ARP ESSER Monitoring Update and Quarterly Reviews
Summary
A transcript of a Department of Education office hour session, ARP ESSER monitoring update and quarterly reviews, with Lakesha McKenzie introducing Laura Jimenez, the director, and Christopher Fenton, team leader over monitoring. The speakers describe monitoring of pandemic grants, stating that there are four types of formal monitoring: focused or targeted monitoring, comprehensive monitoring led by State and Grantee Relations, consolidated monitoring, and a new quarterly review. They state that selection for monitoring is generally based on risk assessment using financial data, drawdowns and grant amounts, and that the protocols online are currently for the CARES Act version. A footer identifies the file as 022322-842637-DeptofEducation-Monitoring-Writtentranscript.
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Cite this document
“ARP ESSER Monitoring Update and Quarterly Reviews.”
Original at www.ed.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/ppr-int-7cee67a3facf636b-transcript-7f90edc017-f6350a5bc2/
, SHA-256 180d73331b516bb1d4523ae13f28d760e5118d2a85f97a427366d6d4b24fe284.Full text
Tegan: Welcome, and thank you for joining today's ARP ESSER monitoring update and
quarterly reviews. Before we begin, please ensure you've opened the WebEx
chat panel by using the associated icon on the bottom right corner of your
screen. Please note that all audio connections are muted until the Q&A portion
of the call. You are welcome to submit written questions throughout the
presentation and these will be addressed during Q&A. To submit a written
question, select all panelists from the drop down menu in the chat panel, enter
your question in the message box provided, and send. As a reminder, this
conference is being recorded. If you require technical assistance, please send a
chat to the event producer.
With that, I'll turn the conference over to location Lakesha McKenzie, team lead
over technical assistance and communication. Please go ahead.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Welcome to SGR's Office Hour. Can you all hear me? I just got a notification that
I was muted. Okay, great. So I'm glad you can hear me. I want to say welcome to
SGR's Office Hour session for fiscal year 2022 monitoring for the ARP ESSER
grantees. We thank you for joining us today. I want to take the time to
introduce a few key persons before we get started, before we dive deep into
the content. We have Christopher Fenton, who is our team leader over
monitoring, and our director, Laura Jimenez, whom you will hear from shortly.
I also want you to know that we do appreciate your patience as we all work
through these challenging times. We are committed to helping you all by
hosting these Office Hours. We really want to make sure that we help you
navigate program requirements as best as we can. So these Office Hours are for
you. Please continue to let us know if there are topics that you want to
recommend for future Office Hours. During today's Office Hours, we are
covering fiscal year '22 monitoring at the state level.
Please feel free to ask questions throughout our presentation, but we will also
open the call up questions after we go through the topics as well. So there will
be an opportunity for you to ask questions throughout, as well as at the end of
the presentation. We encourage you to submit your questions in the chat box as
we are going over the content of the presentation. We will also pause, as I
mentioned earlier, for you to ask questions over audio, and that is really for
those of you who are participating by phone. So with that being said, I'm going
to turn it over to our director, Laura, who will greet you at this time.
Laura Jimenez: Hello all, and thank you so much for taking time out of your very busy schedules
to join us. And we are very much looking forward to providing you this
information and answering any and all questions that you have in a timely
manner. And I'm going to kick it over to Chris because he is the main star of the
show. And once again, thank you so much.
Chris Fenton: Thanks so much, Laura and Lakesha. Again, I'm Chris Fenton. Some of you may
have communicated with me on various issues. We've done some other
webinars and whatnot. And definitely again, thank you so much for being here.
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We hope that this will be a good of time for you to learn a few things about
some things that are coming up and just about how we do monitoring in general
with these pandemic grants. As you may know, oversight and monitoring has
consistently been highlighted as an important area of focus for the department,
and especially subrecipient monitoring. And especially during these
unprecedented times with unprecedented amounts of funding. So our goal with
monitoring is more than just compliance. We hope that through monitoring, we
can work with grantees on improvements to programs and processes, so that
grant activities may better meet the purpose of grant, which for these grants
and our ARP ESSER specifically is to prevent, prepare for and respond to the
coronavirus. Can we get to the next slide please?
