001Okay, the recording has started. This is um Lenitra Guest with the um federal program compliance division and today I'm going to provide training on title 4 part A. We'll be talking about compliance under construction, building a rock solid title 4 part a monitoring and selfch check. As a reminder, this is a legal disclaimer slide that you see here and it basically states that I am not an attorney and at this point this is a presentation that um with the information that we know now regarding the federal requirements and in addition to that we also have an artificial intelligence legal disclaimer stating that TEA prohibits third party recordings of its grants related trainings and the use of artificial intelligence services, tools, language models, applications or anything in that nature. If you do um come in as
002if we do see any of the AI um technologies being used, you will need to leave and you can come back under your uh district school or private school organization name. We will be taking questions, but all questions must be typed during the in the Q&A section. Please do not put questions in the uh chat. All questions must go through the Q&A and there is an attendance link that is in the Q or that is in the chat button chat feature and you can also check in by using the QR code. Please be sure to look for the specific event which is the statewide uh compliance under construction for title 4 and today's date April 23rd. There are several different um titles with a similar name. So you want to be sure that you collect
003the correct name and that you select the one for me and for today's date which is April 23rd. Today I'll be talking about building a rock solid uh foundation and you should have received a copy of the slides, a link to the slides. If you did register um you have received a copy of those slides. We will be posting the link for those PDF slides periodically during this session. And so first I want to talk about the slab the foundation of title 4. The very first thing that goes down for you to have a better understanding is of title 4 is the authority which is the every student every student succeeds act and that is section 4106 in the statute that gives all of the title 4 part a program requirements. And then we also
004have the collaborative comprehensive needs assessment. Um, and we'll be talking about these things as we go along. And then also you have to ensure that you understand consultation, who the required stakeholders are, what you need to discuss while you're um meeting with them, as well as understanding what allowable use of programs and activities are under the title 4 program. So once you have that foundational base then it's easier to be able to move forward in providing support and just understanding what is the title 4 program. And so in order to frame up that program you also need to understand the program design how it's how the uh program will be coded during your budget. The cost must support the specific uh programs and activities in the intent and purposes of the title 4 program. It
005must be any activities must be a tied tied to the needs of the district andor the campus if you're representing uh one or two buildings within a district. You must document everything. And so documentation is a big piece of federal programs. And so ensuring that you document everything and you keep that evidence locally. And then we'll also be talking about evaluation in order to ensure that you have a firm foundation and then you you're framing that program correctly. You also need to look at how are you evaluating the program and evaluation must occur at least every three years. But best practice is that it occurs annually. And so in order to have that solid foundation, you have the statutory pillars, which we'll talk about in a few minutes. Um, and then testing. What are you
006doing? How are you ensuring that what you're doing within the school is working? Are you are you monitoring what's happening with the students, with the teachers within the community, however you're using those title four funds to support the staff and students in that building. And then also just doing a selfch check and we will be talking about a selfch check items for that uh districts may look at to ensure that they're meeting compliance. And then also what are the requirements? How are you going to ensure that the title 4 program and activities that you're doing can withstand the load? And so we're going to be looking at the requirements as well as funding. And so the statutory pillars are going to be those three content areas that are a part of title 4 part A.
007And so the program intent and purposes is to ensure that you're supporting well-rounded education. still safe and healthy students as well as the effective use of technology. And I will talk a little bit about all three of those as we go through this presentation today. But the first before you ever get started um with at looking at how you're going to spend the funds, you must first look at what are the prioritization of services for Title 4. Title 4 has a requirement that LEAs must prioritize the distribution of the Title 4 funds first to those schools of greatest needs and then those schools that have the highest percentage or number of students from lowincome families. You're also going to look at any schools that are identified for comprehensive support and improvement under title one part
008A. And then you're also looking at the targeted support implementation. Any districts or any school campuses within the district that needs that has an improvement plan under title one part A. And then you're also must look at persistently dangerous public elementary or secondary schools. If you have any of these um scenarios within your district boundaries, you must ensure that you are prioritizing the title 4 funds to those areas first and then you can use the title four funds for other programs and activities. And so one of the things that I want to um showcase today is it's just a poll where you're going to do a thumbs up and you should be able to see those reactions. It's a reaction at the bottom where you can do a thumbs up for yes if this represents
009you um or uh or not respond. And so the first question is excluding this session which resources and or activities have you used this year and so there is a list um that I'm going to share. So the first thing is be excluding this session how many of you have attended a tea title 4 part a virtual training session and you could just do a thumbs up. I see the thumbs coming up. Thank you. And or have you done any on-site training? Uh whether that be at ASIT, GCA or uh TEA providing assistance at uh an ESC or regional uh assistance that is done by TEA. It's great to see so many thumbs up. And then we have a wealth of resources on our title 4A um web page. How many of you have went
010to our web page to look at the resources we have and have used those resources? I am glad to see that you are using some of the resources that are provided to you. We also have a program guide and that details uh specific requirements of title 4 as well as other items um that are required for title 4. And then there is a use of funds criteria. How many knew that that was out there and have used it? The number one question I get all the time is, can I use my Title 4 funds for this? The use of funds criteria is a great way to look at what you're asking for and see if yes, you do you can use your title 4 funds after you follow um the use of funds criteria or
011no, it would be supplanting. And then there is the frequently asked question that is our largest document. How many of you have seen that document, used that document before? It is all of the frequently asked questions that I receive directly from you, uh, from ESC's, from districts, from private schools, from the public. I try and put as many frequently asked questions there and that will be updated this summer. So, um, the current one right now is September 2025, and there definitely will be one um that will come out this summer that will have a lot more FAQs regarding title 4. And then our title ES14 is our title 4 part A capacity building state initiative. You um were able to meet some of them this morning. How many of you have been on ESC14's Title
0124 website? If you have not, you are missing out. They have lots of resources there, lots of uh documents and tools where you don't have to reinvent the wheel. As a district, as an ESC, you can use tools that are there. How many of you have attended any of their virtual training sessions? They have had training sessions virtually through ASIT through through ASIT. They have them through um other virtual means they have uh put on um virtual trainings and then they also have on-site trainings. How many of you have attended any of the ESC14 on-site training sessions? whether it be in your at your ESC, they came to provide some training the district. Um, and I see some thumbs down. So, thank you for being honest. And I see a little fruit going on. So,
013there are plenty of trainings that they have as well as your local ESC. How many of you have attended your local ESC either virtually or on site? They have a wealth of knowledge. So, if you have not been attending any of the ESC virtual or on-site trainings, you are missing out. I can tell you it is proven that those who attend the TEA trainings, the ESC14 trainings and their ESC virtual or on-site trainings. When it comes to monitoring uh program monitoring sessions uh uh selection, most of the time those that have attended those uh sessions, they have uh been able to meet compliance. And then uh maybe you're brand new, maybe you didn't know any of these resources existed. If you have not attended any of these, do a thumbs up. It's okay. It's anonymous.
