Preliminary allocations awarded under the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021 (CRRSA) are now posted to the Arkansas Department of Education, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education website at:  https://dese.ade.arkansas.gov/Offices/fiscal-and-administrative-services/school-funding/allocations.

For reporting purposes, ADE has established a set of program codes that will be required for all expenditures of ESSER funding.  The program codes and their descriptions are provided in the attachment to this memo.  All LEAs should record expenditures in the designated fund/source of fund and revenue code and assign one of the program codes to each expense.  It is imperative that these program codes be used correctly and consistently to meet the federal reporting requirements of the CRRSA Act.

Maintenance of effort is still in effect for all federal funds.  Arkansas education funds were not reduced due to the state’s budget shortfalls related to the public health pandemic of 2020-2021.  Therefore, it is unlikely that MOE waivers will be approved by USDE.  All LEAs should be mindful of this when determining what funding sources to be used for expenditures.

Finally, the federal entity has allowed for pre-award costs with ESSER funds as of the date of the public health emergency declaration on March 13, 2020.  Any expenditures that the LEA wishes to pay using ESSER funds must be moved from the original SOF code to the ESSER fund via journal entry and/or salary redistribution as is appropriate.  All normal restrictions on expenditure reclassification apply (i.e. salary items must be moved via redistribution and only once).

Funds are available through September 30, 2023.

Attachments