This OSEP letter clarifies that district use of CEIS funds must be used to supplement state, local, and other federal funds, not to supplant those funds. It also answers a question about the allowance for reduction in MOE due to improved efficiencies of transportation costs with no reduction in special education and related services. The only exceptions and adjustments that apply to LEA MOE requirements are described in the regulations. See 34 CFR §300.202(a)(3) and 34 CFR §§300.204 and 300.205.
Local Educational Agency (LEA) Maintenance of Effort (MOE)
Letter to Boundy
This letter clarifies that the level of effort that an LEA must meet in the year after it fails to maintain effort is the level that it should have met in the prior year, and not the LEA’s actual expenditures. NOTE: This clarification also withdraws the 6/16/11 MOE letter to Bill East, NASDSE, not to be confused with any other letter to East.
Letter to Gill
This 2011 letter clarifies that the regulation stating that for any fiscal year for which the allocation by an LEA under IDEA exceeds the amount that the LEA received for the previous fiscal year, the LEA may reduce the level of expenditures otherwise required by IDEA by not more than 50 percent of the amount of that excess does not restrict the MOE reductions that may be made because of the five exceptions. See 34 CFR §300.205(a) and 34 CFR §300.204.
Letter to Michelson and Mayes
This 2009 letter provides a response to questions about IDEA Part B and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) guidance around LEA MOE reduction. The letter clarifies that if an LEA is identified as having significant disproportionality, the LEA will not be able to reduce local MOE. See 34 CFR §300.646.
Letter to Harris
This letter explains that an LEA may not take an LEA MOE adjustment if it has a determination other than “meets requirements.”
Dear Colleague Letter [LEA MOE Adjustment]
This letter addresses the possibility of taking an LEA MOE adjustment due to increased IDEA Part B funds resulting from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The letter notes that IDEA requires states to make annual determinations about the performance of LEAs and if the SEA determines that an LEA does not meet the requirements of Part B, the SEA must prohibit that LEA from taking the LEA MOE adjustment.
Letter to Kennedy
This OSEP letter to the fiscal/policy advisor to the Greater California Special Education Fiscal Support Alliance discusses the relationship between MOE and Excess Cost. The letter also addresses the intentional use of the term “education” as opposed to “special education and related services” in the regulations and the inclusion of both special education and regular education expenditures in MOE calculations.
Letter to Plagata-Neubauer
This letter provides clarification to several questions regarding the calculation of excess cost. The minimum average amount must be computed separately for children with disabilities in elementary school and secondary schools.
Letter to Copenhaver
This letter responds to questions about federal Impact Aid and Medicaid funds and how they relate to LEA MOE.
Letter to Baglin
This OSEP letter provides clarification on several questions about MOE, in particular SEA obligations around LEA MOE and reimbursement of funds to the federal government.