[Busmgrs] Communication to Districts About ARRA Section 1512 Collection

[WILTFONG Michael]

TO:  Oregon School District Superintendents; School District Business Managers; Grant Managers

FR:  Sue MacGlashan, Assistant Superintendent - Office of Finance and Administration (ODE)

RE:  American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - Section 1512 Reporting Due - District Deadline of 12/31/09

As you probably are well aware, on February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, which provides a significant increase in federal support for education.

The ARRA is clear that every dollar spent is subject to unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability.  The ARRA requires extensive reporting by entities receiving ARRA funding.
Data on the use of ARRA funds by recipients (i.e., the state) and sub-recipients (i.e., local educational agencies and other entities receiving funds through the state) are due to the federal government no later than the 10th day after the end of each calendar quarter.  The second round of reporting is due to the federal government on January 10, 2010 and will cover the period from the initial date of the grant award through December 31, 2009. The initial date of the grant award is February 17, 2009.

The ODE's data collection tool entitled "Recovery Act Reporting Collection" opened on December 3, 2009 to help ensure the State complies with ARRA Section 1512 reporting requirements.  As with the first round of reporting, ODE's reporting system will collect required information for each grant ODE has made to its sub-recipients and the State report these data to the federal government on your behalf. Nearly every Oregon school and education service district has received some level of ARRA funding and thus should be completing this collection. Your reporting this time needs to include data on your ARRA activities from February 17, 2009 through December 31, 2009.

No waivers can be granted for Section 1512 reporting; this reporting is mandatory.  For the ODE to meet the federal deadline, ODE sub-recipients will have to submit their data by December 31, 2009.  (I am pleased to be able to tell you we had 100% compliance with the first round of reporting.)

For ease of reporting, the ODE has pre-populated as much data as possible, including grant amounts awarded and received.  We have used drop-down lists and formatted boxes, to the extent possible, to simplify data entry. To assist with this latest reporting, we have added a button named "Pre-Populate with Previous Quarter's Data and Save" that - when selected - will pre-populate the collection and save with the previous quarter's cumulative data on job impact, infrastructure and vendor data. If there are no changes from the previous collection, your data have been saved and you can exit the collection. As noted, reporting is cumulative and the pre-populate feature can be used as your starting basis. If you need to make changes, you can simply update the appropriate field. When you are finished with your edits, hit the "save" button when ready to submit and this will overwrite any previous data entries. The date and time stamp will be updated each time the "save" button is pushed.

Please note we recently were told the federal Office of Management and Budget will be issuing some additional guidance shortly on the calculation of jobs retained or created. Once ODE staff review this guidance, we will update our previously issued FAQ document for sub-recipients and send it to you promptly.  We appreciate your patience and understand any frustration you may have that revised guidance is coming after the collection has opened.  The lack of timely guidance from federal entities has been one of the challenges of implementing ARRA requirements.

For your reference, below are listed the ODE contacts for each ARRA grant.  For more information, please contact (to search the staff directory, click http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/staff/staff.aspx).

Grant Title                              Grant Manager                  ODE Contact
IDEA Part B, Section 611        Eric Richards                    Steve Smith
IDEA Part B, Section 619        Nancy Johnson-Dorn         Nancy Johnson-Dorn
IDEA Part C                           Nancy Johnson-Dorn         Nancy Johnson-Dorn
SFSF                                     Michael Wiltfong               Michael Wiltfong
CNP                                       Heidi Dupuis                     Heidi Dupuis

Thank you for your assistance in helping the State of Oregon comply with the reporting requirements of ARRA.



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