understanding of MFS within the state education department, among policy makers, and other state agency staff. Additionally, the CoP will address concerns about frequent staff turnover that leads to limited understanding of MFS and consequences of not meeting the requirement; lack of clear communication channels between the program and fiscal departments; and unresponsiveness from other state agencies. Participants will be able to:
  • Share ideas on what procedures can be established to streamline MFS data collection
  • Build capacity to ensure that state agencies understand their role and responsibilities related to the collection and reporting of MFS
  • Collaborate to learn strategies to engage and explain MFS to key stakeholders
  • Learn what CIFR resources will help support your MFS needs

4. New State Fiscal Staff:

• The New State Fiscal Staff CoP will provide support to state staff who are new to IDEA fiscal work within the past 18 months. The CoP will dig into the content of the IDEA Fiscal Timeline, the Understanding the IDEA Grant Funding Cycle and Different Fiscal Years, and navigate the CIFR website, to provide support for meeting IDEA fiscal requirements. The CoP will support participants to unpack their own state processes with an understanding of why they do it and how they do it to meet IDEA requirements. Initially, the CoP will answer these questions:
  • What should I be working on now?
  • What next?
  • What questions should I be asking?
  • What resources are available to guide or assist me with these tasks?

If you are interested in signing up for a CoP, please register here by May 7, 2021.  Please feel free to forward this announcement to your colleagues.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email. The facilitator of the CoP will contact you to coordinate your participation.

If you have any questions or need further assistance with the CoPs, please contact your state TA Liaison or Lizann Salazar at lsalaza@wested.org.

Thank you,

CIFR Part B TA Staff