Special Education

FY 2010 ARRA Grant Increase/Decrease Amendments

To:	All Grant Recipients of FY 2010 ARRA grants: Fund codes - 760 IDEA; 770 Title1; 755 McKinney; 780 SFSF
From:	Ron Honesty, Grants Management Rich Mulcahy, ESE Business Manager
Date:	March, 18, 2010

As we approach the fourth quarter of the State fiscal year it is time to start planning how you are going to budget for your above mentioned ARRA grants. Federal regulations commonly referred to as the Tydings Amendment allow grant recipients to obligate these federal funds for an extended time period crossing multiple state fiscal years. In addition, separate regulations known as the Cash Management Improvement Act (CMIA) require us to limit the amount of excess cash on hand at each grant recipient. Also, State Finance Law requires us to account for these obligations and payments by state fiscal year. Thus, we are developing a process that allows the flexibility of the extended time allowed under Tydings but conforms to federal and state requirements concerning the obligation and distribution of funds.

ARRA IDEA, Title 1, and McKinney Grants

These ARRA grants (760-IDEA, 770-Title1, and 755-McKinney) were awarded by the US Department of Education in two parts. The first portion of the grant was awarded in the spring of 2009 and the second portion in late summer 2009. As of this date, the vast majority of grant recipients have only budgeted for the first portion of the award. At this time we are asking you to review your current approved grant budgets and determine the actual amount of funds needed to complete your grant objectives for the period ending June 30, 2010. If your review of projected FY 2010 spending, determines that you will need additional funds above the amount you have budgeted to complete your FY 2010 grant activities, please submit an amendment request to increase the current grant budget up to the new projected amount. All amendments should be sent to the appropriate program office (Title 1, Special Ed., or McKinney) no later than April 15th. For the McKinney grants, you may use the standard amendment form at http://www.doe.mass.edu/grants/procedure/forms/g.xls. For Title1 and IDEA grants, you must download the latest approved workbook from the appropriate security portal. Conversely, if your projections show that you will actually need less than the amount that you have budgeted for FY 2010, please submit an amendment request to reduce the current grant down to this projected amount. This amendment also must be submitted no later than April 15th. Any FY 2010 grant funds not needed for the grant will be available for the FY 2011 portion of your awardThis deadline is needed to give us sufficient time to adjust our encumbrances/obligations in accordance with State Finance Law as well as recalculate your monthly payments to reconcile to your new amended budgets. Because the Tydings Amendment allows grantees to carry over any unused funds into the next fiscal year, no funds will be lost as a result of this process. Title 1 grant recipients, however, are required to submit waiver requests for any carryover in excess of 15%. The Title 1 program office will provide the necessary instructions concerning the waiver process. We will be providing additional guidance on the process for submitting your grant application/amendment for the carryover FY 2011 portion in the near future. Please contact the appropriate ESE program office if you have any additional questions regarding these instructions.

ARRA SFSF Grants

For those of you who will be receiving an FY10 SFSF (State Fiscal Stabilization Fund) grant, we will begin sending out grant award notices on Friday, March 26. We know that some of you are planning to carry over some portion of this grant into FY11. If you are planning to do so, please notify Robert O'Donnell, (978)338-3116 or rodonnell@doe.mass.edu, no later than Wednesday, March 24 of the amount that you want carried over. You will also need to submit a revised budget worksheet for the revised FY10 amount. We will then issue the grant award on March 26 based on the revised amount. If we do not hear from you by Wednesday, we will issue the grant award in the full amount. For those carrying over funds into FY11, we will be providing additional guidance on the process for submitting your grant application/amendment for the carryover portion in the near future. Please contact Rob O'Donnell if you have any additional questions regarding these instructions with respect to the SFSF funds.

Last Updated: March 24, 2010