Dear Religious
and Independent School Colleagues,
The Non
Public Safety Equipment Grant allocations for the 2016-17 (last year) have been
posted to the Office for Nonpublic School Services/State Office of Religious
and Independent Schools (SORIS) website. The new allocations for the
current state budget year (2017-18) will be posted shortly. If your school is a nonprofit entity, the
enrollment-based allocations and guidance can be found on State Office of Religious and Independent Schools’ website. Just search by the school name and/or BEDS
code. For-profit schools are not eligible for this program.
In the 2016-17
Enacted Budget, the legislature and Governor expanded the list of eligible uses
for the funds – based on suggestions from religious and independent school
leaders. The 2017-18 funds will be
available shortly, but since the 2016-17 program is ready to go, we think it
best to make this available to you now.
As was
the case in prior years, schools with allocations remaining from earlier years
will continue to able to claim reimbursements using the prior years’ amounts
until they are exhausted. However, the
expanded eligibility adds a slight nuance.
Funds remaining from a school’s allocations for the program before
2016-17 can ONLY be used for the narrower list of eligible items related to
security issues. Funds from 2016-17 can
be used for ANY eligible item from any of the years, but expenses from the
expanded list need to have been made since April 1, 2016.
You might
wish to keep in mind for planning purposes that although we don’t have the
allocations for 2017-18 available yet, you will continue to be able to
use those funds for the expanded uses when they do become available. We will continue to allow flexibility to use
the 2016-17 and 2017-18 funds for expenditures on the newly eligible items for
both years.
Finding your allocation:
As noted
above, the enrollment-based allocation for your school can be found on the 2016-17 Nonpublic School Safety Equipment Grant
Allocation Listing.
Once the
file is opened, you will see the Total Available Funds in Column F. This
amount is the sum of any remaining funds you may have had from your allocation
for the 2013-14, 20104-15), and 2015-16 program years (Column D), plus the
allocations from the year 4 2016-17 program year (Column E).
In
program years 1-3 of the grant, (2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16) many schools had
projects whose costs were above their allocations for that year. For
example, a school may have had a $2,000 allocation and completed a $12,000 door
replacement project, leaving $10,000 in approved, but unreimbursed, costs for
the school. If this is the circumstance of your school, you will see the APPROVED,
UNREIMBURSED EXPENDITURES in Column H, next to TOTAL AVAILABLE FUNDS Column
If this
is your situation, you can file for reimbursement for those expenses, up to the
amount in Column H, using the reimbursement form which is also posted on the Safety Equipment Grant website. No additional documentation beyond the form is
necessary for these funds, since you have already provided it and SORIS staff
have reviewed and approved your applications.
If you wish to file based upon new or additional
expenditures, you must submit the following:
1.
Program reimbursement form,
2.
Invoices listing the items purchased, and
3.
Proof of payment such as cancelled checks or zero balance
invoice
One note
of caution if you are contemplating new work to be supported by this
program: We would expect that the column F amounts will be re-appropriated
by the legislature and Governor in future years (although this cannot be
guaranteed). However, please do not do
work that far exceeds your allocation if your school cannot support the costs
without reimbursement. We cannot guarantee that new grant funds will
continue to be made available in future years, and we would not wish any of our
colleague-schools to overextend themselves financially in anticipation of
receiving state funds that are not provided.
Once
again, if it does not have one already, your school will need to obtain a
vendor ID from the state to receive funds. If you need assistance with this
matter, information is available at the Office of Grants Management website. If you have participated in either this program or
received Mandated Services Aid or Comprehensive Attendance Program Aid in
recent years, you have a vendor ID.
I hope
this is helpful. Please contact the Office of Educational Management
Services (which includes the State Office of Religious and Independent Schools) if you
have any questions at 518-474-6541 or you can email the SORIS office directly
at SORIS@nysed.gov.
Best
wishes,
Christina Coughlin