Texas Education Agency
Division of IDEA Coordination
June 2010
Program Effective Date: October 1, 2010 through August 31, 2011
The purpose of the High Cost Fund is to assist local education agencies (LEAs*) in addressing the needs of high need children with disabilities by lessening the financial impact associated with providing direct special education and related services to high need children with disabilities.
*For these purposes, throughout the HCF Instructions document, the term “local education agency (LEA)” includes a consortium of LEAs or a charter school that is an LEA.
The LEA may request a High Cost Fund award provided that the LEA:
The costs of each high need student must be in excess of $35,000 and may only be those costs associated with providing direct special education and related services to the child that are identified in that child’s IEP.
To apply for a High Cost Fund award, the LEA must submit the online HCF Eligibility Application by 5:00pm October 1, 2010. All HCF Eligibility applications received by this deadline will be considered for a High Cost Fund award, subject to eligibility criteria. HCF Eligibility applications received after the deadline will not be considered for a HCF award. The application can be accessed at https://seguin.tea.state.tx.us/apps/logon.asp.
TEA SE Account
A TEA SE (Texas Education Agency Secure Environment) account is required in order to access and submit the HCF Eligibility Application.
If the submitter already has a valid TEA SE user name and password for at least one other TEA application, the submitter can log on as usual at https://seguin.tea.state.tx.us/apps/logon.asp and click the “Add/Modify Application Access” button at the upper right of the screen. From this page, the HCF Eligibility Application can be selected from the drop down list. Once the request has been submitted and approved, the submitter will have access to the HCF Eligibility Application.
If the submitter does not already have a TEA SE account, the submitter must request both an account and access to the HCF Eligibility Application at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/opge/egrant/index.html
For information on how to apply for a TEASE account, access: https://seguin.tea.state.tx.us/apps/help/tease.htm.
For help with the TEA SE account, call 512-475-3426 or email
computer.access@tea.state.tx.us.
LEA Eligibility: Last year, one of the eligibility criteria for LEA participation was that the LEA must not roll forward 80% of its IDEA-B Formula funds from the previous year. This year, the LEA must not roll forward 50% or more.
Student Cost (non public day school): Last year, the non-public day school tuition was part of the non-residential student section. This year, non-public day school has its own section.
Student Cost (Extended School Year-ESY): Last year, ESY costs were not eligible as cost items for High Cost funds. This year, the excess cost of ESY (the cost in excess of the amount received from state funding) is allowable for High Cost funds.
Student Cost (Transportation): Last year, transportation costs were not eligible as cost items for High Cost funds. This year, the excess cost of transportation (the cost in excess of the amount received from state funding) is allowable for High Cost funds specific to the individual high need child.
Only those costs associated with providing direct special education and related services to the high need child that are identified in that child’s IEP are allowable expenditures with High Cost funds. These costs (after subtracting the Adjusted Allotment amount and the SHARS reimbursement, if applicable) must equal or exceed $35,000 for the student to meet the definition of a high need student.
The HCF Eligibility application submitted by October 1, 2010 is a projection of the costs of a high need student for 2010-2011. The itemization of costs for the high need student on the HCF Eligibility Application must be for expenses projected to be incurred between October 1, 2010 and August 31, 2011.
LEAs, if eligible, already receive discretionary residential funds to assist with the costs for students with disabilities who are served in residential care and treatment facilities. Therefore, disbursements from the High Cost Fund for the cost of residential care and treatment will be limited to the portion of the LEA’s 25% residential set aside amount being used for the specific high need student and may not be fully funded.
The High Cost Fund must not be used to limit or condition the right of a child with a disability who is assisted under Part B of the Act to receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE) pursuant to section 612(a)(5) of the Act. The High Cost Fund must not be used to support legal fees, court costs, or other costs associated with a cause of action brought on behalf of a child with a disability to ensure FAPE for such child. The High Cost Fund may not be used to pay costs that otherwise would be reimbursed as medical assistance for a child with a disability under the State Medicaid program under Title XIX of the Social Security Act.
Since High Cost funds are student-specific, the award amount for the eligible high need student may not be used for another student.
If the eligible high need student leaves during the year, contact the IDEA Coordination funding team at 512-463-9414 for instructions. Several factors will determine the course of action, such as whether the LEA had already budgeted the funds in eGrants, whether the LEA had already incurred expenses, and whether any expenditures had already been drawn down through the Expenditure Reporting (ER) system.
ALLOWABLE:
Allowable use of High Cost funds is child-specific, not program-specific. The pre-populated cost items in the Non-Residential section of the HCF Eligibility Application are allowable costs for High Cost funds. Write-ins by the LEA will be evaluated by the TEA staff for allowability. If a write-in cost is not allowable, TEA will place the application in amend status for the LEA to remove the cost item.