And so today we're going to provide a general overview of monitoring and
highlight the new quarterly review protocol and process. First of all, there are
four types of formal monitoring for these pandemic grants. We have the
focused or targeted monitoring, which is an abbreviated protocol generally
based on financial data and information. There's the comprehensive monitoring,
which is led by the program office, which in this case is State and Grantee
Relations, SGR, and that covers program requirements as well as the fiscal
requirements for the grants. And then in addition to those two types of
monitoring, we have the consolidated monitoring, which is cross OESE program
and fiscal reviews. And that's led by the Management Support Office within
OESE. And some of the other programs that may be involved in those types of
reviews would be like Title I, Title II, some of the McKinney-Vento sometimes
depending on what programs are up for review.
So in addition to those three types of reviews that we have been using for these
pandemic grants, we're going to also introduce today the quarterly reviews,
which are brief quarterly remote engagements around a set topic for each
quarter across all states. And so with the first three, the focus, the
comprehensive and the consolidated monitoring, it is only able to reach a
handful of states for that deep level of monitoring. With the quarterly reviews,
we're going to expand that, shrink the process a little bit to make it a little bit
more manageable for the states and grantees and for us as well. And we're
going to be able to do a good cross section of all states with these quarterly
reviews. Next slide please.
And so for all of the monitoring activities and upcoming activities, there are
several things that are in common. Again, with the exception of quarterly
reviews, which are for all grantees, selection for monitoring is generally based
on risk assessment. And SGR and the department, we use financial data,
drawdowns from G5 other information, grant amounts, et cetera, program
information, other information to make determinations of risk. And other
information could be financial controls, information that we get in reporting and
things like that. Expectations of all the different types of monitoring are similar.
There will be some documentation submissions, there will be an interview with
some questions, and there'll be follow up if there are any identified areas for
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corrective action or findings. Next. And this slide you'll have available later, and
it has links to some other resources as well.
Currently the protocols that are online are just for the CARES Act version. And
we are in the process of updating those protocols to include the CRRSAA and
our programs as well. Fundamentally, the fundamentals are still very, very
similar and all the fiscal stuff is based on program requirements out of uniform
guidance. So most of that won't change. It'll just be some of the particulars.
Next slide please.
And so the current ongoing CARES Act monitoring, like I said, it involves some
was the focused monitoring and the comprehensive monitoring, and also the
consolidated monitoring. And for the focused monitoring, we had seven
engagements so far, Iowa, Texas Montana, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma,
and West Virginia. There are two consolidated monitoring activities that were
done with Nevada and Tennessee. And we have wrapped up fairly recently the
comprehensive monitoring engagements with Indiana and Maine. And we're
working on getting the reports out for those two. And again, once these types of
monitoring activities are completed, we post the results or the reports online
and work closely with states on resolving any issues. Next slide please.
So beginning in FY22, we are doing a new process for monitoring, and that's the
quarterly review. Quarterly reviews will include all states. We do understand
that some states may be involved in other types of monitoring, and we'll work
with those states to schedule a time that's not conflicting or overlapping. Topics
again will be consistent from state to state for each quarter. And each quarterly
review is based on the same structure. So each review will have a few set
question stems, and those question stems will be tied into the topics which will
change from quarter to quarter. And the goal is to provide timely oversight and
technical assistance, as well as to reach all states in a timely manner, rather
than having to wait for the bigger, more involved monitoring activities. And if
we can go to the next slide please.
So this lays out the topic for this quarter of quarterly reviews. And again, it's
essentially three subtopics that are all around the LEA set-asides, and
addressing students most impacted by COVID-19 pandemic and also lost
instructional time. So if you go to the next slide, we'll look through the
questions here. I'm just going to give you a few seconds to take a look at the
question stem. And again, these are going to be related to the topic of set-
asides for learning loss and addressing the most impacted there. So the first
question revolves around successes, which there's a chance for the new
conversations to be had around activities that are having the impact that the
state's looking for, a chance to share tools or resources as well. Next slide
please.
And so we move from successes into challenges on the next slide. This next
question is basically the flip side of that first question. We want to talk about
the requirements and challenges in meeting those requirements. And this can
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also be a time to engage in conversations about supports that a state or grantee
may need from the department so that we can help you improve your processes
and better meet the needs of the students in your states. Next question, please.
Next slide. And so the third question is basically a measurement type question.
How do you know that what you're doing is having the impact that you want it
to, that you're actually meeting the goals that you set? And give examples. Next
slide please.
