001yep so today come on there we go today we have a few different objectives first participants will understand the purpose of the APR second participants will understand the applicable reporting period for this APR submission and then the last one participants will understand both how to complete and also how to submit the annual performance report we have some Workshop Norms um please try to remain muted until we have an open Q&A section at the end of this presentation and then I'll just let everybody feel free to unmute ask questions um in the meantime we encourage you to drop your questions in the chat along the way and we will do our best to address as many as we can in time and then we'll Circle back to them during that open Q&A section as well um
002we do have a revised FAQ that's available in the scg locker and we'll make additional revisions as needed if any new questions are surfaced during today's Workshop you already have access to all of these materials um you should have the APR FAQ which has your qualx submission link so when it comes time for you to actually submit the APR you can find that link in the FAQ you also have access to a pdf version of that qualtrix form and then you have a fillable worksheet uh which will be your best friend during this process um this Workshop was from last week so all of those materials are already accessible in your scg locker through the tcss web page okay so we'll quickly talk about what the APR is and then we'll spend some time ensuring
003your success so talking about who and how completes um who completes and how do you complete the APR and then some helpful tips to consider along the way then I'll pull up the FAQ we'll go through some like highlevel um FAQs and then if you have an outstanding question that hasn't been addressed up until that point we'll spend the last portion of this webinar um again just letting you come off mute or drop additional questions in the chat that way you guys um feel successful um as you enter the completion part of the of the APR all right laying the foundation what is the APR so the US Department of Education requires that each state Education Agency submits an annual performance report or APR for each year of the stronger connections Grant cycle um Texas
004as an sea is the one that actually submits the official APR to the US Department of Education but because there are two questions within that APR where we need additional information from our sub grantees which is all of you guys um we're asking you to submit this qual trick survey so that we can compile all of that information and use it to fill out the actual APR so you should not expect anything from usde in your inbox um this comes straight to us we collect that information and share it back up to them um the APR focuses on how stronger connections dollars have been budgeted and how they've been spent both across the sea so what is tea doing with our state level activities money and then what is the 89 plus million um dollars
005where are those being budgeted and spent across our 99 subres the very very important thing to remember is that usde is one year behind when it comes to reporting on the stronger connections Grant so what we submit to them later this spring is actually for July 1st 2023 to June 30th 2024 so when you're compiling what funds have been budgeted and spent it is important to distinguish that it's only dollars budgeted and spent between July 1 2023 and June 30th 2024 I will note um this grant did not even start until November 16th of 2023 usde chooses these reporting periods not us so just be mindful that there's no world in which you should have any funds budgeted or spent between July 1 and November 16th so theoretically you could think of this reporting period
006as November 16 2023 to June 30th 2024 um yeah I'll I'll wait and we'll dive into that a little bit more here in a couple of minutes so usde wants information regarding really just two things one they want to know the funds that were budgeted and expended on Personnel um this on personnel as it relates to nine predetermined categories and then they also want to know the number of personnel that were hired again as it relates to those predetermined categories and then they also want to know funds that were budgeted and funds that were expended on Services supplies and materials supporting those same nine predetermined categories so this is when it's pretty straightforward in your APR fillable worksheet if you have not opened that up up until this point I would definitely suggest going ahead
007and pausing going to the Texas Center for student supports web page getting into that locker and if you scroll down to the bottom you'll have access to all of the APR tools and and resources and the APR fillable worksheet is one of them the categories that you'll see um are as follows so they want to know funds that were budgeted and expended in terms of Personnel in supplies and materials as it relates to school-based Mental Health Providers and programs mentoring or other relationship building activities programs are activities that help prevent bullying and harassment implementation of schoolwide mtss PBIS or other efforts to support a positive School climate programs or activities that address Community violence after school programs for students that support your levers of the student support framework so after school programs that support physical
008health and wellness mental and Behavioral Health and wellbeing student staff safety and supportive discipline school dropout prevention re-entry programs and other efforts to keep students on track professional development or professional learning for educators and School staff again as it aligns and relates to the purposes of stronger connections and then lastly there is an other category um so some examples that they give be sexual abuse awareness prevention programs anti-drug programs I'll go ahead and plug that when you're thinking about direct costs indirect costs travel costs this is a great way to utilize your other category and that FAQ has been updated to reflect that statement okay ensuring success so the next couple of slides we're going to look at a Ono one of screenshots of the fillable worksheet screenshots of what you would find on the
009qualtric survey how they align and talk to each other and so really what we're getting at is please please it is definitely best practice to complete the fillable worksheet prior to completing the qualtrix survey so on the left you'll see a screenshot of the top of the fillable worksheet on the right you'll see a screenshot of the qualtric survey so really in this first section you'll just be identifying your region and District um you'll put your budget point of contact information as well um if you are the stronger connections Grant lead and you are the one filling out this APR that's totally fine um you're welcome to put your information as the point of contact but just know that if we're collecting and compiling all this information at the end and we have a question
010as it relates to what's been in entered we're going to reach out to the point of contact that was left on this form so if you feel like the the person that's best positioned to answer those follow-up questions is your budget point of contact that's why we've indicated that it's that you You' most likely want to put somebody in there um or if you're the scg lead and you consulted your budget person and you feel pretty good about the information you have a Hands-On approach to your budget and you've been part of that process for a while then you're more than welcome to leave your name we just want to put that disclaimer there um that the person who's best positioned to answer follow-up questions that's who we want identified in this form okay so
