Monthly Communication

for Continuous Improvement and State & Federal Programs

MonthlyCommunicationfor Continuous Improvement and State & FederalPrograms

February 2024

Welcome to the monthly Continuous Improvement and State & Federal Programs communication. The purpose is to contextualize Continuous Improvement into our daily work, to efficiently complete all State and Federal Program tasks, and to promote moving these tasks past simple compliance. If this was forwarded to you, you are welcome to subscribe.

In This Issue

  • Upcoming Important Dates
  • January Recap
  • MICIP Collaboration Series
  • Title I Funding for 2024/25
  • Working with Private Schools
  • 31a and Count Day

Upcoming Important Dates (more info on all below)

  • 2/14 - MICIP User Group 9:00 - 10:00 (Zoom Link)
  • 2/15 - Annual Education Report Posting Deadline
  • 2/29 - Consolidated Application Due in NexSys
  • 2/29 - Private School Documentation Due in GEMS/MARS

January Recap

Since the January Newsletter was only recently released to include information on the Consolidated Application, please take a moment to go back and review all of the items that are still pertinent, which will not be rehashed here:


  • Consolidated Application Information
  • State Grants Repository Updated
  • Annual Education Report Resources
  • MASFPS Spring Professional Learning Institute


We had a very productive Quarterly S&F Programs Virtual Meeting on January 24th. Here is the dashboard with all resources. Next meeting is March 20 at 9:00 (Zoom Link).

MICIP Collaboration Series and MICIP User Group

We got off to a great start with the series in January. Click here for the series Dashboard, which will be used throughout the series. All resources, presentations, and videos for the series are at this link. Anyone is welcome to use the resources and/or participate asynchronously. If you would like SCECHs, please register and come in person. Next session is March 13 from 9:00 - 11:00.


In between each Collaboration Series meeting there is another opportunity to connect with colleagues to discuss MICIP and continuous improvement: The MICIP User Group. Our next session is February 14th from 9:00 - 10:00. No registration. Zoom Link.

Title I Funding for 2024/2025

The MDE recently released a memo regarding census poverty which plays an important part of your Title I allocation. Make sure you review the numbers released in this memo each year and compare to last year. If the number went up, it will have a positive result for your Title I allocation (and vice versa). All the info you need is below, including a video on how Title I funding works.


Working With Private Schools

Compliance for 2023-2024

The MDE Memo released on 1/11/2024 outlined a requirement to provide documentation around private school services (see page 3). The following information is required to be uploaded to GEMS/MARS by February 29th:

  • Sample In-District and Out-of-District Letters
  • Consultation documents for each private school

Forms and samples are available on the MDE Technical Assistance for Working with Private Schools webpage.

Important Note: This was previously not working correctly, but things have been fixed. I have logged in and verified that it is now working. There is one form with separate fields for each of the three items you need to provide.


Equitable Services for 2024-2025

February is the month to start the Equitable Services process for the 2024/2025 school year. LEAs that receive federal funds are required to seek out private schools in their district boundaries as well as private schools outside their boundaries that may have students from their area attending and invite them to consult about providing equitable services for students and teachers at their schools. Please see this quick-start guide.

Important Note: The quick-start guide gives instructions on how to use the EEM Geographical Search feature to find all the private schools that you need to communicate with. There is an issue right now that prevents this from working on some browsers. CEPI has been notified and they are working on it. CEPI indicated that the issue is intermittent and trying again later or in a different browser might work as a temporary fix. Special thanks to Amber from North Branch for pointing this out and working with CEPI to get it fixed!

31a and Count Day

February Count is coming up. Make sure to get all at-risk students identified in your Student Information Systems ("3060" in MSDS). In order to be counted as at-risk for accountability purposes, students need to be marked as such for two of the three count periods (October, February, End of Year Collection).


I recommend using count periods to also collect data around which students are receiving services funded from 31a. Districts don't have to report on this until July 15 (in the Annual Program Fiscal Report), but it will make the reporting much easier if you are collecting data as you go.


Just a reminder that funding for 31a is not tied to identification or services. The main factor for your 31a allocations is how many students are identified for Free/Reduced Price Meals. With the move to universal free meals, it is important to stay on top of correctly identifying students. More info is at the MDE CEP Forms & Instructions website.


New to 31a? Here's a quick 31a primer.

Quarterly Virtual S&F Programs Meetings

The following State and Federal Programs meetings are open to everyone, statewide. The meetings are typically well attended by reps from MDE OES and program directors from many districts and ISDs across the state. Same Zoom Link for all: https://muskegonisd-org.zoom.us/j/6740302165
David Hundt
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