Third Round of the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) Begins on April 28, 2022

The third application filing window of the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) will open on Thursday, April 28, 2022 and close on Friday, May 13, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. ET. During the third window, schools and libraries will be able to request Emergency Connectivity Fund Program support for eligible equipment and up to 12 months of services that will be received or delivered between July 1, 2022 and December 31, 2023 for off-campus use by students, school staff, and library patrons with unmet needs.

Apply Now

What Is the Emergency Connectivity Fund?

The Emergency Connectivity Fund is a $7.17 billion program funded by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to help schools and libraries support remote learning. The Program will provide funding to schools and libraries for the reasonable costs of eligible equipment and services that can be provided to students, teachers, and library patrons who lack connected devices, such as laptop or tablet computers, and/or lack broadband access during the pandemic.
The Federal Communications Commission unanimously adopted a Report and Order on May 10, 2021 establishing the rules and procedures for the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program.
The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) is the program administrator.

Who Is Eligible to Receive Funds Through the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program?

Schools, libraries, and consortia of schools and libraries that are eligible for support under the FCC’s E-Rate program, are eligible to request and receive support through the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program.
In addition, the Order clarifies that Tribal libraries, which are eligible for support under the Library Services and Technology Act, are also eligible for the Emergency Connectivity Fund.
Schools and libraries eligible for the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program do not need to be current E-Rate participants. Eligible entities that have not applied for E-Rate support should be prepared to demonstrate eligibility as a school or library under the Program rules during USAC’s application review.

What Equipment and Services Are Covered by the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program?

The following types of equipment purchased for off-campus use by students, school staff, and library patrons who would otherwise lack sufficient connectivity to engage in remote learning are eligible for support:
- Laptop and tablet computers
- Wi-Fi hotspots
- Modems (including air cards)
- Routers
- Devices that combine a modem and router.
Schools and libraries can also receive funding for commercially available broadband internet service that provides a fixed or mobile broadband connection for off-campus use by students, school staff, or library patrons who would otherwise lack access to connectivity sufficient to engage in remote learning.
In limited circumstances where a school or library can demonstrate that there are no available service options sufficient to support remote learning for its students, school staff, or library patrons, the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program may support the construction of new networks and the equipment needed for datacasting services.
Review the Eligible Services List for additional guidance on the equipment and services eligible for funding under the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program.

Apply Now (https://www.emergencyconnectivityfund.org/)

To participate, schools and libraries must have an active FCC Registration Number. Schools, libraries, and service providers who agree to invoice on behalf of applicants must also have a SAM.gov registration to be able to receive program support. Learn how to register with SAM.gov and the FCC CORES system.

Schools and libraries that have a SAM.gov registration or FCC Registration Number do not need to register again.

Please see the Public Notice (DA 22-309 ) for additional information about the third application filing window, the service delivery date, and invoice filing deadline applicable to equipment, other non-recurring service, and recurring service requests submitted during this filing window

For questions regarding this program or any school technology infrastructure support needs, please contact Jim Chasse at james.chasse@maine.gov or 207-707-0486.

Experiential Maine! – Summer Coastal Ecology Collaborative 

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) will soon be releasing a Request for Applications (RFA) from community organizations that provide (or plan to provide) high quality, coastal ecology education and experiences for students in grades 6-12 as part of Experiential Maine! – a statewide initiative to increase access to hands on, outdoor education for all students in Maine.

This exciting initiative will help increase student access to experiential learning along the Maine coast during Summer 2022. Fund awards must be used to expand student capacity in existing program opportunities or to design and implement an entirely new program during summer 2022. These will be two separate applications (one to expand existing programs, one to design and implement a program that did not previously exist). The Maine DOE will prioritize applications that prioritize access for students from low-income families and students with infrequent access to the coast based on geographic location.

Here is a link to the Intent to Apply form which must be completed by April 21, 2022 at 5:00pm in order for your organization to be eligible for funding.

