Monthly Communication

for Continuous Improvement and State & Federal Programs

MonthlyCommunicationfor Continuous Improvement and State & FederalPrograms

January 2025

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.


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Important Dates

  • January 6th - Annual Education Reports may be posted (Memo)
  • January 22 - Quarterly Virtual S&F Programs Meeting (9:00 | Zoom Link)
  • February 13 - Consolidated Application Amendments Due (Memo)
  • February 13 - Due Date to Request to Relinquish Federal Funds (Memo)
  • February 18 - Annual Education Reports posting deadline (Memo)
  • February 27 - Equitable Services Uploads for Private Schools Due in GEMS/MARS (Memo)

Continuous Improvement Tasks and Updates

January Continuous Improvement Activities

Winter benchmark data typically becomes available in January. Use this time to reflect on your continuous improvement efforts. Is that data showing that students are making progress? If not, have we been implementing our program as it was intended? What adjustments could be made to get back on (or stay on) course between now and our end of year benchmarks?


Consolidated application amendments are also now open. January is a good time to review your continuous improvement plan and ensure that there is alignment between your improvement efforts and your intentions for using federal funding. This February 2023 MDE Memo outlines requirements for MICIP/Continuous Improvement.


See the Continuous Improvement Monthly Checklist for additional ideas for January.

MiFamily Engagement Regional Centers

Family engagement is a critical component to student success. Title I also has several requirements tied to family engagement. There is a great new resource in the state to assist schools and other organizations to connect with families - MiFamily Engagement Regional Centers. The state has been broken into 10 Regions, each supported by a Center Coordinator.


I had the opportunity to recently meet with my Regional Coordinator. I believe this initiative will be a great resource to ISDs and districts, and I highly recommend that you reach out to your coordinator to learn more about how you might partner to better serve students and families.

Federal Updates

Consolidated Application Amendment Window is Open

The Consolidated Application Amendment window is open and will close on February 13. Here are a few resources:


Private School Compliance Requirements

Districts need to upload samples of their in-district and out-of-district letters to private schools and must also upload all private school consultation documents. As a reminder, if you are serving any private schools, you must consult with them over the amendment period and document that consultation on the appropriate form.

Here is the link to the GEMS/MARS submission. The December 11 MDE Memo provides further detail.


Title I Carryover Waiver

If your district needs to carryover more than 15% of Title I, and has not done so in 21/22 or 22/23, you may be eligible for a carryover waiver. The carryover waiver application opens in GEMS/MARS when the consolidated application becomes available. See this October 17 MDE Memo for more info.

State Updates

Annual Education Report

The Annual Education Report (AER) window is now open (MDE Communication). AERs are due to be posted to district webpages no later than February 18, 2025. I suggest posting all AERs on the district transparency site, not on each individual school webpage. As a reminder, there is a District AER, and an AER must be posted for each individual school in the district.


Official MDE Grants Repository

The MDE Grants Repository is officially released (December 12 MDE Memo). I am currently working on some videos for MDE about how to efficiently use the system, which will be linked on the repository. This is a great resource and gets daily updates from grant managers at MDE.

The old State Grants Repository has been retired. I am keeping the database available for a few months in case it can be useful for anyone, but it is no longer being updated.


Grant Alert Newsletter

Here are the December grant alerts from James Hissong at Kent ISD, with sections for state grants, federal grants, and more. Be sure to subscribe for future updates.

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


  • Wednesday, October 23, 2024 from 9:00 - 10:30 - Link to Meeting Resources
  • Wednesday, January 22, 2025 from 9:00 - 10:30
  • Wednesday, March 19, 2025 from 9:00 - 10:30
  • Final meeting is the MDE Spring Workshop. Dates TBD

Resource Roundup

David Hundt
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