014I don't even know who's doing the thumbs up, but I do want to say that um I know we have a lot of new Title 4 uh staff. We have new private schools that are using Title 4 equitable services for the first time. And so you may not have had a chance to visit any of these resources. And then if your boss made you attend this session, you have no idea why you're here. And you don't even know what I'm talking about. This is your first time to a title four meeting and you're just wondering why am I sitting here? What am I supposed to learn? That is you be honest and say my boss made me do it. I'm okay with that. My boss made me do this session but I am happy to
015be here with you today. Okay. So now it's time to type and I'm going to have you type in the Q&A. I want you to share at least one of the district's programs or activities that when implemented made a positive student or staff impact. You can keep it short. You can abbreviate as long as we can understand just some short um program or activity that you know made a difference in your school. And uh if you don't know of any or maybe you're new to this area, this could give you some ideas. So you can type that in the Q&A uh box and that way that uh everyone that's on here can see what has worked uh for some other districts. Um I see some coming in now. SEAL staff and curriculum. That is true.
016Make sure to put it in the Q&A and not in the chat feature. Avit steam. Steam is a huge one that is making a lot of progress across the state. There are a lot of steam uh resources and tools uh as well. SEAL program I see that used a lot in Texas districts. It has worked wonders. College Academy. That's a great one. I don't see that one uh very often. Uh pre PMP schools implementing character development curriculum and going above and beyond what is required. That's one of the things to remember with title 4, and we'll talk a little bit about that later, is that you have to supplement what uh you're doing if it is a state requirement. mental health support. That is a big one that we need and everyone knows that when
017students have that mental health support, those counselors, those social workers, that is wonderful. Dyslexia specialists and so I'm seeing some great responses. Middle school robotics, robotics, we have Texas schools that are winning by leaps and bounds. and then staff to support most of the campuses. That's important because if you don't have staff support, then it's going to be very difficult uh to be able to do that. Musical instruments. Um that's another great one. And it all depends on how it is set up. If it's above and beyond uh what the school provides, then that's how you know it's can be supplemental. It depends on what your comprehensive needs assessment says, what your stakeholders uh the input from stakeholders and also it depends on what your um school district policy is. And so you have to
018look at a lot of things before you make a decision on how your district can use funds. And so you see a lot of these here. They may not all be allowable within your school depending upon your district policy, depending upon what you're already doing, what your school already requires. You have to make sure it's supplemental um and that it's meeting that use of funds criteria. That's the best way to know if how you're purchasing um items, programs, activities are allowable. use that use of funds criteria, meet with your local ESC, and make sure that you are doing those things because it's not a one one set fits all. Uh there's not a strict yes and no answer for all of the different allowable activities. And so now I'm going to start going through the
019title for uh part A, the program compliance and selfch checks. And so this is another way to check and look at documents to see is this something that would be allowable for our district or not. And so the first thing is the PR3107 is the title 4 part A compliance report. And so with that compliance report there are program compliance items and selfch check items. And so the purpose of the compliance report and the selfch check items report is to document your overall compliance for title 4 part A. A lot of the items are not specific um where not all requirements are listed in the compliance report. The compliance report is a snapshot of some of the items that we are looking at for program monitoring validation or that we put on the compliance report
020for districts to do a selfch check in order to know all of the compliance items under title 4. That's when you look at our program guide, you look at the statute and other resources that are on our uh web page. And then the compliance is items, as I stated, they're just a selection of some of those things. You can also look at the ESA program specific and provision and asurances as well as the program compliance requirements that is connected to is a supplemental document to the district's consolidated grant application. So, if you look at the title 4 program compliance requirements within your uh grant application program guidelines that will tell you every single item that is required for title 4. And so this is just a snapshot of our consolidated compliance report. And uh for
021the title 4 section, it just gives you some basics. And the compliance report for those that are new, it is what you complete when you are when you are at the end of the grant cycle. It's what you did. Um the application is what you plan to do. And then the compliance report is what you uh actually did. And so I'm going to walk through the program compliance selfch check guide. And I shared a little bit about it earlier. And so in the current compliance report selfch check guide that is posted, there are three compliance items that we list on there um that w that we walk through. It's consultation, program description, and the evaluation of program effectiveness. Those are the items that we actually are referring to that are in the compliance selfch check
022uh item um document. And so if you look through that document, and I do have this linked in your PowerPoint presentation, the 2526 guide and beyond, it's also on our web page. First, you have consultation of stakeholders input. And so for that compliance item, it states that the LEA is engaged in timely and meaningful consultation with those required stakeholders. that is a requirement if you are keeping your title 4 funds. And what we also list within this guide to help districts is we list some of the strongest documentation that would be recommended to meet compliance. And so that's going to be looking at your documentation which I stated in the beginning that is so important. That is going to be your dated agendas and meeting notes, your list of stakeholders, uh how you received um
023input, feedback, suggestions from those list of stakeholders as well as their sign-in sheets of the stakeholders with their identified roles. One of the things that we find a lot of times is when we're doing a monitoring review that we do not see that the district has actually identified the roles of those stakeholders. And so that's very important. And so the first part of our compliance report that I wanted to share is are you using title 4 to uh utilize the funding transferability option? And what that is is where you are using some or all of the title 4 funds to be transferred into another program or you're using the REAp rural education achievement program to do the same. Use anywhere from 1% to 100% to transfer or reap into another fund. And so on your
024compliance report, this is where you're going to show that if you are transferring or reaping uh any of the Title 4 funds into another program. And then you also this is the specific reap um section where you're going to indicate the percentage that is being put into another program and then uh the amount that's going into another program and then the program selfch check which I had mentioned earlier uh like this first one about the timely meaningful consultation it starts with part three of that document. And then uh number two, we're looking at the description of programs and activities in the compliance document. And so all of the districts must have a description that is a detailed description of how they're using the Title 4 funds uh to ensure that they're meeting the intent and