And then the last question is kind of related to that measurement question from
before. It's milestones, and basically, how are you looking forward? How are you
anticipating the different major parts of your projects? And as well, again, it all
relates to these subtopics around the LEA set-asides and the learning loss and
impact. And again, it provides, as part of this question, a chance for grantees to
ask us at the department for help and give more specificity on things that you
might need to support some of these shorter term goals for these projects. Next
slide please.
And so like I say, each of these quarterly reviews will be standardized. The
timeline right now, we're trying to provide training and front-end support
through there's webinar and through some emails. We're going to be sending
out emails from the program officers to grantees, and that'll spell out more
about how the submission of documentation might work and work on
scheduling and things like that as well for the actual review calls. And then of
course after the call, there'll be a follow up email, either outlining next steps, if
there are any corrective action type things or closing out the session.
And again, these will be fairly short. We're aiming for about an hour. It'll be a
conversation structured around these questions and topics. And the goal is to
be able to end these types of engagements and have a really great snapshot
across all states and be able to use that more timely information to improve our
own internal processes and improve the communications and information we
get out to you all in the field.
That's all I have for the nuts and bolts. We do have some time for questions and
answers. I know Lakesha has been monitoring some of those, and I will turn off
my camera to let Lakesha take a look.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Yes. So I was looking for the link to put the link for the ARP ESSER resources
page. I'm going to drop that in the chat in just a second. So yes, to just answer
your question-
Lakesha McKenzi...: I'm going to drop that in a chat in just a second. Yes, to just answer your
questions verbally while I prepare to type your answers. Yes, this session is
being recorded. The slide deck will be available after the presentation. It will
take us about a week to get it back from our event services department and
prepare it for the website. So it would be available in about a week on the
[inaudible 00:14:25] resources page in a few minutes.
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I'm going to drop that link in the chat, but it was also sent to you in the
invitation that I sent to you all through G-5. So you do have the link to the
[inaudible 00:14:38] resources page, where the presentation will be available. I
just see a lot of questions asking, will you receive a copy of the presentation?
Yes, you will. All right, here's a question about the content of the webinar. Is
evidence required to support state responses? Chris, is evidence required to
support state responses?
Chris Fenton: Yes, and that'll be the purpose of the documentation. And again, these are
meant to be very narrowly focused types of engagements. Every state's a little
bit different, so the documentation will be possibly different from state to state,
but it'll be along the lines of the type of documentation you would expect to see
on a bigger monitoring type activity. It'll just be a small chunk of that, basically.
For the set aside, if it asks for how did you support an LEA, you could share
examples of communications, you could share emails that you've sent out to the
districts to provide information. You can share handbooks, things like that as
well, things like that. Yeah, there will be evidence required and that's the
documentation, and of course the interview itself, and it'll just be a snapshot
type monitoring, if that makes sense.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay. Thank you, Chris. Another question was asking if you could elaborate on
the documentation, but I think you just did that on what type of documentation
we will be asking states to provide. If there's something more you wanted to
add to that, Chris, now is the opportunity to do so.
Chris Fenton: I think some of it, like I said, is going to be so state specific, that it's probably
best just to work with your program officers when the time comes. We're more
than happy to give thoughts and work together on those types of questions.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Thank you, Chris. I did notice that I just dropped the link to the [inaudible
00:16:46] resources page and I need to spell the link out because it's a hyperlink
and it's not making the actual link to the page available to you. So I'll address
that in a second, but I want to get back to the content questions because we do
have more here. How will the evidence be submitted to the department? Do
you want us to submit the evidence through email, SharePoint?
Chris Fenton: It'll likely be email to get us started. Like I said, again, these are designed to be
smaller chunks of monitoring. Hopefully, the documentation that you would
submit wouldn't be too extensive. There are attachment limits on email and
whatnot, but that shouldn't be a big deal for these types of monitoring
activities.
Lakesha McKenzi...: All right, we have another question. Who all on the state side do you want at
the quarterly meetings?
