Special Education Finance

The objective of a fiscal monitoring review is to determine whether a subrecipient of federal grant funds is complying with applicable federal statutes, regulations, and with grant requirements; including the uniform administrative requirements and cost principles for federal awards given in 2 C.F.R. § 200. The reviews focus on the financial management systems’ internal controls developed and implemented by the subrecipient to demonstrate compliance with applicable requirements, including organizational operations, policies and procedures, financial reports, and record-keeping. The review also tests the allowability of expenditures charged to the federal grant, as well as compliance with federal program requirements.

The key components of support the compliance program ensures:

• Subrecipients are monitored during the term of the grant subaward;
• Monitoring efforts focus on the area of most significant risk;
• All monitoring findings are addressed through appropriate noncompliance corrective actions with federal compliance requirements of 2 C.F.R. § 200.338; and
• Ongoing financial and administrative training and technical assistance is provided to all subrecipients and independently as assessed to enable subrecipients to comply with grant subaward requirements and maintain their funding.

Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) has instituted a fiscal monitoring process which began in the fall of 2019, the monitoring schedule will be on a 3-year rotation, either by on-site visits or desk reviews.  Due to COVID-19, the current fiscal monitoring is being conducted via desk reviews. Fiscal monitoring will include all school districts and ESUs receiving federal grant funds through NDE.  The first year that will be monitored will be 2018-19, which will start in the fall of 2019.  Grants to be reviewed include, CARES Act, IDEA, IDEA Preschool, IDEA PRT, McKinney-Vento, Perkins, Title I, Title I, Migrant, Title II, Title III, Title IV, 21^st Century Learning Centers.

Fiscal Monitoring Plan – https://cdn.education.ne.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Fiscal-Monitoring-Plan.pdf

Fiscal Monitoring Presentation – https://cdn.education.ne.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/NDE-Fiscal-Monitoring-Presentation.pdf

2 CFR. 200 – https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=e7a7ac1b6eb656b7192e542ac08fbcdf&mc=true&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title02/2cfr200_main_02.tpl

For More Information: https://www.education.ne.gov/fos/grants-management-fiscal-monitoring/

Special Education Funding Matrix

Office of Special Education (OSEP) Clarification Letter to Michael Lovato Regarding Maintenance of Effort (MOE) Contracted Services

Congressional Report to Lamar Alexander from The United States Government Accounting Office (GAO) on Flexible Spending to Mitigate Untended Consequences of MOE Requirement

School District Annual Financial Report Materials

Audit Confirmation/Program Payment Information