025purposes of the program. And so we list the strongest documentation recommended would be looking at any auditable docu uh document. It could be your district improvement plan or campus improvement plan if it's only um directed to a specific campus or grade level and you have those pages to support what you're doing. If you are not in compliance, you need to assure that you document that and just select B. Say you're not in compliance and you can provide the reason there. Maybe you ended up with all new staff in the middle of the school year or at the end of the school year and so you were not able to collect or have that documentation. Be honest. just put it there and we can see why you do not have the documentation available. And then the
026third uh compliance item that is on the compliance report is that the LEA periodically evaluated the effectiveness of the program. you don't know how you use the programs at all and um you don't know um I let me start over. We need to know how do you know those programs were working? How do you know that it was helpful? If it's not helpful, then you need to be sure to know that early. And so we highly recommend do not wait the three years in order to know if the program is effective or not. Make sure that you're looking at that program before um the three-year mark, which is the statutory requirement. But make sure you're looking at that program to make sure that it is working and you're using those Title 4 funds effectively. And
027then there is a section for uh any additional information that you may want to share. It is optional. That is the walk of the compliance report. And I know that uh there are some questions that are being put in the uh in the Q&A and I will get to those. And so one of the questions uh before I go any further um I just want to say that there were a lot of questions about musical instruments. Um, and as I stated earlier, it really depends on your particular district. Is it supplemental? Um, what does your district policy say? What are the priorities for your title 4 funds? What were the what was the stakeholder input? Looking at what your comprehensive needs assessment is for the district. Your needs assessment may not be musical instruments. you
028may have greater needs that are going on within your district and need to focus on those things. And so it really depends on the district and the school. So even though you see some of those items that are listed, it is listed uh due to what is needed in their district, how they can use them. Anything that you use title 4 funds uh for must be supplemental and it is a it is also um needs to keep inventory. It is for the district. And so for example, if you're talking about instruments, those instruments do not belong to the student. They belong to the school. Okay? And so I'm going to go on. I know that was a big question in in the Q&A, so I wanted to make sure that I um had that uh
029address that question. And so for the description of programs and activities, um there was a question about, you know, how detailed does it need to be for the description? it. And so if you have like a sentence in the district improvement plan, that is not going to be sufficient. We when you submit any um documents for program monitoring validation, you need to be sure that you have a detailed description. And so you can have, you know, a a shorter sentence in your DIP plan or in your CIP plan. What are you doing with the funds? That is the description. How are you using your Title 4 funds for programs and activities? And how you're using them should be more than a sentence. And so it could be that you're keeping that documented through the uh
030official stakeholder meeting notes. uh maybe you're keeping that on uh for um more detail within your district files. Just ensuring that you have enough that is documented about what you're doing. So for example, don't put we're doing the SEAL program. That's not sufficient. You may put that in your DIP, but you need to have additional information explaining that how you're using that. Okay. And then for the evaluation of program effectiveness again you're how effective is that program? And so I wanted to share what happens when we look at those um when you report on that selfch check program requirement for title 4. We're always asked okay what happens when we report on that? If you're in compliance, we are looking at you're going to be able to uh provide and assure that you have documentation
031that is meeting the compliance item readily available upon request. You might have other documents that are not listed as the strongest documentation um that that provides the examples within the document. you may have something else that would be helpful during an audit uh by auditing staff or by TEA staff and the fiscal agent must ensure that they also have this documentation for incompliance. If you're not in compliance, that means you don't have any documentation to support that particular item. And so you need to mark it as such and then make sure that you provide a reason. As I stated earlier, there has to be a reason why you did not meet the compliance um area. And so being able to provide that uh within the compliance report because everyone that's receiving Title 4 funds uh
032and using those funds will need to complete that compliance report and self-report. Okay. One of the documents that we will be uh I will be sharing today is just a draft a draft screenshots of our program monitoring validations protocol. It is a brand new document that we're working on. We have it in draft version so it is not shared on our web page yet but once it becomes public and final you if you're a part of our um pea correspondence where you receive the taa letters you receive uh announcements from grants administration or federal program compliance my division you will be able to see what those um when it becomes available. And so one of the things that I would like for you to put in the Q&A section is to type in your opinion,
033what is one of the top reasons an LEA would not meet our Title 4 Part A program monitoring validation requirements? And if you're new, you might not know the answer to this question, but you can speculate. If we are asking a district for documents uh to meet compliance, what do you feel are one of the top reasons that a district may not meet compliance? And so I'll have you put that put your suggestions in the Q&A. Stakeholder participation, that is number one. uh ensuring that you have all the stakeholders covered and if they're not um if you don't receive any stakeholder feedback, you're saying why. And if there are stakeholders that are not within your district boundaries that you also have that documented as well. A lot of people are saying that not having proper
034documentation of meetings that is another one. We can't say you can't say you had a meeting but there's no evidence. There's no agenda. There's no meeting notes. Those are two things that are required. There's no uh list of participants. Who participated in the meeting? And what roles did they represent regarding the stakeholder? Were they a parent? Were they a teacher? Was it a student? and lack of documentation of consultation with all of the required stakeholders, you would not meet compliance. So, thank you for those that were adding information in there. Evaluation, having evaluation is another one. And so, here you can see some of the most common areas that um that I have found when it comes to reviewing program monitoring validations. I have had districts that just copy and paste what the requirement is.
