**Preschool Development Grants Competition – Development Grants & Expansion GrantsApplicants Technical Assistance Webinar – Questions & AnswersSeptember 15, 2014**

**Libby Doggett:** On behalf of Linda Smith and myself, I'd like to welcome all of you all to this webinar, "The Preschool Development Grants Question and Answer Technical Assistance" session. We're thrilled to have so many States interested in the Preschool Development Grants and on this webinar. As you all probably know, we have over 30 States that have sent us an Intent to Apply. It's not required. So if any of the rest of you are on this phone call and intend to apply, please let us know because it does help us in planning the Peer Review and Competition going forward.

Today, we're fortunate to have staff from both HHS and ED. As you know, both the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge Fund and the Preschool Development Grant programs are jointly administered by ED and HHS. So we have staff here to present and answer your questions from both agencies. You can see the incredible team that will be backing us up. So we have a few people speaking but we have a really good team backing up that will be taking your questions and that will be the program officers going forward.

Today, we hope to answer as many of your questions as possible because we really want to help you in completing your applications. During the webinar, we'll let you know about the FAQ addendums that we'll be posting shortly and what questions those will answer. Those came from you.

We want to correct a few typos that we had in the NIA and the application and the Executive Summary Spreadsheets. We want to explain a little bit more about the indirect costs. You've had a lot of questions about that. We want to show an example of using the Matching Tables for your budgets and the Competitive Priority Number 1.

We want to provide an opportunity for additional technical, clarifying, and logistical questions. We can't answer specifics on your individual application, but we can answer general questions that might apply to a broad number of States. And you may use the chat feature throughout the webinar. We hope this information provided in the Technical Assistance Presentation assists you as you prepare your applications for submission, and you know those are due on October 14th.

Just a few housekeeping messages. The Preschool Development Grants application for both the Development and Expansion are available for downloading at the Preschool Development Grants website at ed.gov. The application, the Executive Summaries, the Notices Inviting Application, FAQs, and other documents, as well as webinar recordings, are available on the Preschool Development Grants website. You should and may refer to them during this webinar.

During the presentation, all phone lines will be muted to avoid feedback. Please use the chat feature to submit questions which we will try to answer at the end of today's presentation. Additional questions, and I'm sure you'll have some, may be submitted to the Preschool Development Grants at ed.gov. The slides, transcript, and recording from today's presentation will be posted as soon as possible at the Preschool Development Grants website.

We want to remind you that Tips for Applicants using grants.gov is available on our website and in the application package. To facilitate your use of grants.gov, this Tips for Applicants Guide includes important submission procedures for which you need to be made aware to ensure your application is received in a timely manner and accepted by the Departments.

Also, please register early. We keep telling you that, but it's really important, at grants.gov. Registration involves many steps, including registration on SAM, www.sam.gov, which may take approximately one week to complete, but could take much more. You may begin working on your application while completing the registration process, but you cannot submit your application until all of the registration steps are complete.

I actually think that I likely do not have to tell this group about this because we've been reminding you at every moment we can. Applicants should submit their application a day or two in advance of the closing date, as detailed in the Federal Register Notice. If you have any questions regarding this matter, please email the grants.gov contact center at support@grants.gov or call 1-800-518-4726.

So throughout the webinar, you'll be able, as I said, to ask questions with the chat feature on your screen. We're going to try to answer as many of those as possible on this very call. We may be able to answer only a limited number about the information contained in the Notice Inviting Applications today. We hope to answer as much as possible.

Any unanswered questions may be followed up with additional guidance. We'll also provide contact information at the end of those presentations, so you can email us if you have questions after the webinar. Now I'm going to pass this over to my colleague here at ED, Senior Policy Adviser, Steven Hicks. 

**Steven Hicks:** Thanks so much, Libby. In the next couple of weeks, we plan to post addendums to the FAQ documents now online. These additional FAQs will cover some of the information we discussed today, plus a few additional questions regarding submitting a Memorandum of Understanding or MOU with each subgrantee. As you may recall, in Selection Criteria D1, this binding agreement, such as an MOU, with each subgrantee is required at the time of application for Expansion Grant applicants. For Development Grant applicants, they are not required to submit a binding agreement with each subgrantee, such as an MOU.

However, Development Grant applicants may receive up to eight points for addressing D1A and describe how the State has selected the high-need community or communities to be served, or up to four points for addressing D1B and describe how they will select the high-need community or communities to be served. Note that we do not require that each subgrantee have been selected.

Another clarification we will provide in the FAQs is in regards to New Slots and Improved Slots. A New State Preschool Program Slot is a slot that will be created through the work described in the State's application, using the Preschool Development Grants funds, and will be created using the additional funding described in the State's application to the Preschool Development Grants program.

