ESSA/ESSER Newsletter

Spring is here, bringing fresh opportunities and important updates for our ESSA programs! In this month’s newsletter, we’re sharing key reminders, upcoming deadlines, and helpful resources to keep everything on track. 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 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!)

Ordinarily the application window would already be open. It's possible the RIF that took place at USDE has impacted the timeline. We reached out to USDE regarding the application window for the SRSA grant and were told that they anticipate launching the FY25 SRSA application in early April and that they will communicate with the individuals listed as contacts in the eligibility spreadsheet (linked above). They will offer application training webinars when the application is released.

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

Earlier this year, we hosted TEA in their presentation of EDGAR updates (the Top Gun themed presentation in October). Originally USDE said these changes would go into effect July 1, 2025. They then changed their mind and made them effectively immediately. However, they've changed again! Changes to UGG and EDGAR will go into effect for new grants on July 1, 2025.

Nevertheless, the changes are coming! Please review those changes and make plans to update your administrative procedures and policies as appropriate.

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!

Phase 1 and 2 of Year 5 USDE ESSER Reports have both closed! HIGH FIVE!!!

There is a *small* chance your district may be asked to make a correction if the report's status is not marked "TEA Complete". In this case, keep your eyes open for a notification asking for a correction. We're here to help if this should happen!

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

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.

Although registration and additional information for the 2025 Parent and Family Engagement Conference will not be available until April 1, 2025, the application to present is now open!

If you or someone you know is interested in presenting at this conference, please visit the PFE Statewide Initiative website HERE for more information. Before applying, you will have to review the Application to Present Guidelines document linked on our website here.

Presenters are not limited to Title I, Part A or PFE. We are looking for presenters on any of the following:

• Title I, Part A
• ESSER
• Title I, Part C (Migrant)
• Title II, Part A
• Title III, Part A - ELA and Immigrant
• Title IV, Part A
• Title IV, Part B - 21st Century Schools

The application closes at 5pm (CST) on April 11, 2025, so hurry and get yours in ASAP.

We’re excited to announce an upcoming Best Practices Expo that is free to attend and full of valuable insights for educators, families, and community members!

April 10: Dr. Stefanie Rodriguez from Behavior Savvy Solutions will share strategies for building stronger, healthier school environments.

You’ll find more information on the flyer below and on region 16 website at https://pfetexas.net/bestpractices.

We hope you’ll join us!

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