Maintenance of Effort
Maintenance of effort requires local educational agencies (LEA) to maintain their state and local expenditures at a specified level from one fiscal year to the next. Under the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), grantees must maintain at least 90 percent of the state and local expenditures from the previous fiscal year. The LEA’s allocation must be reduced if the LEA fails to maintain effort in a given fiscal year and also failed to maintain effort in one or more of the five immediately preceding fiscal years.
If an LEA is found to have not met the maintenance of effort threshold, the LEA may apply for a waiver. Waiver approval is determined by the U.S. Department of Education based on evidence of qualifying circumstances. If an LEA receives a waiver of the maintenance of effort requirement from the department for a given fiscal year, the LEA has effectively maintained effort for that fiscal year. Accordingly, in determining whether the LEA had failed to maintain effort for one or more of the five immediately preceding fiscal years, the State Education Agency (SEA) would count the year in which the LEA received a waiver as a year of maintaining effort.
Note: Maintenance of effort requirements for funds authorized under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) are different. These requirements are managed by the ADE’s Special Education Unit. For more information, please refer to the special education unit’s webpage: /Offices/learning-services/special-education or call 501-682-4221.
Maintenance of Effort Archive List
All the School funding reports can be found here