The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA") is a Federal grant awarded to Special Education Local Plan Areas ("SELPAs"). As the grantee, SELPAs may allocate these funds to their Member Local Educational Agencies ("LEAs") in accordance with the SELPA's Funding Allocation Plan. The IDEA grant award allocations use SACS Resource codes 3310, 3311, 3312, 3315, and 3318, as appropriate.

As a sub-recipient, the Member LEA must agree to adhere to the grant's general assurances and certifications, and follow the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards. This agreement is in the form of the Sub-Recipient Assurance. Additionally, Member LEAs must submit periodic expenditure reports in order to receive reimbursement for these IDEA grant award allocations. 

Expenditure Period and Report Period

The expenditure period is 27 months. There are 7 reports that can be used to report expenditures within this 27-month time period:  

Report 1 for expenditures from July 1 to December 31
Report 2 for expenditures from January 1 to March 31
Report 3 for expenditures from April 1 to June 30. 
Report 4 for expenditures from July 1 to September 30*
Report 5 for expenditures from October 1 to December 31*
Report 6 for expenditures from January 1 to June 30*
Report 7 for expenditures from July 1 to September 30. Member LEAs will forfeit any balances after Report 7*

These reports are typically due on the 15th of the month following the expenditure period. The exact due dates can be found here. An instructional video is available here. These funds must be fully expended within the grant award period. 

*It is recommended that the LEA uses the SACS Project Year Field to distinguish these expenditures from the LEA's new year allocation. 

Recognition of Legal Obligations in Reporting

Legal obligations are commitments made by a Member LEA to purchase goods or services either immediately or in a future period. This commitment is typically made through a purchase order or written contract. Member LEAs may include legal obligations within the appropriate expenditure report. The California School Accounting Manual ("CSAM") Procedure 756 provides guidance to determine the legal obligation. 

Important Note: Legal obligations at the end of a fiscal year may create a discrepancy between the amount of the expenditure report period and the Member LEA's general ledger period. This is acknowledged in the following excerpt from CSAM: 

For purposes of accounting at year-end, obligations for future periods are not reflected in the current year’s books. Rather, the obligated goods or services are recognized in the following year’s books, when the goods or services are actually received. But for purposes of grant reporting, federal funding may be claimed under a current-year grant for certain qualifying legal obligations incurred by the end of the grant period, even though the goods or services will not be received until after the grant period ends.

To help provide consistency between the Member LEA's expenditure report period and its general ledger period, it is recommended that the Member LEA create a liability to accrue the expenditure back to the fiscal year and thereby align the amounts of the two periods.  

IDEA Expenditure Master Spreadsheet

The Fresno County SELPA maintains an expenditure master spreadsheet organized by SACS Resource, and by each Member School District. The spreadsheet contains the following: 

1. Funding allocation amount
2. Expenditure amount for each of the seven reports
3. Resource balance
4. Cash disbursement 

Example:

In this example, ABC has received a cash disbursement of $70,000 to date. This is the reimbursement of Expenditure Report #1. The LEA has not yet received a cash disbursement for Expenditure Reports #2 and #3. 

Please note that the Fresno County SELPA will apply any expenditure claim amounts to any prior year carryover balances. The amounts will be deducted from the current year claim, and added to the prior year claim.