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Chris Fenton: And again, that might vary from state to state. Certainly, the program director,
some of the fiscal side. Some states have a more of an integrated approach with
the fiscal and program requirements and offices, and some states don't. So
again, you'll probably need to work with your program officer to make sure
you're getting the right folks. But again, these are primarily programmatic
questions for this quarter. So the topic will drive participants a lot of time.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay, "Thank you very much for this overview," a grantee has said. And the
question is, "The four questions for the first quarter that you shared seemed to
me to be aligned more towards the support and sharing best practices, goal of
monitoring, rather than the evaluating compliance side of monitoring. Is that
accurate, or will those questions inform the department's determinations of
compliance? "
Laura Jimenez: Hey, Chris, I'd like [crosstalk 00:18:47]-
Chris Fenton: ... part of the package. Definitely compliant. Oh, Laura, sure.
Laura Jimenez: Oh, sorry about that. Yeah, as Chris was saying, it's both. For example, some of
the questions that we have are going to be related to the LEA plans and their
consistency with the interim final rule that was published last year. That's one
example full of a question that will be coming from a compliance perspective,
but then we're also going to be asking, how it is that you are supporting LEAs in
identifying those students that are most impacted by COVID 19? And that's
more of a best practices or effective practices type of question. So it is a blend,
and Chris, please continue if there's anything that I didn't include.
Chris Fenton: No, I think that's right on target.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay. We have a question asking if we could please share the link for the
monitoring protocol. How will grantees be receiving the questions for the
monitoring protocol?
Chris Fenton: When you receive your email from your program officer, there'll be a copy of
that agenda. And basically, what you saw in those four slides with the questions,
that's essentially the protocol, just built around the topic a little more clearly.
Lakesha McKenzi...: One of the grantees is asking if we could type the questions for the first review
to the chat. They want to stop preparing the today. Do you want me to do that,
or should we wait until we send it via email when the program officer send the
protocol to grantees?
Laura Jimenez: Let's wait until we have the formal document to send.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay, thank you. What information is of available to help support states as we
begin to look at component for programmatic monitoring?
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Chris Fenton: I do have the copies of all the old protocols from the more extensive monitoring
activities on the website and links are in this presentation as well. In addition to
that, the monitoring reports are also online. Most of the reports are pre-
pandemic just because of the timing of everything, but it still has a lot of the
same basic information. Again, since [Ester and Gear 00:21:28] and the new
programs are so new, we don't have the comprehensive reports on online for
that, but there are a couple of the consolidated monitoring reports from earlier
in the grant cycles.
But again, those reports, even the non-Ester and Gear reports can be very
helpful just to frame out the types of information you might expect to see. All of
the protocols, a lot of it's built around the fiscal information, which is all based
on uniform guidance, which, it's pretty standard across the grants as well.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Thank you, Chris. We have another question. Who from the department
monitoring team will be on the call for each state? Who will be on the call from
the department on each call for each state? I'm sorry.
Chris Fenton: Generally speaking, once we get rolling with it, it'll be the program officer and
the team lead from the regional team, more likely than not. Even though these
are monitoring activities and they are formal, it's a little bit of a less intensive, I
guess, maybe way to do it, hopefully with monitoring. It'll be more
conversational, and like I said, focused on the specific topic. So again, hopefully,
it'll make a little more sense once we get rolling with it.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Thank you. And we have another question, is more so a reporting question.
When will the quarterly report be due?
Chris Fenton: I don't have any information on that, [Laquisha 00:23:17].
Lakesha McKenzi...: I was wondering if-
Laura Jimenez: What do you mean by the quarterly report?
(Silence).
Lakesha McKenzi...: [inaudible 00:23:33], can you provide some more details for your question,
please? Because perhaps they are asking about the monitoring, but maybe used
the word report. I'll wait to see if we get more details about the question. I'm
going to move on. We will email documentation for the quarterly meeting, and
then there will be a one-hour call to follow up. The answer is yes. They're asking
will they be sending the documentation in advance of the actual call to discuss
the documentation that was submitted.
Chris Fenton: Yes.
Laura Jimenez: Yeah.
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Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay, we do have another question. Looking ahead, do you have a calendar of
when SCAs will be monitored?
Chris Fenton: Specifically for the quarterly reviews or in general? We do have a couple of
reviews that we're in the logistics stage right now, but that will definitely be
later in the year. We're working on setting up schedules for the California and
the Wisconsin comprehensive monitoring.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay. Thank you, Chris. We have another question. Will universal quarterly
monitoring inform the department's risk assessment for more intensive
monitoring?