For questions, please contact Page Nichols, Maine DOE Innovation Officer at page.nichols@maine.gov

American Rescue Plan (ARP) Emergency Assistance to Non-Public Schools (EANS) Program Information

As part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP), Congress set aside $2.75 billion of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund to provide emergency assistance to students and teachers in non-public schools, as defined below, through the ARP Emergency Assistance to Non-public Schools (EANS) program. The purpose of the ARP EANS program is to provide services or assistance to non-public schools that enroll a significant percentage of students from low-income families and are most impacted by COVID.

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) has been working with the U.S. Department of Education since the submission of Maine’s ARP EANS application on September 9, 2021. Approval from the US. Department of Education was received on March 16, 2022, and the Maine DOE is moving swiftly to support non-public schools through the $12,327,260 ARP EANS award process.

An eligible non-public school is an elementary or secondary school that is non-proﬁt; approved in accordance with state law; was in existence prior to March 13, 2020; did not, and will not apply for and receive a loan under the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) on or after December 27, 2020; and serves a low-income student percentage of 25 percent or greater. The low-income student percentage will be determined by the data on student eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch under the National School Lunch Act.

Non-public schools interested in participating in the ARP EANS II programs are encouraged to attend the Office of Federal Emergency Relief Programs’ Informational ARP EANS II webinar on March 31, 2022, at 10am.

Please register at https://mainestate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZctd-GhqT0oGtCt4DQA_oQ9-exUOeTNYquV.

2022-2023 Maine Education Financial System (MEFS) Budget Upload Now Open

It is that time of the year again for each School Administrative Unit (SAU) and Career & Technical Regions to submit their school budgets. Per 20-A M.R.S. Chapter 606-B, school district budget uploads are due within 30 days of the school budget passing, or by August 15, whichever comes later.

Municipal School Units and Charter Schools must upload the budget expenditure and revenue files to MEFS. Budget backup consisting of the school budget warrant articles, budget meeting minutes, vote declaration of the referendum (if required), and a copy of the successfully uploaded budget expenditure text file, must be sent via email to Denise Towers.

Regional School Units, School Administrative Districts, Community School Districts must upload the budget expenditure and revenue files to MEFS and complete the EF-M-46 in NEO. Budget backup consisting of the school budget warrant articles, budget meeting minutes, vote declaration of the referendum (if required), and a copy of the successfully uploaded budget expenditure text file, must be sent via email to Denise Towers.

Career & Technical Regions must upload the budget expenditure and revenue files to MEFS and complete the EF-M-46V in NEO. Budget backup consisting of a copy of the budget presented at the time of the vote, the meeting minutes approving the budget, and a copy of the successfully uploaded budget expenditure text file, must be sent via email to Denise Towers.

Budget uploads to MEFS must reconcile to the budget warrant articles and other supporting documents.

For more information or assistance, please contact Denise Towers at 624-6863 or Mary Randall at 446-4148.

MaineCare Seed Adjustments to be Made, Review Q2’22 Reports by April 15, 2022

The recovery of Quarter 2, 2022 MaineCare Seed will occur in the April 2022 subsidy payment. The Maine DOE is asking Districts to review their reports by April 15, 2022 to ensure accurate adjustments to subsidy. School Administrative Unit (SAU) staff must review and submit disputes, student by student, for claims on both the public and private MaineCare reports for Q2’22 by April 15, 2022.

To access the MaineCare Seed reports, please follow the instructions below.

Log into NEO using the link: https://neo.maine.gov/DOE/neo/Dashboard
Click on the Student Data tab
Click on the Student Report tab
Select MaineCare in the Reporting Area drop-down
Choose the quarterly Seed report and the report type (private/public)
Click view report button
Export Button

Once the report appears on the screen, choose the export button.

You may export the reports to Excel, but please be aware that there may be multiple worksheet tabs within the workbook. Save the file to your computer.

To dispute a claim:

If you disagree that a particular student or time period should not be on the report, please send an email with the following information for each State Student ID to stephanie.clark@maine.gov.

State Student ID
The reason that you disagree
Identify the type of report: public or private
Quarter in which the claims are located
Service provided dates (From and To)
Total amount of Seed being disputed

Summer services:

Students must be enrolled for the time period they are receiving educational services. This means that students that are receiving extended school year services in district or extended school year services in an out of district placement must have a primary enrollment for that time period in order for the MDOE to have the most accurate enrollment data to determine SAU responsibility for MaineCare Seed.