PRO-RATING OF SALARY:
Pro-rating the salary of special education teachers and related services personnel who provide services described in the high need student’s IEP is allowable.
Use the pro-rating tool located in the Help button of the High Cost fund eligibility application.
If a bus aide is required specifically for the high need student
and is identified in the child’s IEP, the aide’s salary is allowable
with High Cost funds and may be pro-rated if the aide is required for more than
one high need student on the bus. In that case, the pro-rated amount is allowable
for each high need student’s HCF Eligibility Application.
Un-allowable:
Indirect cost is unallowable because it is already claimed on the eGrants Special Education Consolidated application.
Pro-rating the salary of a regular bus aide, who is assigned to a bus regardless of whether a high need student is a passenger, is not allowable with High Cost funds.
The following cost items are not allowable with High Cost funds:
Educational or other Diagnostician, Evaluation, Group Therapy, LSSP, and Social
Worker.
Documentation
As with other grants and programs, LEAs must create and maintain adequate and sufficient documentation demonstrating that an expenditure pertained to the High Cost Fund. This may be accomplished by maintaining routine records (e.g., purchase orders, invoices, payroll records, etc.) and by utilizing a locally defined subobject code or other local option code to track expenditures. Alternatively, the LEA may indicate on all documentation (purchase orders, contracts, etc.) that the transaction will be reimbursed out of the High Cost funds. If the LEA chooses to use the funds for salary, the appropriate time and effort and/or certification reports will be required.
Calculation of the Award Amount
A non-residential high need student’s itemized costs minus the Adjusted Allotment amount and the SHARS reimbursement, if applicable, will be considered the requested award amount.
A residential high need student’s requested award amount is the amount of the 25% residential set-aside amount being used for that student.
The amount of funds requested statewide and the amount of funds available will affect the amount being awarded.
If the requested amount is greater than the amount available to award, the following method will be used to determine the award amount. TEA will determine what percentage the request is of the LEA's 2010-2011 Tentative Entitlement. The HCF request will then be multiplied by the percentage. For example, an LEA whose request was only 3% of their entitlement, will only receive 3% of their requested amount. An LEA whose request was 90% of their entitlement will receive 90% of their request.
If after using this method, the requested amount is still greater than the amount available to award, reduction to the requested amount will be made based on a common factor.
After the HCF Eligibility Application has been submitted to the TEA, the TEA Division of IDEA Coordination will begin its review process. Once all applications have been reviewed for eligibility, the award amount will be determined. The award amounts may not be fully funded based on the total dollar amount requested by the LEAs.
An award letter or denial letter will be generated and mailed to the Superintendent of the Single Member District or to the Superintendent of the Fiscal Agent of a SSA. A copy of the letter will be mailed to the Special Education Director of the LEA and to the Special Education Contact of the Education Service Center (ESC).
The award and denial letters are expected to be generated in December, 2010.
Once the award letter has been received, the Single Member District or the Fiscal Agent of a SSA MUST budget the funds in eGrants via the Standard Application System (SAS), using the 2010-2011 IDEA-B High Cost Grant Application (SPED AH11). The eGrants application may be accessed at:https://seguin.tea.state.tx.us/apps/logon.asp. Failure to budget these funds in eGrants will result in loss of funds.
Only those costs that received approval in the HCF Eligibility Application may be budgeted in the eGrants application.
The deadline to submit the eGrants application is July 15 , 2011. Once this eGrants application has been reviewed and approved by TEA, the HCF Notice of Grant Award (NOGA) will be generated.
The Expenditure Reporting (ER) system must be used to apply for reimbursement on the High Cost Fund NOGA. The final expenditure report for this fund source is due to the TEA on September 30, 2011. Revised expenditure reports must be submitted by October 31, 2011. The ER system is accessed through the TEA SE system at: https://seguin.tea.state.tx.us/apps/logon.asp.
For technical questions about the HCF Eligibility Application or for programmatic questions on use of funds, please call the IDEA funding team at 512-463-9414 or send your question to hcf@tea.state.tx.us.
Please also contact your ESC Special Education Contact for questions.
For information on how to apply for a TEASE account, access: https://seguin.tea.state.tx.us/apps/help/tease.htm. For technical questions about your login into TEA SE, contact 512-475-3426 or email computer.access@tea.state.tx.us.
For technical assistance about the eGrants IDEA-B High Cost Grant application, contact 512-463-7025 or email eGrants@tea.state.tx.us
Texas Education Agency | Division of IDEA Coordination
1701 North Congress Avenue | Austin, Texas 78701-1494
Telephone: 512.463.9414 | Fax: 512.463.9560
Last Updated: August 09, 2010 | Created: August 21, 2007
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