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As the 2017-2018 IDEA-B Formula and IDEA-B Preschool grants end, the Texas Education Agency (TEA or agency) requests that local educational agencies (LEAs) make an effort to fully expend the 2017-2018 grant funds prior to expending 2018-2019 IDEA-B Formula and IDEA-B Preschool grant funds. The 2017-2018 IDEA-B Formula and IDEA-B Preschool funds will expire on September 30, 2019. Please consider the following steps to ensure that no unspent funds are lost:

• Revise any final expenditure reports submitted prematurely for the 2017-2018 IDEA-B Formula and IDEA-B Preschool grants. The deadline to submit final and revised final expenditure reports is October 30, 2019.
• For payment requests with service periods beginning July 1, 2018, exhaust all 2017-2018 IDEA-B Formula or IDEA-B Preschool grant funds before drawing down from 2018-2019 IDEA-B Formula or IDEA-B Preschool grants.
• If your LEA drew down 2018-2019 IDEA-B Formula or IDEA-B Preschool grants for payment requests with service periods beginning July 1, 2018, but has additional 2017-2018 IDEA-B Formula or IDEA-B Preschool grant funds available, work with TEA to shift the expenditures on to the older grants. You can reduce the 2018-2019 cumulative expenditures, refund the payment request, and then resubmit the request under the 2017-2018 Notices of Grant Award (NOGAs) in the Expenditure Reporting system. The TEA Expenditure Reporting (ER) System Quick Reference Guide is available to assist you with this process.
• Submit any necessary amendments to the 2017-2018 or 2018-2019 IDEA-B Formula and IDEA-B Preschool grants to ensure that expenses charged are budgeted in the correct applications. A statewide bulletin was sent out on June 14, 2019, announcing the extension of the amendment deadline to June 28, 2019. The amendment deadline is now extended to July 12, 2019.

Background

For the 2017-2018 IDEA-B Formula and IDEA-B Preschool grants included in the 2017-2018 Special Education Consolidated Grant Application, TEA implemented a fiscal pilot project designed to lessen the administrative burden on LEAs.

The project end date for these two grants was extended to September 30, 2019, and NOGAs with the new project end date were issued for both grants. Extending the end date meant that the final 15 months of the 2017-2018 IDEA-B Formula and IDEA-B Preschool would run concurrently with the 2018-2019 IDEA-B Formula and IDEA-B Preschool grants, maximizing LEAs’ ability to utilize all funds.

While no action was required from LEAs to implement this pilot, a "To The Administrator Addressed" letter was issued on March 21, 2018, advising LEAs that the carryover of unspent funds from the 2017-2018 IDEA-B Formula and IDEA-B Preschool grants into 2018-2019 would not be necessary because LEAs would have access to the 2017-2018 funds for the entire 27-month period of availability.

For Further Information

Please contact the Grants Administration Division at (512) 463-8525 or grants@tea.texas.gov with any questions.

Sincerely,

Cory Green, Associate Commissioner
Department of Grant Compliance and Administration