Reporting for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grants must be completed by all recipients of ARRA Grant funds whether the funds were received from the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) or direct from the Federal government.  ARRA reporting for school districts (LEAs, ISDs, or PSAs) will four basic forms: program reporting, Section 1512 reporting, final expenditure reporting, and reporting in the Financial Information Database (FID). 

Program reporting is the traditional grant program reporting normally completed in MEGS. This reporting is usually done on an annual basis and will be managed by the various MDE program offices. The office that awarded the grant will be the contact for grant program reporting.

Section 1512 reporting is specific to all ARRA programs that distribute funds. This reporting is part of the increased transparency and reporting that is part of the ARRA.  Section 1512 reporting will be completed quarterly by all recipients of ARRA funds.  LEAs/ISDs/PSAs that have received funds will use MEGS to update information on a quarterly basis for each grant award. This reporting requires that each recipient have a DUNS number entered in the Education Entity Master (EEM). The Section 1512 reporting will also require quarterly updates on the number of jobs created or retained, a description of the jobs, and information on all vendor contracts. In additional districts receiving Education Stabilization or IDEA grants will have to report on infrastructure expenditures.    

Final Expenditure reporting will be done using the Cash Management System and will follow the traditional means of reporting federal grant expenditures at the end of the grant period. Districts will be able to report expenditures at the end of the grant period or when funds are 100% expended. 

ARRA grants will also be included in the annual Financial Information Database (FID) report. The actual FID reporting requirements related to ARRA have not been totally resolved. However it appears that in order to comply with the recently released ARRA reporting requirements, districts will be required to utilize the State Code dimension of the accounting structure when reporting to the 2009-10 Financial Information Database due November 15, 2010. Standard “State Codes” are available in the Michigan Public School Accounting Manual, Appendix, Pages 49-58. The URL is:
http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-6530_6605-21321--,00.html

MDE will be working to resolve additional ARRA Title I school level reporting issues with the Michigan Public School Accounting Manual Referent group and the Michigan School Business Officials in the near future. We will make that information available as soon the issues are resolved.