Issue Brief 9-43
November 6, 2009
Summary 

The Department of Education (ED) recognizes that states will assume increased administrative responsibilities under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA; P.L. 111-5). However, both Title I- Education for the Disadvantaged and Special Education have caps on the amount of funds that can be used for administrative costs. Since these limits do not take into account the new ARRA requirements, ED proposed an increase in the caps for Title I-Part A (grants to local educational agencies [LEAs]) and Special Education-Part B (grants to states) to allow states to use additional existing funds to administer, monitor, and report on the use of ARRA funds. The proposed notice was published in the Federal Register on August 17, 2009 (see Issue Brief 09-30 for information on the proposed notice and background regarding the existing caps and ARRA requirements). The final notice of adjustments, published in the Federal Register on October 27, 2009, clarifies that states may use regular FY 2009 appropriations and/or ARRA allocations for Title I-Part A and Special Education-Part B to meet the new administrative funding cap levels.