An Improved State Preschool Program Slot is a State Preschool Program Slot that has already existed at the time of application, and will be improved to meet the definition of a high-quality preschool program slot through the work described in the State's application. Also remember that the Preschool Development Grants funds can be spent on the five improvements described in Selection Criteria D4Bii or any combination (extending programs from half-day to full-day, limiting class size to 20 and decreasing child-to-staff ratios to 1:10, employing and compensating a teacher with a bachelor's degree, providing inservice, evidence-based, professional development such as coaching, or providing comprehensive services). There will also be additional FAQs on matching and high-quality preschool programs.

We have a few typos that we want to point out, though you likely have discovered these as you work through the application.

In the Expansion Grants’ application and the NIA for Expansion Grants, we have a typo. In Selection Criteria A7, we indicate that the Expansion grantees need to work with one or more high-need communities. That is incorrect, as you have seen throughout the application for Expansion Grants. This should be two or more high-need communities as it is elsewhere in the application. This does not affect the Development Grant applicants. That information is correct in A7.

For Development Grants, it is one or more high-need communities. For Expansion Grants, it is two or more high-need communities. In both the Development and Expansion Grants applications . . . but this is correct in the NIAs, the Notices Inviting Applications, we have erroneously admitted one of the ways in which an applicant may improve a State Preschool Program slot -- those five ways which I just mentioned. One of the five ways is by providing inservice, evidence-based professional development such as coaching. That was omitted from the application. Please remember this is an allowable use as indicated in FAQ E2. You will also see it listed in the Excel spreadsheets.

Our final mea culpa is in the Excel spreadsheets. We have made corrections concerning instructions about the increased State funds in the year prior to the year of the grant, and are reposting these today. However, an applicant that uses and submits the previously posted Excel spreadsheets will not be penalized.

Indirect costs. We've received a lot of questions about the State's overhead costs or indirect costs. It's complicated, but think of it as two buckets. Here is an example. The first bucket is for State infrastructure. For Development Grants, this may be up to 35% of grant funds over the life of the grant. And for Expansion Grants this may be up to 5% of the grant funds over the life of the grant.

From this amount, you may charge against the indirect costs for the State and for each subgrantee. This bucket includes all the amounts the State charges for indirect costs, which is against the first $25,000 of each subgrant award if the State chooses to charge indirect costs, and includes the amount charges for indirect costs for the State. This bucket also includes funds for State Preschool Program quality and the $25,000 set aside for the Education and Health and Human Services Technical Assistance.

The second bucket is for subgrants for new and improved slots. For Development Grants, this must be a minimum of 65% of grant funds over the life of the grant. And for Expansion Grants, this must be a minimum of 95% of the grant funds over the life of the grant. From this amount, you may calculate the indirect costs as described in FAQ E8. This is the indirect costs towards the first $25,000 for each subaward. But it comes out of 5% in the first bucket and not the second bucket, which are funds that are subgranted. All the indirect costs are entered on line 10 of the budget table in the Excel spreadsheets.

FAQ E8 discusses indirect costs to subgrantees. A State may apply its indirect costs rate against subawards only to a very limited extent. Specifically, a State may apply its approved indirect cost rate only against the first $25,000 of each subaward. In other words, each subgrant or contract on a yearly basis, and not against the full amount of each subaward. Therefore, for example, a State may apply its indirect costs rate only against the first $25,000 of each subgrant including in line 11. This is contractual of the budget summary tables. As part of the grantee's budget review and ongoing implementation, the Departments will determine whether a State has allocated the appropriate portion of its Preschool Development Grants to subgrantees as specified in Absolute Priority 1.

For more information about indirect cost rates please refer to ED's Cost Allocation Guide for State and Local Governments. This guide may be found at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocfo/fipao/guideigcwebsite.pdf. It's a very long address, but that's in the FAQ. FAQ E8, you can find it.  In FAQ E9, we explain the subgrantees may also charge indirect costs. 

In the Excel spreadsheets, we have made a few corrections and we will be posting those later today. Those corrections will be on our Preschool Development Grants website and the corrections will be in red font so that you can clearly see the corrections. We made these corrections to the Excel spreadsheets. As we said, you may be submitting your previously completed Excel spreadsheets. But we provided these online with these corrections.

We have gotten a lot of questions on how the matching tables connect, and about Table B. So we want to show you with an example. Note this is just an example and not a recommendation on how you should write your ambitious and achievable plan. In Table B, we have changed the dates from 2010 through 2013 to 2011 through 2014.

We know States have different fiscal years. And sometimes they call their fiscal years 2013 to 2014, or 2013, or 2014. 2014 on this chart is intended to be the year before the grant begins. Table B is meant to show the State's past investment in State preschool the four years prior to when the grant begins. For Table B, you will enter State, local, and philanthropic investments.