011when you look at the APR fillable worksheet um the top row is your headings and so you'll see that there are categories and those are those predetermined categories that usde has identified the First Column header is did your a use stronger connections grant funding to hire Personnel for any of these following categories something to be mindful of is that Personnel um is typically hired through 6100 but be mindful about any contracted Personnel that you budgeted in expended funds out of 6,200 um we we want to consider both um so again any Personnel be it firing out of 6100 or 6200 funds would be put here so in this first row you would go yes yes or no straight down for any of the applicable categories in the next column header um same thing only did
012your Lea use SG funding to purchase supplies materials or services for any of the following categories so in the first row you're thinking about 6100 and 6200 Personnel in the second row you're thinking about anything Supply material or service wise which realistically could come from 6200 6300 or 6,400 as well um and then if you had any Capital outlay that would count here as well um again this is yes no so just be thinking okay did we budget did we spend yes no and then you would enter yes no um the second colum or the third fourth column over is um what was budgeted between July 1 20123 and June 30th 2024 again you can ultimately think of that as November 16th um another tidbit here is um noas were not awarded to many of
013our leas until the January February time frame um and many of our leas had local policy that said you could not spend funds um unless a NOA was present so there might be a World um where you're really looking at you know January February is to June 30th of 2024 based on your District policies um but nonetheless again usde determines these reporting periods and then in the last column you're looking at funding that was actually expended between July 1 2023 and June 30th 2024 these last two columns don't have to match um there are many instances where what we budgeted does not actually reflect what we spent um that's where stronger connections has presented a lot of flexibility um and we'll talk a little bit more about the nuances of that later but just know
014that these last two rows or these last two columns what you budgeted and what you spent do not have to match um I'll also say you might have zeros straight down um the 23 24 school year um one not only did noas come out late in January February but that was also a planning phase and so there are many of our leas who have already communic ated that what they budgeted was zero and what they spent was Zero um because they reserved the majority if not all of their funds for the 2425 school year when implementation started on the right side of the screen you'll see what it looks like on qualtrix so you'll see those same headings are in the question um in the A and C portion of the question so yes or
015no did your Lea use CG funding to hire Personnel yes or no did your Lea use FG funding to purchase supplies materials or services and CN D what was budgeted what was spent you'll notice that while the APR fillable worksheet everything is in one table in the qualtrix form we go one category at a time so question Q8 A1 we are looking specifically at school-based Mental Health Services and so that's what you'll see here so row two of the fillable work worksheet you have school-based mental health service providers so you'll go in and say yes no on Personnel yes no on Supply services and materials if the answer was yes on one or more of those categories if it was yes on personnel and or yes on Supply services and materials then in that third
016box you'll indicate the funds that were budgeted and the fourth box you'll indicate the funds that were actually spent again as it relates to this reporting period only and then this is what matches up to this question question 8 A1 and then you'll just go you'll work your way down so Q8 A2 is all about mentoring or other relationship building activities did your Lea hire Personnel did your Lea purchase supplies materials or services as it relates to mentoring and other relationship building activities yes no if the answer was yes to either one or both then you'll put what was budgeted what was spent during the reporting period and this aligns with the second question on your qualtric survey again um these two columns don't have to match what you budgeted might be different from what
017you spent they might be a zero that's fine okay one thing to point out is in your fillable worksheet Q8 A4 and A5 are grade out that's because while there might be other state Ed education agencies who allow these types of um activities to be purchased with stronger connections Grant funds in Texas our state specific program guidelines do not allow purchases that relate to these two categories therefore they're not applicable and we just wanted to point that out because when you get to your qualtric survey it will ask you Q8 A1 2 and three and then all of a sudden you'll get to a question that says Q8 a six we just wanted you to be mindful that that was a purposeful skip over for these four and five categories because they don't relate to
018our grant program okay um the second table that's in your fillable worksheet is asking information about the number of personnel that were hired so in this blue box on the left hand side you'll see a list of predeter predetermined categories in the blue box on the right hand side you'll see in the qualtrix question the same list of those predetermined categories the red box on the left hand side on your fillable worksheet this is where um you will indicate how many um positions were hired oops um um using again 6100 or 6200 funds in each of the following categories and that translates directly to the question that's asked on the actual qualtrix form so if you did hire credentialed school-based Mental Health Service Providers then you would indicate how many um in this instance we
019ask that you round to the nearest half FTE and we also ask that you determine best fit so if you hired a credentialed school-based mental health service provider who also um worked as a community school coordinator providing wraparound supports which you'll see is listed down here under q9f even if it's an even split you would not put half of that one person in q9a and half of that one person in q9f just determine the best fit of the individual so even if you find that your person can fall into multiple categories just choose one and that is where you will report that individual across the rest of this grant program um same goes for um a half FTE um if I hired a counselor that comes in Tuesdays Thursdays and Fridays I will put their
0200 five position in one of these boxes the one that makes the most sense to the district I won't put 0.25 here and 0.25 in another box and then again just like in that first reporting table where we're looking at budgeted and expended funds when you get to this Personnel table um q9e is grade out again this is just something that was not applicable with stronger connections Grant funds so when you get to the qualtrix question um this one in qualtrix I'll go back you'll see one reporting table so whereas with the last fillable table we went question by question this one is all in one spot so when you get to this question you'll notice it goes q9 A B C D and then it skips over e that's not an error on our
021qualtric Forum that's just because q9e is not applicable to our grant program okay so I'm going to in just a moment pull up the FAQ and go over some high level FAQs um and then feel free during this time to continue to drop your questions in the chat um I'll let you know when we can come off mute and just ask them if that's actually this is a pretty small group so um you're you're more than welcome to to come off mute and ask a question um I will say if you feel like you're in a really great spot um and you feel set with the materials that you've received the FAQ that's already available um you're more than welcome to let