035And so if it says, you know, you need to have the um effective evaluation evaluation of effectiveness, then they copy evaluation effectiveness. That's the only thing that they submit. That is not going to meet the requirement. Not documenting the documenting the program name and the school year. That's another area that is so easy to ensure that you always have the program name on agendas, meeting notes, on evaluations. You have the school year or dates. You also have dates on when you met with consulta with stakeholders. You had consultation with them. You are documenting it with dates with their roles and ensuring that you're aligned to the title four content areas. well-rounded education, sea, safe and healthy students, and the effective use of technology. Submitting agendas that are not aligned to uh the meeting notes at
036all. Submitting title one stuff instead of submitting title 4 documentation or incomplete documentation. All those are reasons. And so this is what uh this is a draft. I know this is small, but this is a draft of the program monitoring validations protocol for title 4. Um, this is the way it will be set up. We'll have um what the requirements are. We'll have the documents documentation requested in there. And this is what's going to help districts to selfassess because it should not matter if you're under a program monitoring validation, a fiscal review, a program review. You need to ensure that you have all title 4 part A requirements documented and available. And so making sure that you have that information. And so uh here you can see and um what will be coming in the
037final version. These are the areas in which this protocol this document will touch on and give some information on a description uh programs evaluation needs assessment prioritization of funds and stakeholder consultation. And we will also refer you in this guide to the title 4 part A program guide. That program guide will be updated this summer as well. And then we also refer you to the compliance report resources. All of these are items that will help you to stay in compliance. And so this is a snapshot of the very first requirement that we have listed which is the description of programs. So as you can see it is m it is parallel to the compliance report but we are giving a little bit more uh description in this protocol document. It will include all programs, title
038programs, um that are under the federal program compliance division. And we will have what the asurances are, what the compliance selfch check item is for, uh in this example, the description of title 4 programs. It's saying, you know, to support the program objectives and intended outcomes related to the three content areas. And so it will give you the information to selfassess. We will have what the compliance questions are and the requested documentation will be listed and we'll also have what year of documentation are we requesting. Our past few years we've always looked at compliance documents that are from the previous year. So that means you should have already com had all the documentation available because it was done in the previous year and then you were able to produce the documentation. And so if you
039have never been uh never had a program monitoring um validation, look at these documents. Be prepared before you are requested to submit documentation. So if you can keep up with this annually, uh make sure that you have dated documentation each year, then you're able to have that information readily available. And so now I want to share just some of the common um requirements that I PMV requirements that are not met in consultation with stakeholders in the evaluation of program effectiveness. And so right now um I'm not going to ask you to put this in the chat. I'm just going to ask you to just make a mental note. Write it down. I'm going to give you 30 seconds to write down in your own on your desk how many stakeholders can you name within 30
040seconds. Take that time right now to start writing that down. You have 10 seconds. Okay. Now, I'm just curious. I'm going to ask you to do a thumbs up. How many of you could write at least two stakeholders down? I know some of you are new and you may not know that stakeholder list. How many could do four stakeholders? Okay. How many could do six stakeholders? And this is from memory. This isn't looking at your slides in advance. Six. That's good. Okay. Eight stakeholders. We have a few. Well, thank you. That is a great mental exercise for remembering the stakeholders. Here are the stakeholders. And there are 11 stakeholder groups that are required for LEAs to consult with before they make any decisions whether it's decisions for musical instruments for STEM for um for uh
041anything related to college prep. These are the stakeholders that TEA requires uh for title 4, not TEA, but title 4 requires. This is a statutory requirement. It's not a TEA requirement. And so if some of these are not within your boundaries on documentation every year that is dated, you need to state we do not have the stakeholders located within our boundaries. The best way that I have seen districts to document in their program monitoring validation um request documents is they have a signin sheet where it lists off to the side if that person sign here if you're a parent, you're a student, your local government, what your role is. So then the name is connected to the role and so you need to ensure that if you do not have Indian tribes within your districts,
042there's only three or four or three districts that have Indian tribes. So the majority of you are not going to have Indian tribes. And so if that is the case on all of your documentation for stakeholders, you need to ensure that you write does not reside within our boundaries. If you do not have charter schools that are in district charter schools that work with the district, if you do not have them, then you need to document do not have charter in district charter schools. So you need to have that information there so that when you are audited or if there's a program monitoring validation, you not only have the stakeholders that are within your district boundaries, but you also have a list of those that are not within your district boundaries. And so you need
043to ensure that you are keeping up with all of them. Okay. And so when it comes to uh for example, a lot of times a district will say, "Well, we're having our uh district-wide meetings and we don't want to have students and parents sitting there um as we're discussing some of the district items that may be confidential. You don't have to have everyone in the same meeting. you can have um a survey that goes out and on that survey electronic survey so it's easy to gather the it's easy to gather the results you can have it listed at the top what role do you identify as you can identify as a parent a student maybe you're a local government official um you're a you're a a teacher a principal, a community- based organization. If you
044have a survey that is going to gather information and the role is selected at the top, that's going to gather information about Title 4 programs and services and how you should actually um use and and being able to use those ideas. You can use a survey You can use walk into the basketball game, a basketball practice, walk into the PE class, walk into student council, get some input. So, you don't always have to have 100% K12 uh students responding to a survey. So, use some unique ways. When parents are coming in for something else, have them complete a survey or talk to them about Title 4 Part A, what you're planning to do. combine meetings. You don't have to have a separate meeting for for everything. For a local government, that could be uh your
