ESSA/ESSER Newsletter

As the days grow longer and summer approaches, it’s the perfect time to shine a light on the important work happening across our federal programs. This month, we're celebrating growth, renewal, and the energy that comes with a new season of opportunity. As always, we’re here to support you—please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.

- Tami Knight, Mercedez Rassi, and Monica Diaz

www.esc15.net/titlei

It's that time of year again!! If you're one of our amazing ESSA Support Contracting districts, we are gearing up to hold our annual ESSA planning meeting with you and your team. Please use the links below to sign up for a meeting date/time to complete your ESSA Consolidated Grant application.

First step: check this list to see which one of us supports your district!

Then, sign up for a date/time to meet with your ESSA Support contact via Zoom!

Tami's District Sign Ups

Mercedez' District Sign Ups

It's about time to think about SRSA and RLIS again! In case you've forgotten, there are two types of grants available under Title V for small, rural schools. Your district is eligible for 1) one of the programs, 2) both of the programs, or 3) neither of the programs. If you are dual eligible, you must choose which grant to apply for.

• RLIS: If you choose to apply to RLIS, no action is currently required. We will send out more information as soon as the RLIS grant application becomes available in eGrants.

• SRSA: If you decide to apply for SRSA, the primary contact (see spreadsheet) at each SRSA-eligible LEA will receive a link to apply for the grant from no-reply.survey@connect.gov.

Click here to see your LEA's eligibility status and the estimated allocation for the grant(s). This spreadsheet has been filtered to only include Region 15 (and a couple of our contracting districts).Review the USDE spreadsheet if you are not one of our schools (beware - it's a very big spreadsheet which sometimes slows down my computer!)

May Update: The REAP Team at the U.S. Department of Education is working to open the FY 2025 SRSA application as soon as possible and will broadly share more information about the dates for the application period when we have that information.

School Districts:

4/15/25: Indirect Cost Rate Proposals (ICRP) posted/available in GFFC Reports and Data Collections (GFFC Reports). Note: If a school district does not locate an ICRP in GFFC, please email compliance@tea.texas.gov regarding next steps.

5/16/25: Deadline to upload certified ICRPs to GFFC Reports.

Charter Schools

3/28/25: Deadline for charter schools to complete this survey to request an indirect cost rate for the 2025 2025–2026 school year. If you charter school did not complete the survey , please do so as quickly as possible and email compliance@tea.texas.gov.

School Districts and Charter Schools

Mid-June: Indirect cost rate notification letters posted/available in GFFC Reports.

Note: Indirect cost rates effective for period 7/1/25 25–6/30/26

Just a reminder - the changes to UGG and EDGAR go into effect on July 1.

TEA federal monitoring has said it will issue findings with no questioned costs this year for findings solely related to the changes implemented early by this new USDE notice and LEAs must retain this letter as documentation for your own auditor in case of future findings.

TEMPLATE - as a reminder, Region 15 purchased a UGG/EDGAR manual template for Region 15 LEAs last summer from the BruMan Group. You should have received a copy of this from Mercedez or Tami. Let us know if you need us to send it again.

Final amounts for programs in the 2024–2025 Title V, Part B Rural and Low-Income School Program and ESSA Consolidated Federal Grant Application are became available last month on the Entitlements page.

Grantees must start an amendment to their applications in eGrants to budget their final amounts, 2023–2024 carryover amounts, and any applicable reallocation amounts.

The deadline to submit an amendment for RLIS is 5:00 PM. Central Time, June 2, 2025 and for the ESSA Consolidated Application is 5:00 p.m. Central Time, June 3, 2025.

*** If you are one of our ESSA Support Contracting Tami or Mercedez have reached out to you to regarding these amendments and they're most likely underway!

TEA has received notice that effective immediately USDE has suspended the current Year 5 ESSER Annual Report that was due in May and the Year 4 Corrections that would have opened this summer. You do not need to proceed with any final submissions or corrections that may have been requested by TEA staff. At this time, it is not expected that this report will be reinstated.