Chris Fenton: At any point, we could use the results of monitoring to impact the risk of scores,
sure, but I think the goal is mainly to try and address issues in a more timely
fashion so that they don't become a risk, if that makes sense.
Lakesha McKenzi...: [Burnelle 00:25:38] Cook asked which interim final rule were you referring to?
Laura Jimenez: I believe it was published in the federal register on April 22nd, 2021, and it
addresses the LEA plans.
Chris Fenton: There should be links to that as well on the Ester website.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Thank you, Laura and Chris.
Chris Fenton: [crosstalk 00:26:10]. Go ahead.
Lakesha McKenzi...: No, I was just saying thank you. Were you going to say something, Chris?
Chris Fenton: Yeah, I was just going to say that, for right now, we're looking at the quarters for
just the fiscal year. Federal fiscal year quarters is the way we're thinking about
it. Somebody mentioned typical quarters in a year.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay. We have another question. All states will have a quarterly review in either
March or April. They want confirmation. All the states will have completed their
first quarterly review in either March or April. Is that the plan?
Chris Fenton: That is the plan.
Lakesha McKenzi...: The next question was when will this be due for the first quarter? I think what
they're asking is when would the documentation be due? They say this, but I'm
assuming you mean the documentation. If that's not correct, you can correct me
in the chat, but when would the documentation be due for the first quarter?
The first quarterly [crosstalk 00:27:16] ...
Chris Fenton: The goal is to give at least a few weeks lead for the documentation submission.
This first quarter may be a little bit compressed and we'll certainly work with
022322-842637-DeptofEducation-Monitoring-Writtentranscript Page 8 of 15
you on an individual basis as much as we can, if you do have serious issues. But I
think that information will be more specific in the upcoming emails from your
program officers in the next week or two.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay. We have a grantee who joined a little late. I just want to confirm for you,
yes, the PowerPoint will be made available along with the recording. Yes, that
will be available on the [inaudible 00:27:54] resources page within about a week
or so. We have another question. Can you expand a little bit further on the
program monitoring-
Lakesha McKenzi...: Can you expand a little bit further on the program monitoring protocols? Need
more information about location. Location? It's going to be virtual. It's not going
to be an in-person review. It's going to be over the phone, to answer your
question about location. I hope that answers-
Chris Fenton: And the protocols are posted on the website as well. The quarterly questions,
they're not really protocols in a sense. It is, but it's the questions change
because the topics change. So we don't post the specific quarterly protocol.
That'll come to you via email.
Lakesha McKenzi...: All right. We have the question. When will we be having these monitoring calls?
Just want to confirm the first quarterly reviews will be in March or April,
depending on when your scheduled with your program officer.
Chris Fenton: Right.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay. Can you help me understand how this comprehensive monitoring
document interacts with the quarterly monitoring process? And they put a link
there. Let's see what this is.
Chris Fenton: I'm not exactly sure what they mean by interacts, but it's all rooted in the
program requirements. All the different types of monitoring that we do are
meant to provide a more overarching view into the activities of grantees and
provides us with different ways to, I guess, look into the different things that are
going on in the field. And all of that as well, we take back and look at ways that
we can improve our processes as well. So it's just another means of meeting a
goal in our portfolio, really.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay. Thank you, Chris. And back to that question we got earlier about when
the quarterly report will be due. So the grantee did clarify, when they say
report, they're referring to the full question. So they were asking, when will the
answers to those questions be due? And Chris answered that question. And you
can just verify with me, Chris. I believe you said all of the details, as far as the
due date, will be in the note, the email that you'll receive from your program
officer.
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Chris Fenton: That's right. That's right. And we definitely want to provide a reasonable
amount of lead time to put together the answers for the questions and to put
together the documentation.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Yeah. Because I'm thinking that might be the overall concern. Will you have
enough time to prepare your answers before the call? And the answer to that is,
yes. We definitely want to give you at least three-weeks time to prepare your
answers before your call.