If you have difficulty logging into NEO:

Anyone who currently has Special Education Director permissions to the Special Education module will automatically have permission to access MaineCare reports.

As in the past, if a new staff member needs permission to access this module, a request from the Superintendent to the Maine DOE Helpdesk will be necessary. The Helpdesk contact information is medms.helpdesk@maine.gov or 207-624-6896.

Please contact stephanie.clark@maine.gov for more information or technical assistance related to MaineCare Seed.

EPS High-Cost Out-of-District Report (EF-S-214) Open for Reporting on March 1; The Deadline is April 15

The EF-S-214, also known as the EPS High-Cost Out-of-District Report will be open for data entry to Maine public schools on March 1 in the Maine Department of Education’s NEO Portal.

School districts should sign into the report as early as possible to allow time for data entry as well as the two-step submission process. The Department must approve the report by April 15 to allow time to make possible EPS adjustments.

Adjustments to the Special Education High-Cost Out-of-District allocation will be based on costs exceeding:

$19,176 for placements in Regional Special Education Programs;
$28,764 for placements in other school administrative units; and
$38,352 for placements in private schools.

Below are a few important things to note about the EF-S-214 report:

School districts will need to project the tuition cost for the full fiscal year.
This report is required for all publicly funded school districts, including districts that do not meet the High-Cost Out-of-District tuition threshold, these districts must login and submit “no students to report.”

The report can be located by logging into NEO at: https://neo.maine.gov/DOE/NEO/Accounts/Account/Login

Navigate to→ Special Education → Forms → EFS-214

Questions about the report should be directed to Stephanie Clark, Fiscal Compliance Associate for the Maine Department of Education at Stephanie.clark@maine.gov or 207-624-6807.

School Librarians Invited to Apply for Innovation Grant Through New England School Library Association

The New England School Library Association (NESLA) has announced a new grant established to encourage the development of innovative projects by school librarians in K-12 schools in the New England region.

Named in honor of the late Carolyn Markuson, a longtime NESLA member and a mentor and inspiration for school librarians throughout the region, the grant will be presented annually by NESLA.

Grant Details:

Funding is up to $500.
Grant recipients will also receive an initial payment or renewal for one year’s membership in ALA and AASL.
Applications for the 2022-23 school year are due by April 2, 2022.
The successful grant award will be announced by May 31, 2022.
Projects for the 2022-23 school year begin between September 2022 to March 1, 2023, and are to be completed by April 30, 2023.

Eligibility:

Membership in NESLA (Applicants may join when applying.)
State school librarianship licensure
Projects in progress and planned projects in need of financial assistance are eligible.

Further information, including selection criteria, is available on the NESLA website.

Computer Science Professional Development Grant Application

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) is pleased to announce the opening of the second round of the Computer Science Professional Development Grant!

Maine’s 130th legislature, through L.D. 127: Resolve, To Establish a Pilot Program To Provide Grants for Professional Development in Computer Science Instruction. Sponsored by Senator Pouliot, the bill created a pilot grant program to provide funding for high-quality, teacher-developed or teacher-led professional development for PK-12 computer science pedagogy and content. The first round of grants were awarded in the fall and now the spring window to apply is here!

Priority will be given to applicants that:

are located in one (or more) of the following counties where no awards were made in the first application round: Sagadahoc, York, Piscataquis, Aroostook, Somerset, Washington, Oxford, Waldo, Knox, Lincoln, Androscoggin, Franklin, and Kennebec.
do not currently offer computer science learning opportunities;
serve socioeconomically disadvantaged school districts;
prioritize student populations traditionally underrepresented in computer science;
demonstrate a commitment to pursuing high-quality educator professional development that emphasizes integration of computer science into other course work and curricula or establishes or expands access to courses that offer college credit and other certificates of value, or both; and
collaborate or partner with other entities, including but not limited to other local education agencies, the business community, nonprofit organizations and private entities.

The fall application window opens Friday, January 28th, 2022 and closes February 11th, 2022. Applications will be reviewed in the order in which they are received. All applicants will be notified of their application status within two weeks of the application deadline.

