[Busmgrs] MAINTENANCE OF EFFORT (MOE)

[GRAY Lillie]

The message below is being sent to you on behalf of:


Sarah Drinkwater, Ph.D.
Assistant Superintendent
Office of Learning/Student Services
______________________________________________
June 16, 2015


Dear Business Managers:

As the school year winds down and you are involved in Maintenance of Effort (MOE) work related to 2013-14, I thought it would be helpful to provide information on the four (4) fiscal comparisons available to meet compliance standards for (MOE).  Please let me know if you have any questions about your school district and MOE.   My contact information is listed below.

Have a wonderful summer.  I appreciate all that you do to support students in our public schools.


MAINTENANCE OF EFFORT (MOE) is the requirement placed upon federally-funded special education grant programs that the state education agency (ODE) and local education agencies (LEA) demonstrate that the level of state general funding and the level of local expenditures (general fund fiscal effort) remain at least the same as, or more than, the previous year. MOE may be calculated as total expenditures of an LEA/consortia or as a per pupil expenditure.  Federal IDEA Part B funds for special education are not permitted to be used to supplant general funds committed to the same services for student with disabilities.

Under IDEA 2004, there are four fiscal comparisons that can be used to meet the eligibility and compliance standards for MOE.  Passing one of the following four fiscal comparisons meets the federal requirement of maintaining effort in providing special education services.

*       State and local general funds on a total basis
*       State and local general funds on a per capita (IEP) basis
*       Local general funds only on a total basis
*       Local general funds only on a per capita (IEP) basis

The two local funds options above are not often accessed by school districts or consortia, but offer two additional means by which to pass MOE.  These two options require that LEAs or consortia track separately, state general funds and local general funds that are expended on special education services.  Tracking expenditures separately is discretionary, as ODE does not require LEAs to account for expenditures in this manner.  LEAs and consortia do initially receive separate allocations for state funds and local funds, and then would need to continue to separate the state and local expenditures on special education services.  This will allow the MOE calculations to be based on local funds only, which is in addition to the first two options of combined state and local general funds.  We want to make everyone aware of these two additional federal options, where only local revenues are considered for MOE.  For more information please see: http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=3069.

Business managers, special education directors and superintendents are encouraged to carefully review all four options for calculating MOE to meet federal requirements of maintaining effort, and begin tracking these expenditures separately.  This will allow access to all four calculation options for meeting MOE requirements, if you choose to do so.

For additional questions contact:  Sarah Drinkwater (sarah.drinkwater at state.or.us<mailto:sarah.drinkwater at state.or.us>); Michael Wiltfong (michael.wiltfong at state.or.us<mailto:michael.wiltfong at state.or.us>) or Lorene Nakamura (lorene.nakamura at state.or.us<mailto:lorene.nakamura at state.or.us>)


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