Chris Fenton: And I think, too, one thing, since this is going to be a regular occurrence, the
rhythm is going to be a thing that we're going to get in the groove of, so to
speak. So I think once we get rolling with the quarter reviews, it'll be easier to
get the information to you on the front end faster. It'll be easier to get the
logistics set up quicker, et cetera. So we'll definitely work with you as much as
we can to make it a smooth process.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay. We have another question. Amber's asking, "Are the quarterly reviews,
the typical quarters of the year, or are we on a different quarterly schedule?" I
can answer that, and, Chris, you can verify. The answer is, yes. We're trying to
align the quarterly reviews as much as possible to the regular quarters of the
year, of the calendar year, or is it of the fiscal year, Chris?
Chris Fenton: We're looking at the fiscal year, currently. The fiscal year.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay. We have another question. States are getting a lot of request for updates,
information, et cetera, by the department, from multiple people at the
department. Please consider being more collaborative in what you ask from
states. Okay. That's not a question. It is a recommended.
And I just want to say that we do understand that we ask you for a lot of
information, and I understand that anytime you have to step away from your
desk and collect information, it is time taken away from actually implementing a
grant. But because of the amount of money on these grants, there's a lot of
scrutiny. And so we do have to do our due diligence in ensuring that the fidelity
of the grants are upheld. So that is the reason for coming to you multiple times
needing information. And a lot of the times, it's not just from our office, it's
coming from even higher leadership requesting this information and needing
this information. Chris or Laura, if you wanted to expound upon what I just
shared with the grantee, please do so.
Laura Jimenez: Thanks, LaKesha. I will also say that we are actively working on ensuring that we
are proactive in communicating with various stakeholders' information so that
we can reduce the number of requests that we make of states for information,
especially at the last minute. So we are aware of it, and are actively working to
create a system to help it be much more manageable for everyone.
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Lakesha McKenzi...: Yes. Thank you, Laura. We have another question. Will this quarterly monitoring
include ESSR1, ESSR2, and ARP homeless activities? Can you also speak to plan
for IDEA, [inaudible 00:34:22], and opt-in monitoring?
Chris Fenton: So the quarterly concept can be adapted to fit different programs. SGR only
deals with the ESSR, ESSR2, GEAR, GEAR2, AIMS, and the ARP ESSER grants. We
don't handle the, what was that, the ARP IDEA and the homeless grants there.
So those would not be included, but in future iterations of the quarterly
reviews, the topics could include information from other grants besides the ARP
ESSR frame.
Laura Jimenez: And one of the earlier slides, we covered the topics of the first three quarterly
reviews. Two will be ARP ESSR, one will be AIMS.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Thank you. I want to go back to a question that was asked earlier because the
grantee, Dotty, she has expounded upon her question to provide more clarity.
So her question was, "Can you expand a little bit further on the program
monitoring protocols? I need more information about the location." And when
she says location, she's referring to where to find the documents that we can
use to do our LEA monitoring protocols.
Chris Fenton: Okay. I'm still a little bit confused. Now, we have protocols that are posted
online. The one that you seem to be referring to is the comprehensive protocol,
which does have extensive sections on things like allocations, sub-recipient
monitoring, equitable services, internal control, things like that. It has a lot of
different sections. Those are different from the quarterly review monitoring
activities. It's a different type of monitoring. It all gets thrown into the same
bucket of monitor ring. So I'm just a little bit confused in terms of, you
mentions, where do we find documents that we can use to do our LEA
monitoring protocols? You could certainly look at the protocols and the sections
that describe what we would be looking for in sub-recipient monitoring and use
those as guidelines. There's a lot of information and uniform guidance as well.
In all these protocols that are posted, the comprehensive protocols, it does
provide citations as well to some of the requirements. So you can look into
those as well, but I'm not sure. Hopefully that got to some of the information.
Laura Jimenez: And when we post the protocols for quarterly reviews, we will let grantees
know where those are located on our website, but we will also be sending them
out directly to our contacts through the G5 system.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Thank you. Yes. And Dotty just added that, "We are looking for more
information about what the expectations are for the SEA to monitor the LEAs
for compliance. That was the reasoning behind her questions that she asked.
Okay, we have another question. Is there a possibility of delaying rescheduling
individual SEA appointments? As you may know, the annual asset reporting, or
022322-842637-DeptofEducation-Monitoring-Writtentranscript Page 11 of 15
APR, will overlap with the quarterly review. They will be taking place around the
same time.
