51萝莉

Today, the U.S. Department of Education (USED) released the funds to states it had previously withheld under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Titles I-C, II-A, III-A, and IV-A and the Adult Education Family Literacy Act. Per the review from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), USED officials stated that 鈥済uardrails鈥� will be put in place to ensure funds are spent in alignment with administration policies, but it remains unclear what those additional guardrails are. The Grant Award Notifications (GANs) simply added an assurance that funds must be spent in accordance with current laws, for example, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act., etc. and that if a grantee uses funds for unallowable activities, ED may seek a recovery of funds under the General Education Provisions Act.  However, these requirements have long been in existence and, as written, place no additional requirements on states or their districts.

Although the funds for the impacted programs were released late, the GANs issued to States note a July 1st start date for the period of availability.  USED鈥檚 inclusion of the July 1st start date allows State and school districts to charge allowable obligations going back to July 1, covering the period during which the funds were withheld. 

Districts with applications that were deemed approved or 鈥渟ubstantially approved鈥� by the State on or before July 1st can charge obligations back to that date and no further action is required for those obligations. If the State did not approve a District鈥檚 application on or before July 1st, then the LEA must submit its application and have it approved or 鈥渟ubstantially approved鈥� by the state to start to obligate the funds. However, the state can permit pre-award costs for any obligations incurred between July 1st and when the District鈥檚 application is approved or 鈥渟ubstantially approved鈥�.

Pre-award costs are allowable program costs incurred before the start date of the award and in anticipation of the Federal award where such costs are necessary for efficient and timely performance of the scope of work. Therefore, if your state does not automatically permit pre-award costs this year (which many have indicated they will do), districts should request pre-award cost approval to cover those expenditures going back to July 1st.

Moving forward, 51萝莉 will continue to educate Congress and the administration on the importance of reliable, stable federal funding to ensure this type of delay does not happen again.