The Table B only asks to indicate those investments for State preschool. So the local philanthropic investments other than in State preschool will not be entered here. For example, you do not list in the investments and local preschool programs if they are not part of the State Preschool Program as defined in the Notice. Also you do not list any Federal investments on this table. So you would not list Federal Title I funds, for example, or Federal Head Start funds. You may, however, want to discuss how you leverage these funds in your narrative.

Now, continuing on with our example, remember Table B is meant to show the past four years of investments before the grant begins, if any, in State Preschool Programs for 2011 through 2014. In our example, it is the same as example in Table A of the Expansion Grants on the Excel sheets where the grant award is $60 million over four years, except that in Table A in our example, on the Excel spreadsheets which are posted on our website, the amount of the increased State funding is zero on our Excel spreadsheets. But in our example that we're presenting today, it's going to be a $10 million increase.

For Competitive Priority 1 Table here on Slide 12, first you will enter the FY 2014 State investment that is an increase over FY '13 State investment and local philanthropic and other investments for Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, and Year 4. In this case, Year 1 would be 2015. Year 2 would be 2016, Year 3, 2017, and Year 4, 2018. These are the grant periods. Remember on Table B in our example, State investment in FY 2014 -- the year before the grant begins -- was $20 million. In FY '13 on Table B, the State investment was, in our example today, was $10 million. So the increase in State investment from $10 million in FY '13 to $20 million in FY '14 is $10 million, which we have entered in Column B on the Competitive Priority Table.

So to be clear, only increased State funding in FY '14 or the State fiscal year prior to the first year of the grant period, may count towards the State's match as part of the Competitive Preference Priority 1. On Part 2 of Table A, you will enter the figures from Competitive Priority 1. Note how the bottom row on this Table, Competitive Priority Table 1, is green and says, "Correct." That is because the figures from Competitive Priority 1 Table matched the figures in Part Two of Table A. If it was incorrect, it would've said, "Check your answer."

Here is Part 2 of Table A. The total match is $34 million. The budgeted grant amount, remember, was $60 million. Therefore, the State matched contribution in the State's ambitious and achievable plan is 57%. I'm sorry. Table A, well, it is Part 2. I think the title is incorrect. It's Part 2, right?

**Libby Doggett:** We're checking the table right now.

**Steven Hicks:** Sorry. Yeah, it is Part 2. The title at the top of the slide is incorrect. It should say Part 2. Another typo. Sorry about that. So this is Table A Part 2. The total amount of the plan was $84 million, the $60 million grant award and the $34 million match. So together, it's 57% of the match. The match is 57%.

So if you take all three tables together, Table B, Competitive Priority Table 1, and Table A, Part 2, yeah. Oh. I apologize, it's Part 2, Competitive Priority 1. If you take all those tables together, they tell the story of the State's investment from 2011 to 2018.

Table B shows 2011 to 2014, and Competitive Priority Table 1 in Table A are showing the 2014 increase in State funding over the four grant periods 2015 to 2018. States may choose based on their fiscal years and appropriations to show their investment in different cells. But there must not be any duplication or double-dipping of these years because it's important to show the increase in State funding and the past funding the four years before the grant period.

Let's look at Competitive Priority 1 for a moment and see how this all ties together. With a 57% match, the applicant may be eligible for up to 10 points if the plan is determined to be credible. Now, I'm going to turn it over to my friend and colleague at HHS, Senior Policy Adviser, Richard Gonzales, to address some additional questions which we have received. Richard?

**Richard Gonzales:** Thank you, Steven. Some of you have asked about the distinction among an early learning provider, a subgrantee, and a high-need community.

So in general, an early learning provider is the entity that will implement or expand the high quality preschool program funded under the Preschool Development Grants program. A subgrantee is an early learning provider that receives a subgrant from a participating State for this purpose. To receive such a subgrant, the early learning provider must serve a high-need community.

In the ambitious and achievable plans, applicants to both the Preschool Development Grants Development Grants and Preschool Development Grants Expansion Grants will describe how they will provide voluntary high-quality preschool programs for eligible children through subgrants to subgrantees that are early learning providers serving high-need communities. As a reminder, Expansion Grants need to propose to work with at least two high-need communities, and Development Grants need to propose to work with at least one high-need community.

As included in the definitions from the Notice Inviting Applications, a high-need community is a geographically defined area, such as a city, town, county, neighborhood, district, rural or tribal area, or a consortium thereof, and this area will have a high level of need as determined by the State.

An early learning provider is an entity that carries out an early childhood education program in a high-need community. The entity could be an LEA, a charter school, an educational service agency, a Head Start program, a licensed childcare provider, a municipality or other local government agency, a tribe or Indian organization, an institution of higher education, a library, a museum, another eligible licensed provider as defined by the State, or a consortium of these various entities.