Chris Fenton: We'll definitely try to be mindful of conflicts. But again, we are trying to get to
all states during this time period, and we'll try and work, as best as we can,
through the program officers to make sure that your needs are being met. But
we do need to make sure we get the first calls scheduled within that timeframe.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay. Let see. Why can't we see the questions from the other panelists in our
chat? I'm not sure why you cannot see the questions from the other panelists.
That's a question that our logistical support can answer towards the end of the
webinar.
Let me see. I think the current request refers to the fact that [inaudible
00:39:23] funding without sub-recipient monitoring tools. Okay. That's a
statement. We don't have any other questions. Did you want to address that,
Chris?
Chris Fenton: I think I can clear that up. I think that's a confusion. So there are two protocols
there in the larger monitoring events. We interview SEA staff folks. And then we
also interview LEA staff folks. That's not because we're monitoring those LEAs.
It's because we use those interviews and that information from LEAs to
triangulate and verify the information that we're getting from the SEA. So a big
part of an SEA's responsibility is sub-recipient monitoring. And by talking to the
LEAs that they have oversight with, that we can help establish how that's
happening, I guess, is a good way to put it. So you can definitely learn a lot
about what we would expect an SEA to do in terms of sub-recipient monitoring
by looking at the protocols. But those are not specifically protocols that are
meant to be a template or a tool for an SEA, so to speak.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Thank you, Chris. Is it possible that we could unmute the participants for a
moment so that if anyone who is joined by phone has an opportunity to ask a
question?
Tegan: All right. If you'd like to ask your questions verbally, you can select the raise
hand icon in WebEx to virtually raise your hand. You'll hear a notification when
your line is unmuted. It'll be a beep. And then you can go ahead and verbally ask
your question.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Thank you, Tegan. At this present time, I don't see more written questions from
the participants. So we'll just pause to see if anyone who is by phone has a
question.
Chris Fenton: And if any of y'all are like I am, immediately upon leaving the call today, you'll
have 100 questions that'll pop into your head. You can always feel free to send
any questions or thoughts to your program officers as well.
022322-842637-DeptofEducation-Monitoring-Writtentranscript Page 12 of 15
Tegan: I'm not showing any questions at this time.
Tegan: I'm not showing any questions at this time.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay. Thank you, Tegan. I have a question that just popped up. It is, would the
department be considering not requiring states who are selected for
comprehensive monitoring to be removed from the quarterly ESSER
monitoring? So, will the states who are selected for comprehensive monitoring
also be required to participate in the quarterly monitoring?
Laura Jimenez: I'm happy to answer that. We will be doing quarterly monitoring reviews for all
50 states, DC and Puerto Rico, regardless of them being scheduled for another
type of monitoring event, and this is because for quarterly monitoring reviews,
these are much more focused on high priority issues, and these are issues that
would not be covered in comprehensive or other monitoring events, but we will
happily schedule those so that they are not overlapping and you're not doing
the both monitoring events at the same time.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Thank you, Laura. Okay. Are there any other questions? We have another
question. Will there be a quarterly monitoring for AIMS?
Chris Fenton: One of the upcoming quarterly topics does apply to AIMS. And like I said, from
quarter to quarter, the topics will change and it could be a different grant area,
but like Laura mentioned, it'll be a very tightly focused request.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Thank you, Chris.
Tegan: All right. Looks like we do have a hand raised. Caller, your line is [crosstalk
00:44:41]
Tegan: Thank you. Hi, this is Dotty. I'm going to try to explain my crazy question. I don't
think I'm maybe framing it right. I totally understand what you guys are talking
about in regards to the quarterly reviews and how that will shake out. I guess
my question is more for, as someone at the state department, and I'm assuming
we have to do monitoring of our LEAs and how they're using the funds for all of
their ESSER money. My question is, are there any specific examples of what that
monitoring can look like, and I'm talking about a programmatic side monitoring
rather than a fiscal monitoring. I feel like we've got our hands really figured out
what that's going to look like fiscally. I just am not sure what it should or if it is
required for programmatic monitoring.
Chris Fenton: Okay. So all federal funds require sub-recipient monitoring. All federal funds
that have sub-recipients require monitoring. So, the closest thing I can say to
something that you're probably already doing that you can steal from is
probably title one monitoring. It's going to be really similar to something like
that, I would say. And again, if you look at the protocols that we have for the
comprehensive monitoring that you put a link to, I think, that section on sub-
022322-842637-DeptofEducation-Monitoring-Writtentranscript Page 13 of 15
recipient monitoring, those questions sort of frame out some of our
expectations, but you can look more closely at the reference in your form
guidance as well, as some of the assurances that are in the actual grant
application for these grants or the certification agreements or whatever it was
back in the beginning. And we'll give you some elements.
