Workshop Part I: Federal Monitoring Basics

1. Workshop Part I: Federal Monitoring Basics Victoria Rankin, Greta Colombi, and Alexandra Woods NDTAC

2. Workshop Agenda • Brief Overview of Monitoring • What it is and why it is important • Most Common Federal Indicators • Tips for Coordinators • Small-Group Activity • Resources

3. What Is Monitoring Review? • Program monitoring involves the regular and systematic examination of program implementation and administration. • Monitoring of Title I, Part D (Part D)-funded programs is conducted to ensure compliance with applicable State and Federal laws.

4. Where Does Monitoring Occur? Monitoring reviews occur at three levels: • The U.S. Department of Education (ED) monitors State education agencies (SEAs) that receive funds (Federal monitoring). • SEAs monitor their State agency (SA) and local educational agency (LEA) subgrantees (subgrantee monitoring). • SA and LEA subgrantees monitor the facilities and programs to which they allocate funds (facility monitoring).

5. Federal Monitoring • Student Achievement and School Accountability Programs Office (SASA) within ED monitors SEA administration of the Title I, Part D, program. • SASA examines the State’s Part D program against a set of consistent, program-specific criteria or "indicators."

6. What Is Involved in a Federal Monitoring Review? Each review involves: • A comprehensive desk review of documents the SEA is asked to submit • Interviews with the SEA, all SA subgrantees, and a selection of LEA subgrantees that entail an additional review of documentation and program implementation across a State • Interviews occur remotely via video conference or in person during an onsite review that occurs simultaneously with the Title I, Part A, onsite review.

7. Federal Indicator Areas Three areas of focus: • Standards, assessment, and accountability • Instructional support • Fiduciary

8. Federal Monitoring Results After each review, SASA prepares a monitoring report that includes each indicator and one or more of the following three status assessments: • Met Requirements—State has fulfilled all requirements for this indicator, and no action is required. • Recommendation—SASA recommends a certain action to improve programming, but it is not required. • Finding—State is not fulfilling a requirement of the Title I, Part D, law and must take action to rectify the problem.

9. Most Common Findings and Recommendations From FY 2003–04 through 2007–08, States received the most findings on the following three indicators: • Subgrantee Monitoring, former Indicator 3.2(56 percent) • SA Application, former Indicator 1.2 (32 percent) • Transition Reservation, former Indicator 3.1(30 percent)

10. Most Common Findings and Recommendations Similarly, States received the most recommendations on the following three indicators: • SA Application, former Indicator 1.2 (18 percent) • Subgrantee Monitoring, former Indicator 3.2 (16 percent) • LEA Application, former Indicator 1.3 (10 percent)

11. What Comes After Review? • States usually receive the SASA monitoring report a few months after the review is completed. • If a State receives any findings, the State must project a timeline for SASA regarding the completion of corrective actions and describe how it will be done within 1 year.

12. Pre-SASA Contact Preparation Tips Examples of things you can do before you receive the call from SASA: • Familiarize yourself with each monitoring indicator. • Check when your State was last reviewed (available at http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/monitoring/index.html). • Identify your program’s team at each level (SEA, SA, and LEA, if there is a Subpart 2 program). • Locate the materials that SASA will request at least 2 months in advance of your review.

13. Tips To Facilitate SASA Review Examples of factors to remember: • Logistics—Who is meeting whom where, and when and how will they communicate? • Documentation—Organize by indicators and refer to SASA monitoring indicators for lists of documents by indicator that you will have to prepare. • Interviews—Review the questions included in the SASA monitoring guide and prepare yourself and appropriate staff to answer all questions that are outlined.

14. Postreview Tips • If you don’t receive your report after 2 months, then follow up with your State Title I Director. • DO NOT contact the Federal program manager or Title I, Part D, monitor about the review before receiving your report unless he/she contacts you with followupquestions. • Use information from your exit conference and monitoring report in your response to any findings and required actions.

15. Questions ???

16. Resources To Assist Coordinators • SASA monitoring reports (http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/monitoring/index.html) • NDTAC’s Guide to Meeting Compliance Requirements for the Title I, Part D, Program (http://www.neglected-delinquent.org/nd/topics/index2.php?id=6) • Federal Monitoring Forms—available under “Monitoring Indicators” on the ED Web site (http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/monitoring/index.html) • Webinars on NDTAC’s Website (http://www.neglected-delinquent.org/nd/events/webinars.php) • Your NDTAC State Liaison

17. Small-Group Activity • Sit at the table for the indicator you would like to assess. • Independently assess your State compliance to the respective Title I, Part D, requirements. • Choose someone to report for your group. • Discuss.