I thought that some might find this interesting. It's IDEA in nature, but I thought I'd share it anyway because I had never heard of this "maintenance of effort" rule and also because some of our kiddos here have other disabilities that may fall under IDEA.
http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2015/04/28/feds-brakes-special-cutbacks/20252/ (http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2015/04/28/feds-brakes-special-cutbacks/20252/)
You know who monitors and reports maintenance of effort? SEAs. You know where auditors get the data on maintenance of effort? SEAs. You know who has (laughable) internal controls on maintenance of effort? Guess.
Right now state education agencies are trying to wrest what oversight the fed has from little to none. Go to the iOS or Android app store. Download the NSBA app if it's still there. Read their internal docs on repelling "federal intrusions".
ajas will find some gooooood reading there. ought to make her toes curl real tight.
I'm not sure I can stomach it right now.
It's all just beginning to seem so twisted to me now.
Save your sanity and blood pressure. Don't.
Besides, the whole reauthorization act must resolve first. There are organizations that have been working on it including the one I'm involved with. No one is going gentle into the good night. Patty Murray is taking the brunt of keeping the necessaries in and Obama has promised to use executive authority to veto the act if it would negate federal oversight. On this I have sided with the Democrats though we fervently wish to untie teacher pay to test performance.
That would at least preserve OCR's investigative authority including a parent's ability to call upon federalism to engage on behalf of the student.
Regarding NSBA's position on successfully repelling OCR, I can touch on that at the beginning of next school year. For now it's status quo.