Tegan: Okay, Chris, is there a timeline for what the expectation is that we start that
monitoring? Are we behind the eight ball in regards to not getting that started
yet?
Chris Fenton: I would definitely say it should be going on, and part of the game is risk
assessment and determination and things like that. So, I would say by now, you
should probably have some sort of updated risk assessment to include the new
grants that you're dealing with. And that should that risk assessment will help
drive determinations about who gets monitored, and then what type of
monitoring. Certainly we try and model as an agency, we try and model some of
these elements. So, what we do with you all is our sub-recipient monitoring. So,
when we monitor our sub-recipients, that's kind of the same idea that would
drive what you would do with your LEAs.
Tegan: Well, I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good about the risk assessment piece. We
have that in place, so it's just a matter of really putting, like I said, in the fiscal
piece, I feel like we have in place, but it's probably more the programmatic that
we need to really kick into high gear right now.
Chris Fenton: Yeah, I'd say so. And again, it's a good idea to coordinate between the fiscal and
program size as well. And again, I'm not sure exactly how your state is arranged,
organizationally speaking, but it's similar to a lot of the activities you probably
are already doing for the other big formula programs.
Tegan: Well, that helps that they started with Title One. That makes a difference too.
And then, looking at the program that calls for comprehensive. That will help
too.
Chris Fenton: Yeah.
Tegan: Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Chris Fenton: Sure.
Lakesha McKenzi...: All right. Do we have any more questions? Let me see.
Chris Fenton: I just saw one there, Lakeisha, that said if there is an issue, if we're just
beginning monitor this fall. I think the main thing is, if we looked right now at
your cyber safety and monitoring and you hadn't done anything, we might make
a recommendation that you start kicking it in the gear a little more. But I think,
as long as you do have a plan, and as long as the process meets the
022322-842637-DeptofEducation-Monitoring-Writtentranscript Page 14 of 15
requirements, and as long as you're getting there, that's the big thing that we'll
look for, certainly.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Okay. We're just pausing to see if any more questions pop up for us to answer.
And right now, I'm not seeing any additional questions. All right, so I will turn it
over to Laura, but before I do, I want to just thank you all for participating
today. We really appreciate you taking time out of your day to participate in this
webinar and ask your questions so that you can fulfill the requirements for the
quarterly review. And if you have a question that did not get answered, or you
think of your question later, you can always send your question to your program
officer, to your state mailbox. Okay? And so that you can get your answers to
any questions that come up later. We'll make sure that we follow up with more
details about the quarterly reviews as well. And we want to thank you. We hope
you enjoy the rest of your day. Chris, is there anything that you wanted to add
before I turn it over to Laura?
Chris Fenton: I don't have anything else to add. Thanks a lot. And thanks, Lakeisha, for helping
us out and thanks for all of the excellent grantees that attended.
Laura Jimenez: Great. Thank you all so much. If you do have specific questions that come to
mind later, or that you did not get a satisfactory answer for, please email your
state inbox and tag it in the subject line, quarterly reviews or monitoring
questions, and then I will ask my team to send those to me ASAP so we can
prioritize getting you an answer right away. Thank you so much.
Lakesha McKenzi...: Thank you. Thank you, Laura. So before I log off of the webinar today, I am going
to put the entire link in the chat. So, if you want to hang on before you hang up,
you will see that entire link spelled out so that you can just copy it to your
browser, or perhaps your computer will allow you to go straight to the link, to
the ARP ESSER resources page. So I will do that for you, and everyone else who
needs that link, but also be reminded that it is in your email. The email that I
sent from G5 went to whomever is listed as your project director and your
authorized official on your grant. And so that link to the ARP ESSER resources
page is in your inbox as well, and I will also drop it here in the chat before I hang
up. So, I'm going to turn it over to Tegan, our event producer. Thank you so
much, Tegan. Thank you, Laura. Thank you, Chris. And thank you to all the
grantees who participated today.
Tegan: Well, that concludes our conference. Thank you for using Event Services. You
may now disconnect.
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