Random Validations Begin – Title I, II, and IV

Random Validations Begin – Title I, II, and IV

September 26, 2025 | Grants Management

This October may bring more a trick than a treat if you are selected for program monitoring validations on your ESSA-funded programs! The good news is that if you are picked, you will have until almost Christmas to submit the paperwork. If you weren’t selected last year and aren’t selected this year, you can bet all your candy that you WILL be selected in the next 4 years (TEA is validating all public schools with funding on a 6-year cycle starting last year)! Read on to find out what the random validations will entail so it doesn’t feel like torture!

What is being Validated?

The Federal Program Compliance Division at TEA will notify all school systems that will be selected via the Smartsheets Workapp system on October 20, 2025. The ESC for each school system selected will also be notified in order to provide technical assistance to selected districts prior to the due date. School systems that are selected will submit documentation for all of the ESSA programs for which they received funding in the 2024-25 school year:

  • Title I Part A
  • Title I Part C (Migrant, not likely for charters)
  • Title II Part A
  • Title IV Part A

School systems that were selected for validation in these programs (know as “The Big 4”) last year for the 2023-24 validations will NOT be selected again this year. Any of the above programs that were marked non-compliant on the 2024-25 ESSA Compliance Report (due 9/30/25) will be excluded, but the ones you marked compliant will all require response documents if validated. Self-reporting non-compliance on the 2024-25 ESSA Compliance Report will put you in a separate corrective action group with your area ESC.

Instructions for submission will be included in the email notification, and documents will be uploaded via the Federal Program Compliance Program Monitoring Validations Workapps system. Documents will be due December 19, 2025.

Your area ESC will provide technical assistance between 10/21/25 and 12/18/25 if you are selected.

Click Here to See If Your Charter District Is on the List on Oct 20, 2025

CSS strives to make sure our partner schools are always ready for validation, and we work in tandem with the technical assistance provided by your ESC in the event our schools are randomly selected!

Where is information on what is being validated?

CSS urges all charter districts, selected for validation or not, to review the program-specific requirements. The validation training slides and handbooks are posted on the following website.

Click here for specific validation documents per program:  TEA Random Validations Webpage  

When will we find out how we did?

The results will be communicated to the selected participants after March 13, 2026. There will be 3 possible results:

  • Met Requirement – TEA will close out upon notification
  • Approaching Compliance – LEA will have 20 days to submit a plan to TEA; TEA will close out upon approval of plan. If plan is not approved, an “improvement needed” will be assigned.
  • Improvement Needed – LEA will be assigned a compliance officer to engage in the Non-compliance Resolution Process and points will be added to the LEA’s risk assessment

Final results will be posted in the Smartsheets workapp on May 1, 2026.

Please note: Title III is in a separate division at TEA, and they conduct their own separate validations. Title III is not part of this process, but they do have their own program requirements that must be documented.

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