General Statement of Assurance (GSA) and Self-Assessment Supplements (12/4/2024)

The Arizona Department of Education is providing this important reminder regarding FY26 grant timelines and requirements, including updates by the Federal Government to organizational identification requirements:

• FY26 General Statement of Assurance (GSA) and Self-Assessment supplements will open January 1, 2025, and are due by March 1, 2025
• NEW for FY26, all organizations must submit a current org chart with their GSA
• SAM.gov registrations must be active for GSAs, funding applications, reimbursement requests and completion reports to be approved.  Please see the "SAM.gov Registration" section of the GSA and fully complete all required information, including your organization's Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number found on SAM.gov.  Inactive or expired SAM.gov registrations will result in a global hold impacting all grant funding related activity until the issue has been resolved.

Completion Reports (CRs):

• CRs are due to Grants Management in approvable form no later than the 90-day liquidation period following the project end date. CRs for projects ending on 9/30/24 are due to ADE by 12/29/24.
• CRs submitted after the 90-day liquidation period following the project end date are at risk of not receiving final payment for expenditures obligated during the project period.
• Please allow appropriate processing time if your LEA is required to submit your CR to your county’s office or an ADE program area office(s) before it can be reviewed by Grants Management.
• Some funding applications have a limit to how much (if any) carryover is allowed. Please check with your program area to see if carryover is allowed before submitting the CR, to avoid losing the ability to liquidate those funds. Any funds carried over should be budgeted and submitted for programmatic review as soon as possible and then obligated in a timely manner.

Funding Application Revisions:

• A Completion Report can only be started if the application is in Director Approved status. If you need us to cancel a funding application revision for your organization, please add a History Log comment in the respective funding application and copy Grants Management, to generate a Help Desk ticket with your request.
• Funding application revisions will not be processed once the project has ended, even if they were started during the open project period

FY25 Indirect Cost (IDC) Available in GME Supplements:

• If your FY25 funding applications have not been Director approved yet, you may begin budgeting for IDC once you have obtained your approved FY25 rate from ADE.
• A funding application revision is required to budget IDC for FY25 applications already in Director approved status.
• Counties, colleges, and other government offices must request to be added to the Indirect Cost – Counties, IHEs, and Other Gov’t supplement in GME via Help Desk. Once added, the entity may apply for IDC directly through the Counties, IHEs, and Other Gov’t option.

Fiscal Monthly Reports:

• Fiscal Monthly Reports are available by the 15th in your LEA Document Library. Please view these reports each month to see how your LEA is doing with drawing down remaining available grant funding.
• Grants Management recommends submitting regular Reimbursement Requests for all open grants (ideally once a month or more often).

ADE School Finance Update regarding Annual Financial Reports:

• The Annual Financial Reports (AFRs) were due to ADE by 10/15/24. LEAs who missed the deadline of October 15 for both/either the Annual Financial Report (AFR) or School Level Annual Financial Report may be on hold in GME. For any questions about these files and the submission process, please contact School Finance’s Budget Team at budgetteam@azed.gov or 602-542-5695 Option 2.

FY24 Single Audit Qualified Questionnaire:

• The FY24 Single Audit monitoring instrument is NOW AVAILABLE IN GME!! All entities must submit their FY24 Single Audit Questionnaire by December 31, 2024, or your organization will be placed on a fiscal hold. This will impact all grant reimbursement activity. 

Tip of the Month:

 GEPA

As of July 1, 2023 all federal grant funding applications in the GME system will include a section to which will satisfy the requirements of Section 427 of the General Provisions Act (GEPA) (20 U.S.C. 1228a).

Section 427 requires each applicant for funds to include in its application a description of the steps the applicant proposes to take to remove barriers and to ensure equitable access to, and participation in, its Federally-assisted program for students, teachers, and other program beneficiaries.

What you need to know for FY24:

·         The GEPA page will only be visible once the application is in Revision status

·         The page will be found in the section titled General Education Provisions Act (GEPA).

o   Will not impact original applications

o   Required with first revision

o   A validation error will prevent application status from being changed to CR Draft started if the GEPA page is not completed.
·        There is not a minimum word count for a GEPA statement

What you need to know for FY25:

·         The GEPA page will be part of the Original application and will be required on initial funding application submission