045schoolboard person. So, everyone has a school board, it could be your schoolboard staff that is attending. Do you have uh for community- based organizations, do you have a YMCA? Do you have a Boys and Girls Club? You know, what do you have within your community? If you don't have any, then make sure you document that. Okay? Charter schools must be within the boundaries of the district. They must be in district charters that are working with the district. If they are their own entity with their own funds, they will not be a representative of your stakeholder group. And so you just need to say that. And so not all charter schools are going to be involved uh in your district if they have their own funding source and they're doing their own they have their own
046charter school that's set up where they're having their own uh funding for that uh charter school. Okay, I see a question that I just want to um address real quickly. Charter schools do not have equitable service requirements for private schools. Okay, I'm going to go on and there are, you know, one of the ways that you can see which stakeholders are required in all the programs. We do have a meeting uh planner for that and it is I will have um the ESC14 staff put a link um so that you can see in our chat they'll respond in the chat to everyone so that you can see where you can look for a side by side of the stakeholders for title one title two title four and so there is a side by side in
047the toolkit for local government stakeholders. It could also be the police department. Um, it could be someone from the police department. It could be someone from the court system. It could be a child advocacy group. It could be a juvenile court representative. And so, it could be the sheriff. So, it could be a lot of different um government officials. And I do expand on that greatly in the program guide. And in the FAQ that gives examples of each of these some of these stakeholders that have more than one area, more than one uh role that can use them. And so um there is a sidebyside stakeholders that has been posted um in the chat. You can click to save that uh document. Okay. Uh program compliance. uh getting back to this is where the uh
048consultation with stakeholders are. So it's like I'm trying to show you the we don't ask for this you know just because it's a statutory requirement requirement and so it's in the uh title 4 compliance report and then uh the other piece we're going to move from stakeholders to the evaluation of program effectiveness. And so in order to evaluate the program, um, some of the strongest documentation, as I stated before, is looking at what the evaluation process is, how you're going to evaluate the program or activity, and then what are the program objectives and outcomes. That is something that the district must have a documented every year so that they would be able to answer that question in the in the um in the case of an audit or a monitoring visit. And so this is
049how you're doing that. you're annually submitting the data in the work app regarding how funds are being used to meet the distribution requirements for um title 4 part A work app if you're keeping any of your funds. You're also evaluating it to support the programs and objectives uh and intended outcomes. And then how would those expenditures be evaluated? How are they going to measure a positive impact on student achievement? And I asked you earlier that question and people put things in um in the Q&A feature that talked about the um what they're doing that has made a positive impact on students in their area. And so program effectiveness, it's measuring that impact. So it's going beyond just an attendance role. It's measured by quality interactions, getting that feedback from the stakeholders and shared decision making.
050Because a lot of times I'll see that the way they're going to measure this is by attendance. Attendance alone is not a measurement. What kind of feedback are you getting? Are you using smart goals uh for tracking the data and seeing how it impacts the the school systems programs and activities? And so that is what we mean when we're looking at the program effectiveness. How are you measuring that impact? And so as we go from blueprint to inspection, I want to share a lot of the documents that we already have available to you that will answer all of the questions that you're asking uh during this session. And um I will get to a lot of those questions at the end in case I don't. We do have tools and resources to help you along
051with the ESC staff that are within your region. We have the program guide, the frequently asked questions. Both of those documents will be updated this summer. Uh so you'll be able to have more information to help as you prepare for the next school year. We have the uh program compliance selfch check guide that I just walked through. uh the program monitoring validations protocol. That's the draft that will be coming out in final copy and you'll be able to use that to selfch check. And then we there's also lots of resources and tools on our uh region 14's uh title 4 capacity building initiative website. So all of those are tools that help you as you walk through the programs being a new person working with title 4 or if you need to um refresh some
052of your ideas, refresh your memory on some of the things that are required, we have tools available for you. And then those examples that go from the guidance that is required into your day-to-day evidence for schools is including those stakeholders routinely documenting it. Everything must be in writing because if you don't have it in writing, it doesn't count. Just think about uh the Internal Revenue Service. If you don't have something documented in writing, you can say, "I did this with my taxes, but if you don't have the taxes and the documents to support it, you did nothing." So, you make sure that everything is documented. the agenda that includes topics uh where you are actually stating title 4 part A on everything that is related to title 4 part A that you have signin sheets
053and surveys that also are documented and labeled as your title 4 signin sheets your title for survey um if you're using a survey that is going to gather data from multiple programs you need to have multiple programs on there on that survey and the dated meeting notes with the program on there. Those are your daytoday evidence uh that you can have uh that is documenting what you're doing for title 4 uh programs and services and then correspondence where you're following up with those stakeholders. You don't just ask them for input and then never go back to them and let them know what you offered, what you did after hearing their information. So, some of the red flag indicators of when districts do not meet the requirements or do not meet the requirements fully, they didn't
054attend the TEA training sessions or review the program monitoring validation materials and videos. Um, we did a survey and that went out for statewide to ask districts, what is it that you need? Give us uh some input, pros and cons. And some of the surveys said we were monitored, but we did not have any materials or videos to look at to help us with program monitoring validations. We have that information available. We post it widely. If you go to the web page, um, that's where you will see a lot of that stuff. If you attend TEA or ESC trainings, they share documents and videos and materials where you have everything you need to ensure that you're in compliance with the Title 4 requirements and law. And then consultation and documentation that doesn't include all stakeholders.