We advise you retain documentation of past USDE ESSER Reports and for future reports just in case expectations change!

In order to help schools implement compliant programs, TEA has published frequently asked questions for various program areas.

ESSA:

• Title I-A FAQ (06/23)
• Title I-D FAQ (11/22)
• Title II-A FAQ (09/24)
• Title IV-A FAQ (07/24)
• ESSA Private Nonprofit Equitable Services (08/24)

ESSER:

• ESSER FAQ
• ESSER Side-by-Side Comparison

All of our resources have been updated for the 24-25 school year! Click the items below to download!

Be sure to carefully review and address each task that is relevant to your district. If you aren't sure, reach out to Tami, Mercedez or Monica and we can help!

TEA will conduct a full-day virtual training over the ESSA Consolidated Application on Thursday, May 29 (9:00-3:00). Here is the content to be covered:

• Part 1: Accessing the Application
• Part 2: Program Schedules
• Lunch Break 11:45 am CST - 1:00 pm CST
• Part 2: Program Schedules (continued)
• Part 3: Budget Schedules
• Part 4: Application Review/Amendments
• Part 5: Shared Services Arrangements (SSA) - This part of the training will be aimed at providing an overview of SSA-specific schedules and information as it relates to Fiscal Agents applying as SSAs.

Click here to register

Tuesday, June 10, 2025, 9:00 am CST – 12:00 pm CST

• Registration information to be shared statewide via TEA News Bulletin soon!

Our 24-25 ESSA/ESSER PD sessions have been tentatively scheduled! Keep in mind, our PD dates are always subject to change because of required trainings that we may be asked to attend.

Our 2025-2026 ESSA Workshops have also been tentatively scheduled. Please note that these dates are subject to change! We often receive notice of trainings we are required to attend after we create our PD schedule. We do our best to communicate changes promptly and we appreciate your understanding!

Join us for our Federal Programs Coffee Chats! These are very informal Zoom meetings where participants log in, hear a few updates, and ask questions. Click the picture below to access the flyer and a live link to our Zoom meeting.

Parent Day will be on October 17, 2025, at the Waco Convention Center—an exciting event created just for parents and caregivers! Parents will walk away with practical tips, valuable resources, and fresh inspiration to help them thrive at home and in school life.

Registration is open for two May sessions of NEABPD’s FREE Managing Suicidality & Trauma Recovery (MSTR) program — a free, online course for parents who have experienced the trauma of supporting a teen or adult child through suicidality, self-harm, or a related crisis.

MSTR is designed specifically for families navigating the ongoing stress and emotional toll of supporting a loved one in crisis. The course offers education, connection, and practical skills for parents who are feeling overwhelmed and isolated.

Participants gain:

• A better understanding of how intense emotional struggles and suicidal behavior can affect the whole family
• Practical tools to manage fear, regulate intense emotions, and improve communication
• The chance to connect with other parents who’ve had similar experiences
• A safe, structured, and supportive environment — all offered online at no cost

👉 Families can register for a May session here: https://www.borderlinepersonalitydisorder.org/family-connections-managing-suicidality-trauma-recovery/

The Parent and Family Engagement 4th Quarter of "The Family Learning Connection" newsletter is now available on their website here and on their Smore page here, please share it with your title-I parents.

This newsletter covers a range of topics, including the summer meal program, Parent Day, sun & water safety, college prep, If there is a certain topic or information you would like to see in future newsletters, please let me know and I will share it out to them.

Is there anything we can do to help you with your ESSA programs? Please let us know if there is anything we can do for you. Our contact information is below.

Email: federalprograms@esc15.net
Website: www.esc15.net/titlei
Location: 612 South Irene Street, San Angelo, TX, USA
Phone: 325-658-6571
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Region15ESC
Twitter: @Region15ESC