There is no limit to the grant amount awarded per applicant; however, funds will be dispersed equitably across all applications based on county and throughout PK-12.

Have questions? Want to learn more? We are hosting three informational sessions, January 31st, February 2nd, and February 8th.

Interested in applying? Check out our website to register for an informational session, learn more about the grant, and submit an application.

Need assistance applying? contact Emma-Marie Banks, Computer Science Specialist & Secondary Digital Learning Specialist emma-marie.banks@maine.gov.

Indirect Cost Rate Approval Process

The Maine Department of Education would like to share updated information concerning our indirect cost rate approval process.

The Department issues an indirect cost rate for a specific fiscal year that is valid from July 1 to June 30 of the applicable fiscal year. The indirect cost rate is applied to the direct cost amount expended, not to the grant award. Indirect costs are recovered only to the extent of direct costs incurred.

To recover indirect costs, the LEA applies the indirect cost rate in affect for a given fiscal year or the term of the grant award to the direct expenditures less capital outlay during that fiscal year or the term of the grant award.

In order for districts to receive approval of their indirect cost rate, the audit reconciliation with MEFS must be completed. The Department also recommends completing the following training to all districts that apply: Indirect Cost Training Course FY 21 (ed.gov).

Development of Indirect Cost Rates:

The Department sources information from the LEA’s official annual upload to MEFS and the detail accounts that make up that report.
- It is essential that LEAs classify expenditures uniformly and consistently in accordance with Financial Accounting for Local School Systems in Maine.
The Department will prepare a “preliminary indirect cost rate” for LEAs requesting an indirect cost rate and may be requested for certification.
Once preliminary indirect cost rates are provided to the LEA, the LEA shall provide information for subawards and subcontracts so to calculate an adjustment to the indirect cost rate prior to final certification.
Predetermined rates that are certified and the certifications will be published to: https://www.maine.gov/doe/funding/fiscalreview/compliance/indirectcostrate
Restricted indirect cost rates will be limited to 8%. Unrestricted indirect cost rates are limited to 15%. All preliminary calculated rates outside of the statistical norm are subject to review to ensure the proper classification of costs.

The following information has been added to the Indirect Cost Rate Agreement:

Distribution Base: MTDC Modified Total Direct Cost – Total direct costs excluding equipment, capital expenditures, participant support costs, pass-through funds, and the portion of each subaward (subcontract or subgrant) above $25,000 (each award; each year).
Applicable To: Restricted- Restricted rates apply to programs that require a restricted rate per 34 CFR 75.563 and 34 CFR 76.563.
Treatment of Fringe Benefits: Fringe benefits applicable to direct salaries and wages are treated as direct costs. Pursuant to 2 CFR 200.431, (b), (3), Paragraph (i), unused leave costs for all employees are allowable in the year of payment. The treatment of unused leave costs should be allocated as an indirect cost except for those employee salaries designated as a direct cost for the restricted rate calculation.
Capitalization Policy: Items of equipment are capitalized and depreciated if the initial acquisition cost is equal to or greater than $5,000.

If you have any questions as you review these printouts, please contact our School Finance Team member Mary Randall, mary.randall@maine.gov, for assistance.

ME, VT, and NH Consortia Saves Maine Schools over $73,000 on Seesaw Licensing

The Association of Computer Technology Educators of Maine (ACTEM) joined a 3-state-consortia this spring to offer lower pricing on Seesaw for Schools licensing for Maine districts, which has saved over $73,000 in Seesaw licensing costs for participating Maine schools.

A popular software system used by many districts throughout Maine, Seesaw offers a simple way for teachers and students to record and share what’s happening in the classroom and gives students a place to document their learning, be creative, and learn how to use technology.

The Seesaw consortia started with former Maine Department of Education staff member Jeff Mao, who is now the Executive Director of Vita-Learn, a Vermont based organization similar to ACTEM. Mao approached both ACTEM and representatives from New Hampshire with the idea of offering combined licensing in all three states. The consortia’s shared goal is to obtaining greater numbers of licenses by combining orders, which offers better pricing on Seesaw licensing for all.

For further questions about the 3-state consortia, contact ACTEM.