055We talked about this earlier. reusing program D descriptions. So you can't just repeat your program description and your intended outcomes every year that don't even connect to the current needs or evaluations or stakeholder input. There's no connection. It all needs to be connected. You can if you're working on um a specific program objective and you want to ensure for another year, maybe you're using that same objective, you can do that if your stakeholder feedback, your needs assessment, and the evaluations you've done are stating that yes, you should be doing that as well. you know, if you want to continue to improve that uh objective and then don't just rely on the evaluation of effectiveness results every 3 years. Look at it annually. As I stated earlier, all of these red flags can be identified during
056a selfch check before you ever submit any program monitoring validation documents that we request. During that during a selfch check, uh you can see all the ways in which you do not meet the compliance or that you do meet the compliance. And then the number one way to help you is ensuring that you share with the ESC. These are the documents I intend to upload. I want to ensure that it's meeting compliance. Don't send us 100 pages for a description of your Title 4 programs and activities and how it's being used. You may only need a paragraph or a page to talk about the different things you're doing, but I don't need a 100 pages. So, ensuring that you run it by the ESC uh staff member as well. And then also the self-permit to
057self-permit review, pause and reflect on the documentation before the submission. Did you review all of the TEA program monitoring validation materials and videos that are relevant to what you're what you were requested to submit? The videos are very short and to the point for those different sections of what you need to submit. Are the documents being submitted for the year that's requested? Are they labeled? Are they uh specifically aligned to that requirement? I've had documentation that's submitted for a different requirement that the district was not asked for. So that would mean you did not meet the requirement. And no one wants to go into um no one wants to have a follow-up result or outcome that you have to go to the compliance officer simply because you did not have a date on a document
058or you did not have the program name or you you submitted the wrong document. And so making sure that you really look at those documents before you upload them and making sure that you're closing that inspection. Which document meets the intended outcomes are those that need adjusting? How will those results impact the next year's comprehensive needs assessment? And so looking at that to determine how you're going to use funds for the following year and how the results that you receive from the past year will impact your next year's program objectives and um how is it going to impact the students and staff and funding decisions. I'm just going to give a quick overview of the special data collection. it was already submitted. And so here you have um this is what we collected. If you're
059brand new to title 4, this is what we collected every year and a timeline. So the X's show what was not requested for this year. And then we have under that last column, it's showing what was submitted when we when we first started uh with 2023. And so, as you can see, what is still owed, what will still need to be submitted is the final expenditures by service and content area and the OMO's final progress, objectives, and measurable outcomes final uh progress. Those are submitted will be submitted in December uh by December 1 of 2025 and there's a whole uh presentation there's videos there's support under uh on TA side as well as our initi title 4 initiative side to give you more information about that where you can go through a whole training. Okay,
060just think about this. What is the annual due date for the title 4 LEA special data collection? I did give you a snapshot of when it's due and so just thinking about this um you need to be aware of this. What does OMO stand for? Are you aware of your districts? If you're a district um staff attending, are you aware of the Title 4 program objectives and outcomes for this year? If not, you need to find out what they are because you will need to report in uh later this year on that information. And then if a district utilizes 100% REAP or funding transferability of funds, must it complete the special data collection? Thumbs up if you believe the answer is yes. Okay. Some of you uh say that you should um complete the special
061data collection. I'll have answers on the next page. Are expenditures for each content area listed in the grant application or the special data collection work app? If the answer is yes, thumbs up. Are the title 4 expenditures for each content area listed in the grant application or in the title for work app. If you think it's listed in either one of those places, thumbs up. And then the last one, if the district decides to utilize REAp or transferability 100% of their Title 4 funds going into another program, does it complete the special data collection work app to submit expenditures? If yes, thumbs up. Okay, here are your answers to those questions. The annual due date December 1. It opens October 1 through December 1 for your special data collection data. Uh objectives, measurable outcomes. Are
062you aware? Yes or no? If the you the LEA utilizes 100% reap or funding transferability option for title 4, you no longer need to complete the special data collection as of uh this year. In prior years, if you've been doing this for a while, you know that yes, you do have to uh you did have to report it in the past. We have simplified the special data collection so you no longer have to do that if you are reaping or transferring 100%. However, I still want you to use your Title 4 funds for Title 4 activities. And then the question about the expenditures, estimated expenses are recorded in your application for the different content areas. And then the final expenditures, those are actually per content area or listed in the title 4 expenditures work at.
