Letter to ARRA Grant Recipients - September 9, 2011
Dear District Superintendents, School Superintendents and Other ARRA Grant Recipients:
As a final reminder, the project period for a majority of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) programs, including the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF), ARRA Title I and ARRA IDEA has ended (with the exception of ARRA Title II-D). If you require a project period extension you must contact the appropriate SED program office immediately to request a budget amendment, as pursuant to Federal law the final date for obligation of these funds is September 30, 2011. If you do not intend to utilize your entire ARRA award, you must notify the appropriate program office immediately so that these funds can be redirected.
We recommend that you carefully review your records to ensure that spending is consistent with your approved spending plan and that all funds are drawn down in a timely manner. While most grants will allow 90 days from the end of the project period to draw down funds obligated within the project period, some grants may have a shorter time period. In order to prevent any delay in the processing of your claims, and to ensure that you receive all of your ARRA funds, you should submit your final expenditure reports no later than November 30, 2011 to ensure that all funds are liquidated by the Federal deadline of December 30, 2011. If you identify any problems you should contact the appropriate program office immediately.
As of August 30, 2011, there remains approximately $425 million in unclaimed ARRA funds, including $179 million in ARRA State Fiscal Stabilization Funds (SFSF) that were used to partially restore the 2010-11 State Aid reductions, $123 million in ARRA IDEA, $95 million in ARRA Title I funds, and $28 million in other ARRA funded programs, including Title II-D Education Technology. Please note that these amounts may not reflect claims recently submitted by school districts and/or claims in-process at the Department.
We remind you that these funds were made available to you in order to help stabilize your budgets, avoid reductions to essential education services and to prevent or minimize layoffs, in addition to the long-term goal of investing in education reforms and improving student achievement. For these reasons, it is expected that you fully spend the funds provided to you.
Once again, we appreciate your continued cooperation with our monitoring efforts and compliance with all ARRA requirements, and in ensuring that these funds are spent fully and expeditiously to benefit the children that you serve.
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