001Welcome. Today I will provide a brief training for the title 4 part A subp part one school system evaluation of title 4 part A program effectiveness. This presentation is intended solely to provide general information and guidance to Texas school systems, education service centers, nonprofit subgrantees, and participating private schools receiving equitable services. The content in this presentation reflects the Texas education agency's current understanding of statute and applicable federal guidance. The content of this presentation is subject to change as a result of future guidance and/or other updates provided by federal agencies within regulatory oversight of these programs. This presentation does not constitute legal advice and entities are therefore advised to seek legal counsel regarding the information and guidance provided in this presentation before acting upon the information provided. Artificial intelligence disclaimer recording or use of artificial intelligence.
002The Texas Education Agency or TEA does not permit thirdparty recording or the use of artificial intelligence AI summary services during its grants related trainings. Attendees of the TEA's grants related trainings may not use AI services, language models, applications, interfaces, or assistance to attend, review, or record the trainings. TEA further prohibits any person or entity from using the information included in its grants related trainings to train AI technologies. Any attendees of TEA's grant related trainings who violate this prohibition may be removed from the trainings and may be barred from attending future grants related trainings. Please note that documentation for viral meetings is an acceptable form of documentation given the increased of virtual meeting environments. Participant rosters that include the meeting title, meeting date, and stakeholder names and roles would be acceptable substitutes for the more traditional
003signin sheets. This eliminates the need of a participant signature. Documentation requested. Take note of these items. Documenting overall compliance for a program requirement may require several forms of documentation to be maintained locally and available upon request by TEA andor an auditor to ensure overall compliance with program requirements. School systems should refer to the program guide and/or other program related resources that reference the multiple forms of documentation required to be maintained locally. The documentation requested for submission during the validation process may not include all forms of documentation that are required to be maintained locally. I want to share a brief reminder on the title 4 part A programs intent and purpose. The program intent and purpose is to provide all students with access to a well-rounded education to improve school conditions for a safe and healthy
004student learning environment and to improve technology for the enhancement of academic outcomes and digital literacy of all students. The program monitoring validation items are aligned with the title 4 part A program intent and purpose. The ESA statutory requirement for the evaluation of program effectiveness may be found in section 4106. In that section, it states that a description of the activities and programming that the local education agency or consortium of such agencies will carry out. The subp part includes a description of the program objectives and intended outcomes for activities under this part and how the LEA or consortium of such agencies will periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the activities. And so I wanted to share how it is connected with our program monitoring validation through the statute requirement. And for the asurances related to having an
005evaluation of program effectiveness, the asurances state that the school system will maintain a description of the activities and programs that it will carry out and it includes a description of the program objectives and intended outcomes or sometimes we call it OOS for those activities under the title 4 program. and also how the school system will periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the activities. And so for evaluation of the activities by statute, it is only required that a school system have an evaluation that is newly created at least once every 3 years. And so if you have an evaluation that has been used in the within those past 3 years, then that would be acceptable. If it has been longer than 3 years since you have had an evaluation created or updated, the school system would need
006to update an evaluation for program effectiveness. Documentation that's required includes the description of the title 4 part A program objectives and intended outcomes. And in order to meet the requirement, the school system must have at least relevant pages of its district improvement plan, campus improvement plan, or any other official auditable documentation that actually describes the school systems title 4 part A program objectives and intended measurable outcomes. That is one of the requirements for the evaluation of program effectiveness program monitoring validation. The second requirement that we would collect documentation for is a description of the process that's being used to periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the title 4 part A funded programs and activities. And again, the acceptable documentation could be the relevant pages of the school systems DIP, CIP, or other documentation. In this piece
007of documentation, the school system must be able to state how it will use the results to periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the program that they have ongoing. And again, if an evaluation has not been revised or updated or created within the last 3 years, it is a requirement that the school system has an evaluation that is included or updated every year or every 3 years by statute. However, TEA does recommend that a school system will have a review of its data annually and an evaluation of that data to see if there still needs to be um funds dedicated for specific programs and activities or if there are other areas in which the school system may use those fundings for other programs and activities. This slide provides a snapshot of some common issues that could result
008in an improvement needed status for the school system. A few common mistakes that a school system uh should ensure it does not make when submitting documentation are that the auditable documentation requested was not submitted in the applicable year that it was asked. A lot of times we receive documentation that is not even in the year that we're requesting the documentation for. So, ensure that you're looking at the program monitoring validation handbooks, that you are clear on what year of documentation is necessary to include and that your documentation has in detail describe the results, how those results were used and to evaluate the title 4 part A programs and activities. It must also ensure that it includes those program monitoring requirements that were requested. So make sure you don't submit things that are not requested. Only
009submit those things that TEA is asking for. And you do that by reviewing the handbook, reviewing the specific areas for the program monitoring validation so that you can ensure that you're only providing the information requested and from the year in which it was requested. and TEA highly suggests that you would share your documentation with your local ESC education service center to review prior to uploading it for TEA. A lot of times by sharing that information with your uh ESC staff member, they can review it and they can help to prevent a school system from sending in the wrong information or not enough information or too much information. So, it's very important to allow the ESC to review that material before you submit it. Now I'd like to share a few examples of resources and support.
010Our program monitoring validations process online resources. For example, there are uh program monitoring validation process handbooks, instructions for how to submit documentation through the work app. There's a training video and there's also the training slides for this particular training. Program specific resources are available under the guidance documents for each program and requirement as well as those videos and training slides that are program specific. And you may see all of the pro all of the program resources are available by clicking on the ESA program monitoring validations webpage link at the bottom of this presentation. Here are a few of the resources that you may find on the Federal Program Compliance Division's program monitoring validations web page under the Title 4 Part Auation Requirement. You will find a guidance document that tells you exactly what is required
011to meet compliance for this particular requirement. You also can find training slides for this presentation as well as a training video. School systems may also receive support from their local education service center um as a complimentary technical assistance and training service. You may find the ESC contacts for each regional center on the TEA Title 4 Part A web page. Thank you for attending this virtual training session. If you have questions, please let me know. Have a wonderful day.