063So that's where the final expenditures will be collected as in the work at. And then if a district decides midyear they haven't used any funds and they decide we want to reap 100%. uh or we want to transfer 100% in the middle of the year because we haven't used any funds and we want to uh move it over to title one part A, you do not need to complete the work app. But if you use $1 of title 4, you must complete the work app. Okay, let's move on to the capacity building initiative. Uh if you were on at the beginning of our session, you did meet our four title uh ESC14 uh capacity building state initiative staff, Dena, Tiffany, John, and Rod Puit. They uh are very helpful in responding to uh questions, emails.
064Again, first try to contact your local ESC, but I wanted to uh highlight their website. It has so much information on it that would be very helpful to you for resources and tools. Okay. And then for region 14, I have some of the documents that is that are great resources uh that I wanted to spotlight for you. And so there is a summary summary diagram about the use of funds guidance. They also have a searchable resource database. And then the one of the most important um presentations that they did was the 88th legislation session. One of the things that you must know as a district person, what does the state require? There are so many state requirements that are related to title 4 programs and activities. And so in order for you to know the
065state requirements, you need to have resources or be able to find them or keep up with everything that's happening in the in the legislature for Texas. Well, there is one uh presentation that highlights what happened during the 88th legislation. And so you'll be able to look at that to see what are the state what were the state school safety and mental health requirements that were made that affect the title 4 federal program. And so everything has to be in addition so that you're not supplanting um any of the title 4 any of the title 4 purchases and requirements. And I'm going to uh have Rod to respond. Go ahead, Rod. >> I'm sorry, Len. We also have uh on our web page the 89th legislative session. We have uh just some basic things that were
066talked about there. We're awaiting a lot of guidance concerning some rules and rulemaking that has occurred for the 89th. And so until those rules are made, we can't give full guidance concerning the 89th, but we do have some information of some overlapping things that are concerned with title 4 in that page as well. So just wanted to let folks know that we have the most current legislative cycle. TEA also, and I'll put it in chat, has a great page of 89th legislative requirements that we'll site you to. Okay. Thank you, Rod. And I I will have Rod uh responding to some questions uh in a few minutes. We're at the end. These are just some resources and support um that you can get from TEA and other uh entities. I want to highlight the work
067app help forms. Um if there are any work app help form, work app help needs. We do have an app. It's specifically for federal programs and compliance. Um the in the title 4 formula grant or any of the other formula grants that are under the FPC um umbrella. This is where you would complete a general work app help form on our uh within the work apps. You would complete that and then whichever staff it's routed to would be able to respond to you if you're having trouble with the work app or anything like that. There's also for the work app techn technology or technical assistance for those of you that have never worked with a work app and you've just been given access you can uh use some of these areas to be able to
068get more assistance. We have a training video about it, how to access the work app system if there are changes in the district. I will say that there are generally only a uh two or three allotted spaces for districts to have work app access. That is determined by your superintendent, not TEA. Generally, it is the superintendent and the federal program uh staff member that's within the district. Generally, those are the ones that have access to the work app. And so, they're the ones that would submit documents to TEA and things like that, but anyone can view the resources that we have. And also, here is a copy of just a sample of what the Title 4 FAQs look like. As I stated, this was in September 2025. I will be updating this. It will be
069available this summer with lots more questions and responses and also updating the program guide. Um, it will be updated this summer as well. There is a new resource that is already posted on our web page. It is the title 4 part A technology infrastructure guidance document. It has been very helpful to uh help districts when they're looking at the infrastructure. There is a 15% limit of the effective use of technology content area that can be spent on infrastructure and it is it really depends. And so there are a lot of state requirements, there are a lot of district requirements, things you must already have in place just being a school district. So you cannot use title for title 4 to um in the area of infrastructure to replace those documents or upgrade them because if
070it is required if it's a part of safety uh that your district should already have in place, you cannot use title 4 funds or the technology infrastructure to um do that either to support that activity. ity. There's a use of funds document. This is the document that I mentioned earlier that walks you through um different scenarios, ensures that you're prioritizing the distribution of funds that um you have consulted with any private nonprofit schools within your district that are participating with Title 4 equitable services. ensuring that activities and our resources are supplemental, they're reasonable, necessary. A lot of times I get questions about a specific item, can we purchase this with title 4? If it's not reasonable and necessary, it might be allowable, but if it's not reasonable and necessary, which is a part of the
071statute's definition, you would not be able to use title 4 funds on that item. So, the answer depends so much on, you know, when it comes to title 4 and using funds. These are all links that you can click on in the document to go directly to it. the uh comprehensive needs assessment toolkit. It has a lot of the resources and tools uh that that I was referring to when I talked about comprehensive needs assessment. Someone asked uh for a list like when I referred to a sign-in sheet. You can find it there. You can find presentations to deliver to your stakeholders. you can find a sample template of how to direct your meeting notes, your agenda. So, we've taken a lot off of your plate as far as having to recreate it, but going
072in using those resources from the needs assessment toolkit and making them your own. Okay, ESC's are there to support you as I've said all the way through this session. And so that gives you some ideas, additional resources, uh program monitoring validations. We have a resource page specifically for it. And then there are some uh US Department of Ed resources that gives you this the law. Um there's the guidance, the non-regulatory guidance. It has Q&A as well. Make sure that you complete the attendance um for this session and if you did not do so in the very beginning, I need you to also complete the evaluation and feedback and that that link is in the chat. So, please do that. I value your input. I'm going to go to some questions. In the meantime, make sure
