RTTT Year 2 Annual Proposed Budget Submission
The Race to the Top Fund (RTTT) for Education is an appropriation under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) 
and may only be used to support the activities contained in the LEAs approved Scope of Work and consistent with the Regents Education Reform agenda. Grantees should submit their first year RTTT budgets for activities occurring between 10/1/2010 and 6/30/2011 by close of business on Friday, April 22, 2011. Online Budgets should be submitted using NYSED's Business Application Portal. The Superintendent or Chief Executive must complete the process by certifying and submitting the application.
As with all ARRA funds, you will be required to comply with quarterly reporting requirements outlined in Section 1512 of the Act. FTE calculations for all jobs directly funded with RTTT funds during the reporting quarter, including those directly created or saved by vendors, should be consistent with the revised Guidance Memo on ARRA issued by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on December 18, 2009.
March 25, 2011
ARRA Reporting System Now Open for the Submission of LEA Race To The Top (RTTT) Budget Information
Budget Information due from LEAs by Close of Business April 22, 2011
This update is to let you know what your next steps will be and what you do to prepare for submission of your LEA Race to the Top (RTTT) budget.
Your RTTT year one portion of the four year budget must be submitted through the NYSED Application Business Portal, and then approved by SED.
To ensure this submission flows smoothly, please be sure to double check the accuracy of the activity level budget which was submitted with your LEAs Scope of Work as this will be the basis for the budget submitted on the ARRA Reporting System. Specifically, use this checklist to ensure that:
- Your allocation matches your total budget.
- Your "Year 1" (October 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011) budget does not exceed 15% of your total RTTT allocation.
- The cumulative total of all budget categories from activity codes D1 to D12 plus all budget categories for the Teacher/Principal Evaluation System must be at least 25% of your total RTTT Award.
- Up to 75% of your remaining allocation must include funding for Network Teams.
- Your activity codes are accurate.
Next Steps for LEAs:
- The ARRA Reporting System on the Department's business portal has been opened for the submission of the RTTT budgetary information which is needed for final budget approval. Grant recipients are required to submit budgetary information for 2010-11 (October 1, 2010 June 30, 2011) by close of business, Friday, April 22, 2011. This system may be accessed via NYSED's Application Business Portal at: http://portal.nysed.gov.
- All LEAs must have a valid Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number and an unexpired registration date with the Central Contractor Registration (CCR). For information on these, please see: http://www.oms.nysed.gov/cafe/guidance/dunsccrfaqs.html
- LEAs will be required to enter a short narrative describing how they are using the funds along with an activity type, category code and budgeted amount for each budgeted item.
- LEA Superintendents and CEOs are authorized to certify and submit project budgets to NYSED. If needed, Superintendents and CEOs are permitted to delegate the data entry of this budget information using the Department's Delegated Account System (SEDDAS).
- Each budget must be submitted and certified by the Superintendent/CEO. Once submitted the budget will be reviewed by NYSED staff and either approved or unsubmitted for modifications. If LEAs want to correct their information prior to approval, they also have the ability to ‘unsubmit’ their RTTT budget, make a change and recertify and submit the revised information to the Department for approval.
- Approved LEAs may submit initial and amended budgets, and final expenditure report for the RTTT grant program using this system. A budget will be required for each of the four years of Race to the Top. Once budgets are approved, the Office of Grants Finance will send LEAs an award letter for funds approved for that year. Grantees will use Grants Finance's FS-25 form to draw down up to 90 percent of the 15% budgeted for year one. As usual, spending must be consistent with Federal cash management guidelines. The final 10% payments will occur after the grantee submits a final expenditure report, which will be available on the Department's ARRA Reporting System. Please communicate with your business office to assure good coordination between program activities and fiscal operations.
- If you are experiencing problems or have difficulty submitting your RTTT budget, please contact us at RTTT@mail.nysed.gov or call 518-474-5520.
A webinar will be scheduled in the near future to help any LEA that has not used the ARRA Reporting System. The session will assist with logging onto the Business portal, using the ARRA Reporting System and the RTTT on-line budget process.
Please note that ARRA quarterly reporting required by Section 1512 of the Act is also required for all RTTT grant recipients. The quarterly reporting system for RTTT uses the on-line ARRA quarterly reporting system. RTTT grantees will complete their first quarterly reports in the quarter ending June 30, 2011. The ARRA Reporting System will be open for quarterly reporting in early June 2011 and quarterly reports detailing the job impact and vendors used with the funds will be required of all RTTT grantees by June 30, 2011.