Virginia Administrative Code
Title 8 - EDUCATION
Agency 20 - STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
Chapter 81 - REGULATIONS GOVERNING SPECIAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES IN VIRGINIA
Part IV - Funding
Section 8VAC20-81-260 - Federal funds
Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 16, March 25, 2024
A. In accordance with the provisions of the Act, the Virginia Department of Education disburses the federal funds that are available under Part B of the Act to assist local educational agencies with the excess cost of providing special education and related services to eligible children with disabilities. The local educational agency shall submit an annual plan to the Virginia Department of Education describing the use of such funds in accordance with subsection B of 8VAC20-81-230. ( 34 CFR 300.200; 34 CFR 76.301 )
B. Excess costs means those costs that are in excess of the average annual per student expenditure in a local educational agency during the preceding school year for an elementary school or secondary school student as may be appropriate, and that shall be computed after deducting: ( 34 CFR 300.16, 34 CFR 300.202 and Appendix A to 34 CFR Part 300 )
A local educational agency meets the excess cost requirement if it has spent at least a minimum average amount for the education of its children with disabilities in state and local funds before funds under Part B of the Act are used. (See 34 CFR Part 300, Appendix A for an example of how excess costs shall be calculated.)
C. A local educational agency complies with the maintenance of effort requirement in establishing its eligibility for an award in a fiscal year if the local educational agency budgets the same total or per capita amount in state and local funds as it spent from the same sources to educate children with disabilities in the most recent prior year for which information is available. ( 34 CFR 300.203 )
D. Part B funds may be used to supplement, but shall not be used to supplant state and local expenditures for special education and related services, and shall not be used to reduce the level of expenditures for the education of children with disabilities made by the local school division from the local funds below the level of those expenditures for the preceding year, except under certain conditions specified under the Act. ( 34 CFR 300.202 through 34 CFR 300.204 )
E. The amount of Part B funds determined to be available for each local educational agency is based upon the formulas specified under the Act. ( 34 CFR 300.705 and 34 CFR 300.816 )
F. A local educational agency may use Part B funds to implement a schoolwide program under § 1114 of the ESEA, except that the amount of Part B funds used in any fiscal year shall not exceed the amount of total Part B funds received that year, divided by the number of children with disabilities in the jurisdiction, and multiplied by the number of children with disabilities participating in the schoolwide program. Part B funds used for this purpose are not subject to other Part B funding requirements, but the local educational agency shall ensure that all children with disabilities in schoolwide program schools: ( 34 CFR 300.206 )
G. Children without disabilities may benefit from the expenditure of Part B funds when special education and related services and supplementary aids and services are provided in a regular class or other education-related setting to a child with a disability in accordance with the IEP of the child. ( 34 CFR 300.208 )
H. Early intervening services. ( 34 CFR 300.226 and 34 CFR 300.646 )
Early intervening services apply to children in kindergarten through grade 12, with a particular emphasis on students in kindergarten through grade three.
I. If the Virginia Department of Education determines that a local school division is adequately providing a free appropriate public education to all children with disabilities residing in the area served by that school division with state and local funds, the department may reallocate any portion of the funds under Part B of the Act that are not needed by the school division to provide a free appropriate public education to other school divisions in the state that are not adequately providing special education and related services to all children with disabilities residing in the areas they serve. ( 34 CFR 300.705 and 34 CFR 300.817 )
Statutory Authority
§§ 22.1-16 and 22.1-214 of the Code of Virginia; 20 USC § 1400 et seq.; 34 CFR Part 300.