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CIFR’s IDEA Part C Fiscal Timeline helps state lead agency staff plan and track IDEA fiscal requirements. The Excel tool comes preloaded with suggested activities and monthly schedules, which you can customize and add staff roles and relevant state regulations. The timeline provides a useful overview for staff managing IDEA fiscal tasks and serves as a reference guide for new state staff.

Looking to strengthen your state’s IDEA Part C maintenance of effort calculations? CIFR’s new resource – Calculating IDEA Part C Maintenance of Effort – helps state lead agencies understand how to make consistent and accurate MOE calculations, enhance procedures, and train staff to ensure compliance. The practice guide explains when to make budget and expenditure comparisons, provides sample calculations, and shows when and how to use allowances to adjust your state’s level of effort. 

 

After reserving funds for state-level activities and accounting for base payments, states must distribute the remaining Part B funds to local educational agencies (LEAs) based on population and poverty measures. This practice guide explains how to calculate these amounts and provides sample calculations for each. It describes the sources of data that states commonly use to measure population and poverty and issues to consider. 

 The guide can help state and LEA fiscal staff examine and better understand how their state collects population and poverty data and to strengthen allocation procedures. 

TA On Demand videos from CIFR help ensure that technical assistance on IDEA fiscal topics is widely accessible.

IDEA Part C Maintenance of Effort: The Basics reviews the IDEA prohibition against supplanting requirement, also known as maintenance of effort. It describes the sources of funds included in MOE calculations, permissible allowances that can reduce level of effort, and consequences of not meeting the requirement. (8 minutes) 

 

IDEA Part C Maintenance of Effort: Calculations details the two comparisons that states must make to show that they are meeting IDEA Part C maintenance of effort—budget-to-expenditure and expenditure-to-expenditure. (8 minutes) 

Learn about the process for states to reserve IDEA funds to administer their Part B programs and support other state-level activities. This practice guide describes the maximum set-aside amounts, allowable uses, and the importance of tracking expenditures during the life cycle of the grant.

State staff may use this guide’s insights to facilitate conversations on how to budget set-aside funds to address needs and to improve their monitoring processes.

This practice guide outlines for IDEA fiscal staff and local educational agencies (LEAs) ways to identify and manage unspent IDEA Part B funds. Learn the requirements and ways to reallocate funds before the end of the subgrant’s obligation period to reduce the need to revert them to the federal government.

The videos help ensure that technical assistance on major IDEA topics is more widely accessible. This pair introduces several major IDEA Part C topics.

• Part 1 is an overview of Part C fiscal regulations, including requirements under OMB Uniform Guidance, EDGAR, and IDEA. (26 minutes).
• Part 2 reviews the fiscal requirements in Sections III and IV of the state grant application, how to manage a grant post-award, and Part C maintenance of effort. (40 minutes).

The videos are adapted from two Part C fiscal webinars that CIFR hosted in December 2023 and are available in CIFR’s resource library.

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:

• New IDEA State Fiscal Staff
• IDEA Fiscal Timelines
• Problems of Practice

Transcript

Facilitated by CIFR TA staff, Communities of Practice 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 2024.

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. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email, and a CoP facilitator will reach out to provide a meeting link to the COP series.

• Registration for the IDEA Fiscal Timelines CoP and Problems of Practice CoP remains open through 2024.
• Registration for the New IDEA State Fiscal Staff CoP closes on Thursday, February 29, 2024.

Register at https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/f22674323ad04df39afd6ea3512777b2

New IDEA State Fiscal Staff CoP

First Meeting: Wednesday, January 24, 3:00–4:30 p.m. ET
Meets the 4th 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

Are you new to IDEA state fiscal work within the past 18 months? In this Community of Practice we will explore CIFR resources such as the IDEA Part B Fiscal Timeline tool and Understanding the IDEA State Grant Funding Cycle and Different Fiscal Years. We will help you navigate the CIFR website to locate key resources and other information you need to meet the IDEA fiscal requirements. Through peer learning and discussions, you will be invited to reflect on you own state processes, helping you answer these questions along the way:

• What tasks should I be working on now?
• What questions should I be asking to support my work?
• What resources are available to guide or assist me with these tasks?
• What are the next tasks and steps in my work stream?

IDEA Fiscal Timelines CoP

First Meeting: Wednesday, February 14, 2:00–3:00 PM ET
Meets the 2nd Wednesday of the month for 60 minutes at 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT/12 p.m. MT/11 a.m. PT/10 a.m. AK/9 a.m. HI

Follow CIFR’s IDEA Part B Fiscal Timeline through an entire calendar year, reviewing federally required and suggested timelines for upcoming activities and deadlines. Through facilitated discussions, participants will be encouraged to share their current activities, challenges, and successes. Technical assistance experts from the field, CIFR, and the National Center for Systemic Improvement Fiscal Support Team (NCSI FST) will support the discussion with timely presentations, resources, and tools.

Problems of Practice CoP

First Meeting: Tuesday, January 23, 3:00–4:00 PM ET
Meets on the fourth Tuesday of the month for 60 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

Open to newer and more experienced state staff alike. Deepen your understanding and build your state’s capacity to solve problems of practice around meeting the IDEA fiscal requirements. Topics and content areas will change from month to month, and you will be invited to contribute (anonymously if you wish) issues and challenges you are working through. Topics will be sent to participants before each meeting. At the meeting, participants will choose between two breakout rooms to review problems of practice to discuss and work on together.

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.