Mid-Year Federal Grants Review (ESSA & IDEA-B)

Mid-Year Federal Grants Review (ESSA & IDEA-B)

February 1, 2023 | Grants Management

Check ups are important! They keep us on track. The middle of the school year is a good time to check up on your federal grants by conducting a mid-year review. How would I go about doing that you ask? CSS has an excellent training resource in our Mid-Year Federal Grants Review Online Course – register now. Can’t view the complete webinar? The article below will give you a good overview of how to conduct a mid-year check up!

The purpose of the mid-year review is to give you an opportunity to see if you are still on track to expend your federal funds as planned in the grant. You will monitor the plans that were made prior to submitting the grant application to see if they have been implemented. In addition, has anything has changed that could impact the use of grant funds? Lastly, make sure your charter is still on track with grant compliance requirements in time to make corrections if needed.

Who should be involved in the mid-year review?

Depending on the size of your charter, you would want to include the business manager, charter superintendent, human resources director, campus administrator, and any other staff as needed.

If your charter does not have the staff positions listed, that’s okay, you can complete the mid-year review with the staff you have available.  You want to make sure that your team is made up of those who can best help with answering the question: Are we still on track with what we planned, or do adjustments need to be made?

What documents do we need?

Once you are ready to work on the mid-year review, you’ll need to gather the documents that will help answer the questions that arise during this process.  Below is a list of the documents that you will need for reference during the review:

  • A current copy of the specific Federal grant application including all schedules:
    • ESSA Consolidated Federal Grant Application; or
    • Special Education Consolidated Grant Application (Federal)
  • A copy of the CNA, CIP, and DIP
  • Any working papers that your team utilized when determining how the funds would be budgeted. These can be paper or electronic.
  • A copy of the budget.
  • A list of staff paid from the Federal grant.
  • A copy of the expenditure reports for the grants being reviewed.

If you don’t have a copy of the grant application readily available, you can log into TEAL from the TEA website.  Once logged into TEAL, you will need to choose the eGrants application and then click on the link for the document library.  Once in the document library, you can print any of the grant applications in pdf format that you’ve submitted through eGrants.

What’s next?

Now that you’ve assembled your team, and you have the documentation needed, you’re ready to begin the mid-year review process.

Basically, during the mid-year review process your goal is to determine if the funds have been spent in accordance with how they were planned and if any errors have been made in spending funds.

One way to determine if the funds have been spent according to plan is by reviewing your expenditure report and comparing it to your grant application budget summary, your working papers, and your CIP/DIP.  Utilizing these documents, the team will be able to determine if the activities that were originally planned have taken place or if they need to be revised.

Plans may have changed since the budget planning back during the spring/summer.  Unforeseen events, such as school closures due to weather or even a pandemic, can cause the well laid out plans that were made during the spring/summer to drastically change.

  • If there has been a change of plans, has the CIP/DIP been updated to reflect any new objectives or strategies?
  • Have new problem statements been identified in your CNA?
  • Is an amendment to the grant application needed? Refer to TEA’s “When to Amend the Application” for assistance.
  • Were any errors found in allowable expenditures or budget coding that need to be corrected?

If your plans have not changed, and funds are being spent according to plan, then you will want to continue monitoring and adjusting as needed.

Who can help me if I have questions about the mid-year review?

Please contact the Charter School Success Federal team:

Jean Cornelius, Federal Grant Director
jcornelius@CharterSchoolSuccess.com

Sharon Benka, Federal Programs Manager
SBenka@CharterSchoolSuccess.com

Dr. Sheila K. Sherman, Federal Grant Manager
SSherman@CharterSchoolSuccess.com

Natalie Guerra, Federal Grant Manager
nguerra@charterschoolsuccess.com

David Edwards, Federal Grant Manager
dedwards@charterschoolsuccess.com

Need more information?