News Article - Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Preliminary Information on ARRA Reporting Requirements

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has provided an unprecedented level of funding for public education. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) has allocated over $800 million to school districts through the end of August with several other funding streams set to be released through the end of the 2009 and early 2010. Accompanying these funds is an expectation of complete transparency in how they are used, and this in turn will require more detailed reporting from districts than we have traditionally required. Special ARRA reporting requirements have been established at the federal level (by the Office of Management and Budget) and at the state level by the Governor's office. This memorandum provides an overview of the information that districts will need to submit and the process for submission. More detailed instructions will be issued shortly.

Timeframe

Districts will be required to submit information on a quarterly basis. The first round of reports will include all FY09 ARRA spending as well as spending in the first quarter of FY10. We have not yet established the exact due date, but it will be a very short window for reporting since the state's aggregate reports must be submitted to Washington by October 10. So please be prepared to devote some time and resources to this data collection in the last week of September and the first week of October. The Governor expects every district to submit the required information on time. We recognize that September is a busy month for school districts, but we simply have no flexibility on the schedule. Districts that do not report on time will not be able to draw down additional funds under their current grants and will seriously jeopardize their chances for additional ARRA funds.

Collection Process

ESE is developing an on-line data collection tool that will be made available to districts next week, along with detailed instructions for its use. Data is to be returned to ESE. Districts should not be submitting data directly to OMB's national ARRA reporting website.

Data to be Collected

The information that districts are required to provide falls into four main categories, listed below. Again, more detailed instructions will be provided when the reporting tool is released next week.

Information on district employees directly hired with ARRA funds

Element	Definition
MEPID	The ESE-assigned unique identifier for the employee
Disability	An indication of whether the employee identifies themselves as having a disability
Fund Code	The ESE-assigned fund code that is used to fund the position
Zip + 4	The 9-digit zip code of the district employee's residence
Job Status	Whether the employee was retained or newly hired as a direct result of ARRA funding
Fiscal year	The school year in which the employee was retained or hired
FTE	The total FTE for an employee that is/was attributed to the specified fund code

Note: Employee level data will be required for all ARRA grants except for FY09 SFSF (stabilization) grants. For FY09 SFSF stabilization grants, districts will be asked to estimate the total number of jobs retained and/or created.

Information on ARRA funds spent on infrastructure

Element	Definition
Fund Code	The ESE-assigned fund code that is used to fund the project
Fiscal year	The school year in which the ARRA funds were spent on infrastructure
Amount	The amount of ARRA funds that were spent on infrastructure

Note: We will provide guidance on what types of expenditures fall under the "infrastructure" definition.

Information on vendor contracts funded with ARRA funds

Element	Definition
Vendor Name	The name of the vendor
Fund Code	The ESE-assigned fund code that is used to fund the contract
Zip + 4	The 9-digit zip code where the vendor is located
Fiscal year	The school year in which the ARRA funds were obligated to a vendor
Amount	The amount of ARRA funds that were obligated to the vendor

Information on vendor employees directly hired with ARRA funds

Element	Definition
First Name	First name of the vendor employee
Last Name	Last name of the vendor employee
Date of Birth	Date of birth of the vendor employee
Race/Ethnicity	The race/ethnicity of the vendor employee
Gender	The gender of the vendor employee
Disability	An indication of whether the vendor employee identifies themselves as disabled
Fund Code	The ESE-assigned fund code that is used to fund the position
Zip + 4	The 9-digit zip code of the employee's residence
Job Status	Whether the employee was retained or newly hired as a direct result of ARRA funding
Fiscal year	The school year in which the vendor employee was retained or hired
FTE	The total FTE for an employee that is/was attributed to the specified fund code

Note: Vendor employee information will only be required for contracts where specific personnel are hired to work directly and exclusively for the district on a project basis.

Assistance to Districts

This special ARRA reporting process is being supervised by Robert Curtin, ESE's Manager for Data Analysis and Reporting. District staff can reach Rob through a dedicated email address we have established for your questions: ARRAreporting@doe.mass.edu. Rob can also be reached by phone at 781-338-3582. In addition, Rob will be leading two conference calls to discuss the ARRA reporting tool in more detail and to answer your questions. These conference calls are scheduled for:

Thursday, September 10 from noon to 1:00 pm
Thursday, September 17 from noon to 1:00 pm

Dial-in information for these conference calls will be distributed at a later date. Please note that we have also scheduled a conference call on Thursday, September 3 from noon to 1:00 pm, with Jay Sullivan and Ron Honesty. The September 3 call will focus on submission of the final grant financial reports for FY09 ARRA grants. We understand the additional burden that these requirements will be placing on you and your staff, and we thank you for helping us to meet our obligations under the ARRA statute.

Last Updated: September 3, 2009