073that you go into the evaluation um QR code. Make sure you select the correct evaluation title 4 for the the statewide event for April 23rd. So, now I know that was a lot to take in as brand new people. First, I'm going to turn it over to Rod to talk about charter schools. I saw a lot of questions on that. Um, and so I'm going to have Rod address that and then I'll address a few other questions in our last few minutes. Okay, folks. So, um, when we're looking at charter schools in Texas, you got a federal requirement to include your your charter schools as stakeholders. But in Texas, you have five different kinds of charter schools. And so when we're referencing charter schools, we're talking about charter schools that your district manages has fiscal
074responsibility of it that are within your district bounds. So this is not independent charter schools um that get their own fund source um that are you know that way. And so the key to understanding is this is charter schools within your district that your district manages and is fiscally responsible for. That's why you get their stakeholder input for those particular charters is so that they have a say in how they uh are using the funds because they are slightly different as far as the funding and the way they're managed. They're managed within your district but managed slightly differently fiscally. So they're wanting to make sure you're gain their input in particular within your district of ones that you fiscally manage. So that's the clearest way I know to be able to say that and what
075you're looking for. And so that's that stakeholder consultation showing that the administrators there were part of your stakeholder consultation so that they can have a say in how you're going to look at approaching use the use of your title four funds and what your identified needs are. So hopefully that makes that clear. And I know that we're going to put it more in the toolkit um or I mean the FAQ that we're going to try to make additions to that FAQ so that that's clearer there. So >> thank you Rod for explaining that there. We do have very detailed information that will be in the FAQ regarding charter school uh stakeholders that are re the ones that are eligible and required. And then we also have our uh it will also be updated in the
076program guide to know if you're looking at the most recent. What we have posted on our web page is the most recent guidance and we always keep dates on the and versions that are on our web page and so you'll be able to um see the latest the latest one is always uploaded. The ones that I will be updating the current one will stay there until it's updated this summer. Then the new version will take its place. So, we try to do that so we're never keeping an um a pass version on our web page. Okay. I'm looking through the questions uh to see if there are any that were missed. ES14 is answer is typing some of the answers to the questions which is very helpful. If a district, okay, a question, a followup
077to the PMV, program monitoring validation. When a district does not have the information available, what happens? We will send out um we will be sending out the results to those districts that were selected for PMV on May 1st. May 1st any the districts will have um followup on what needs to occur. If if they did not meet the requirement, it will have instructions on what to do next. If you met requirements as a district, then you will receive an email on May 1st that says you met the requirements. If you did not meet the requirements, you will have an email that says you were approaching compliance or you were in need of improvement. And so those districts that are approaching compliance or in need of improvement will have follow-up steps within their specific email. The
078LA the ESC's will be able to help you um with that. So uh you'll be able to you'll be able to um receive help. You'll have 20 days to respond to TEA's um follow-up steps and so you'll need to have all follow-up steps completed by May 21st. I highly recommend that you share with your ESC. They are available and they'll be able to support you. Okay. Is it allowable for uh to purchase a service for all title one campuses using title one funds and use title 4 to purchase the same service for all non-title one campuses since both grants are federal. Please send me that question uh specifically so that I can respond because it really depends. That would be uh send it to essport at tea.t texas.gov because that could be a supplanting issue
079even though it's another federal uh program. So, just make sure you send any questions like that uh directly to our um email address because that would be more specific to the district and what you're doing and we'll be able to respond and include a title one part A would most likely uh would coordinate with me on uh submitting an answer for that. Okay, there's a question. Uh, district chosen for program monitoring validation. The training was done for corrections. LEA still not in compliance. How will we address the next steps? Uh, ES has supported and I did respond to that already. Uh, you will know if you did not meet um the requirement and what the next steps are from TEA. You probably did hear some information from your ESC's, but you will also receive some
080official information from uh TEA when you receive your official final status. Okay. Would an email about the decisions made be sufficient information to be in compliance with follow-up correspondence? Yes. If you are talking about stakeholders, well, first um make sure that you are um having ongoing consultation with those stakeholders. So, it's not let's find out what you know your information what you suggest at the beginning of the school year and then you never have any uh contact with them again. Uh but yes, you can follow up with email or you know newsletter if you have a school newsletter. uh you could put it someplace where it's going to have a date and that you're informing this is what after taking in all of the uh information we gathered from surveys from inerson meetings with our
081stakeholders this is how we decided to use our funds for this school year. So that would be sufficient uh documentation to have for followup to PMV May 1st with uh May 21st response due. Is there time to correct if needed? Also, does this affect risk risk indicators? Okay. Um, if you did not meet the requirement this year, there is no time to correct it. In the past years, we have given uh districts time to send submit documentation to show um you meant to send in title 4 and you sent in title one. And so we'll say, okay, this is title one documents and this is the title four program. we need you to submit title 4. And so you will need to have that information uh when it's requested. If you did not, there's no
082time to correct it. You will have a plan. Additional steps will be followed on May 1st. You will have from May 1st until May 20th to talk to your ESC to get um some support. And in that documentation that we send out from TEA, it will talk about risk factors if it does affect the risk fast risk indicators or not. Okay. I think that I responded to all the questions. Uh there is one about carryover reporting carryover that is done on your application. it is no longer uh requested in the it's no longer requested in the um special data collection. So if your question is regarding special data collection, it is no longer recorded there. You're just recording what you used and there'll be more direction on the special data collection when you have to
083report your final expenditures uh uh this fall. So I hope that answers the question of that. If you have additional questions about that, please send me an email directly and I can help to respond. Thank you for being here. We're at our time. I think we did get to all the questions. Uh, surprisingly that were posted. If we did not get to your question, feel free to send an email to me directly and I can respond to your question and make sure that it was addressed and answered. I appreciate you being here. Please do fill out the um the presentation feedback, the evaluation. Thank you for being here. I'm glad you were here and enjoy the rest of your day.