Superintendent's Memo #122-09

COMMONWEALTH of VIRGINIA
Department of Education

May 1, 2009

TO: Division Superintendents

FROM: Patricia I. Wright, Superintendent of Public Instruction

SUBJECT: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B Sub-grant Awards Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

This memorandum serves as the official sub-grant award notification of Virginia’s initial 50 percent of its Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B - Section 611 and Part B - Section 619 grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The amounts listed for your school division in Attachments A and B represent 50 percent of the total IDEA grant amount you are scheduled to receive under the ARRA. Virginia expects to receive the second half of the ARRA IDEA grant by September 30, 2009. School divisions will also receive a separate federal fiscal year 2009 IDEA award under the regular IDEA program by July 1, 2009. Please note the following provisions that apply to this grant.

• The effective date for this grant is February 17, 2009. Therefore, any qualifying expenditure authorized under the IDEA made on or after this date may be charged to this award.
• Expenditures under this grant must be tracked separately from your “regular” Part B grant.
• The “regular” Part B grant is expected to be made to states on July 1. You may expect to receive a separate sub-grant award notification for this money via the on-line OMEGA system as well as a final sub-grant award notification for the remaining 50 percent of the ARRA funds via Superintendent’s Memo shortly after September 30, 2009.
• The entire ARRA allocation plus your “regular” Part B allocation will constitute your total federal FY 2009 award. All 2009 grant award monies must be encumbered by September 30, 2011.
• Your attention is called to the federal IDEA guidance document, Item D-7, page 16, distributed via e-mail on April 1. This section notes that in order to take advantage of the “50% flexibility maintenance of effort (MOE)” option, an LEA must have received a state determination of “Meets Requirements” under section 616 of the IDEA. You may assume that your division has achieved a “Meets Requirements” status unless you have been previously notified to the contrary. This guidance document may be accessed at http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/guidance/idea-b.pdf.
• Your attention is also called to the above-referenced guidance document, Item B-4, page 10. Under this provision, you may not take advantage of the “50 percent MOE flexibility” if your division is required to set aside 15 percent of your IDEA allocation for early intervening services due to having been identified as an LEA with significant disproportionality. If your division voluntarily sets aside 15 percent of your IDEA allocation for early intervening services, this will affect your MOE flexibility as well. Additional guidance concerning this provision is forthcoming from the Division of Special Education and Student Services.
• Reimbursement procedures will follow the normal process under the on-line OMEGA system.
  
• In order to request reimbursement for ARRA funds through OMEGA, your division's allocation amount must be distributed to the appropriate federal object codes. Your budget transfer originator will need to select "Change my object code budget" from their OMEGA "I want to…" list to prepare and submit the necessary budget transfer. Once the budget request is submitted and completely approved, reimbursement requests can be submitted through OMEGA. LEA permissions and approval queues in OMEGA for ARRA funds will be the same as those currently established for the regular IDEA Section 611 and 619 awards.
• Sub-grantees must adhere to the grant terms and conditions under the ARRA. The terms and conditions, referenced in the state award documents as Enclosure A, are included as Attachment C.

Attachment A provides a listing of the amount each LEA will receive through this notification for IDEA Part B - Section 611 under the ARRA. Attachment B contains this information for IDEA Part B - Section 619.

Questions about this sub-grant award may be addressed to Mr. Paul Raskopf, director, Office of Financial and Data Services, Division of Special Education and Student Services. Mr. Raskopf may be reached at (804) 225-2080 or paul.raskopf@doe.virginia.gov .

PIW / HDC / dc

Attachments

a. 2009-2010 Special Education Grants to States - ARRA (Part B, Section 611, Flow-Through Sub-grants, CFDA #84.391A) (PDF)
b. 2009-2010 Special Education Preschool Grants - ARRA (Part B, Section 619, Preschool Sub-grants, CFDA #84.392A) (PDF)
c. Grant Terms and Conditions Under ARRA (PDF)