Preliminary allocations 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 American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act.

There is a maintenance of equity requirement for LEAs under the ARP Act.  This requirement states:

 A local education agency (LEA) shall not, in fiscal year 2022 or 2023 –

1. 1. reduce per-pupil funding (from combined state and local funding) for any high-poverty school served by such LEA by an amount that exceeds –

i) the total reduction in LEA funding (from combined state and local funding) for all schools served by the LEA in such fiscal year (if any); divided by

ii) the number of children enrolled in all schools served by the LEA in such fiscal year; or

B) reduce per-pupil, full-time equivalent staff in any high-poverty school by an amount that exceeds- 

i) the total reduction in full-time equivalent staff in all schools served by such LEA in such fiscal year (if any); divided by

ii) the number of children enrolled in all schools served by the LEA in such fiscal year

Exceptions to this Maintenance of Equity requirement exist for:

                A) LEA's with less than 1,000 students enrolled

                B) LEA's with a single school

                C) LEA's serving all students within each grade span with a single school

  D) LEA's demonstrating exceptional or uncontrollable circumstances as determined by USDE

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.  This pre-award allowance will only extend to the beginning of the current fiscal year.  Any FY21 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).

Attachments