| To: | ARRA Sub-recipients of the New York State Education Department |
| From: | Charles A. Szuberla, Jr., Executive Director, School Operations and Management Services |
| Date: | September 16, 2009 |
| Subject: | ARRA Reporting |
Urgent and Timely
This memo is to inform you of requirements for reporting on the use of federal stimulus funds that flow through the New York State Education Department and are required under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Data reporting for ARRA funds that flow through NYSED will require its sub-recipients to submit a small number of data elements for the various ARRA funded programs that flow from the Department. Sub-recipients that receive funding directly from the federal government (e.g., Impact Aid) will not report through NYSED but will report directly to www.federalreporting.gov 
.
To clarify the roles, prime recipients are entities like the Department that receive funds directly from the federal government. Sub-recipients are entities to which the prime recipients award funds. Sub-recipients of the Department include, for example, school districts, BOCES, nonpublic schools, charter schools, public broadcasting stations, State schools for the blind and deaf at Rome and Batavia, and selected other state agencies, which receive funds directly from the Department. Sub-recipients are distinguished from vendors in that they are responsible for accomplishing their mission regardless of grant funds. Vendors, on the other hand, perform the functions only when they are hired to do so.
Required reporting will involve a data collection tool that is under development. In order to complete reporting all recipients of funding must register at the federal government’s Central Contractor Registration (CCR) and apply for a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number. For information about how to do this see http://www.oms.nysed.gov/cafe/.
The system is planned to go into production at noon on Monday September 21. Sub-recipients will have until Thursday, October 1 to enter their data.
Please note that if ARRA funding recipients do not enter data according to these timeframes, they will not be included in our quarterly report submission NYSED will submit on Friday, October 9. They will have to wait until the next quarterly report on January 1, 2010 to enter their data.
The Office of the Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) are engaged in an unprecedented level of auditing to ensure funds are used as required under the Act. To ensure entities receive these much needed funds, it is crucial that all recipients of funding comply with reporting requirements in a timely manner. To this end, we need your help in ensuring that your organizations are aware of and have the ability to comply with reporting requirements.
We are planning a webinar for all recipients reporting through the State Education Department for September 18, 2009 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and Q&A sessions according to the following schedule:
- ARRA IDEA September 22, 2009, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
- ARRA Education Stabilization Funds (DRA) September 23, 2009, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
- ARRA Title I September 24, 2009, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
- ARRA Other Government Services Programs September 25, 2009, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
For IDEA and Title I funds that are administered to other agencies (OMH, OMRDD, etc.), I would ask that organizations work with their program contacts (Roberto Reyes and Mike Plotzker) to provide the required information. For stabilization funds (Other Government Services) that go to SUNY community colleges, I would ask that agencies work with Associate Commissioner Joe Frey from the Department’s Office of Higher Education to report on stabilization funds that they have received that are part of awards on which NYSED must report.
Any questions you have for us to address now or at the four Q&A sessions can be directed to emscmgts@mail.nysed.gov. For an announcement for the Webinar and Q&A sessions, see https://www.p12.nysed.gov/mgtserv/ARRAReportingWebcastandQandAElluminatesessions.html.
Thank you for your assistance.
cc: Johanna Duncan-Poitier
Rebecca Cort
Joseph Frey
Charles Szuberla
Roberto Reyes
Michael Plotzker
Byron Connell
Deborah Cunningham
(The contact at HESC is Warren Wallin (6-7443), SUNY is Jeff McGrath (443-5463) and CUNY is Bert Sachs (212) 794-5741.)
Microsoft Word version of this memo
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