[Busmgrs] ARRA Reporting

[WILTFONG Michael]

September 11, 2009
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.
To date, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) has awarded ARRA grants to districts from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund; under Title I of the ESEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and the McKinney-Vento Homeless Act; and for nutrition equipment grants.  Nearly every Oregon school and education service district has received some level of ARRA funding.
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. This letter addresses the quarterly reporting requirement under Section 1512 of ARRA.
Data on the use of ARRA funds by recipients (i.e., the state) and subrecipients (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 first reports will be due to the federal government on October 10, 2009 and will cover the period from the initial date of the grant award through September 30, 2009.
The ODE has constructed a data collection tool entitled "Recovery Act Reporting Collection" that opened yesterday, September 10, 2009, to help ensure the State complies with ARRA Section 1512 reporting requirements.  ODE's reporting system will collect required information for each grant ODE has made to subrecipients and the State will be reporting these data to the federal government on your behalf.
There are two collections - one for the period ending June 30, 2009 and one for the period ending September 30, 2009.  Note that each reporting period is cumulative from the date the award was first made.
For the ODE to meet the federal reporting deadline, subrecipients will have to submit their data to the ODE in late September.  Data for the period ending June 30, 2009 are due by September 21, 2009 and data for the period ending September 30, 2009 are due September 30, 2009.
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.
Please note that the federal requirements may change in future reporting periods and we may change our data reporting system to accommodate those changes.
We suspect you may have many questions about the reporting requirements.  We were pleased to receive clarifying guidance from the USED yesterday, September 10.  ODE staff are reviewing this guidance and plan to provide an FAQ document for subrecipients early next week, including contact information should you have questions not addressed in the FAQ document.
As we receive additional information from the federal government about ARRA Section 1512 requirements-and about program specific reporting-we will share it with you.  We will continue to keep you apprised of developments concerning ARRA through the ODE ARRA web site at http://stimulus.k12partners.org/ and various mailing lists.
Thank you for your assistance in helping the State of Oregon comply with the reporting requirements under ARRA.



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