A subgrantee is an early learning provider that serves at least one high-need community that receives a subgrant from the State, and is participating in the State's ambitious and achievable plan in the Development Grants. Or it is a subgrantee - is also one that serves two high-need communities that receives a subgrant from the State, and participating in its State's achievable plan.

We also got questions about using Preschool Development Grants funds to support preschool services for children in mixed classrooms that are three-year-olds or from families with incomes above 200% of the Federal poverty line. In the FAQ C3, we explain that funds may be used to support high-quality preschool programs for eligible children in a mixed-age classroom, as long as the program meets the definition of a high-quality preschool program, and grant funds are used only to serve the eligible children. We also strongly encourage eligible children be served in mixed-income class settings as described in Selection Criterion E7, provided their Preschool Development Grants funds are used only to support eligible children and that the program meets the definition of a high-quality preschool program.

Preschool Development Grants funds may be used for employing and compensating a teacher with a bachelor's degree, for example. However, you will need to ensure that any funds used from the Preschool Development Grants Program are used only to support eligible children. Grantees will need to show, through their budget and accounting systems, that Preschool Development Grants funds are only used to support the eligible children. States must also justify that the slot meets the definition of a high-quality preschool program.

So here are, let's see, I think we have some additional questions, but we need a little more time. We're pulling together some answers for that. So while we're waiting to do that, I want to just go over some of the information that's on this Next Steps slide.

Because we cannot remind you enough, we want to remind you that grants.gov's submission procedures and Tips for Applicants may be found on our website. To facilitate your use of grants.gov, this Tips for Applicants section includes important submission procedures you need to be aware of to ensure your application is received in a timely manner and accepted by the Departments.

Also please register early. Grants.gov registration involves many steps including registration on SAM, which may take approximately one week to complete, but could take upwards of several weeks to complete, depending upon the completeness and accuracy of the data entered into the SAM database by an applicant.

You may begin working on your application while completing the registration process, but you cannot submit an application until all of the registration steps are complete.

You may be wondering why we keep repeating that message, and I do want to just add, that in every competition that we've had in recent years, we've had at least one, and sometimes several, who have not met the deadline because they did not register in sufficient time to get their grant registered. So we keep saying that because we don't want that to happen to any of you.

Applicants are reminded that they should submit their application a day or two in advance of the closing date, as detailed in the Federal Register Notice. If you have any questions regarding this matter, please email the grants.gov contact center at support@grants.gov, or call 1-800-518-4726. Since that number's not on the slide, I'll repeat it one more time. That's 1-800-518-4726.

Applications are due October 14th, and we will announce the grant awards in December. Now we're going to look at a couple of the questions that have come in. Give me one second, please.

Okay, so one question is, "Will funding for additional slots and our cost of living increases within our existing State-funded preschool program count towards our annual match?"

You'll not be surprised to know that the answer to that question is, "It depends." The answer's going to depend on the amount of funds that have previously been invested in your State-funded preschool program, and PDG has a "supplement, not supplant" requirement, so you are going to want to read the third paragraph of F1 in the FAQs. And please see FAQ F1 through F11 for more information on matching.

What it says there is, as discussed in E14, the matching funds must be in addition to the State or local funds that would otherwise be available for improving the quality of State Preschool Programs and increasing access to high-quality preschool programs. The Departments generally consider that State and local funds would be available for this purpose at least in the amount that was available in the preceding comparison year and that the Federal funds and matching non-Federal funds under this program would supplement that amount.

Another question is, "Grants.gov has a scheduled outage on October 14th. Is there a plan for extending the due date?"

We are checking into this, but there is no extension at this time. This new information, we will provide any updates as needed, once we've been able to explore this issue.

**Libby Doggett:** And this is Libby. I just want to jump in and say, it is highly, and I want to say highly unlikely that the due date will be extended. So please plan to get all of the application in by October 14th.

**Richard Gonzales:** Next question, "Is the 5% for administration based on requested dollar amount or a combination of requested funding and identified matching funds?"

Again, we direct you to the FAQ. In this case, FAQ F10. Matching funds are not subject to the breakdown of funds specified in the Absolute Priority 1.

"On page 53 of the NIA, it indicates that Expansion Grants will have 90 days to submit MOUs. However, what Steven said earlier contradicts that statement. If MOUs are required for submission, do they count toward the 125-page limit for the appendix?"

For Expansion applicants, under program requirement R, States have 90 days to submit final MOUs. However, under the application requirement F, applications must submit preliminary MOUs for letters of support from subgrantees. These preliminary MOUs count towards the recommended page limit. You will not be penalized for exceeding the limit, but reviewers appreciate brevity.

Number six, another question that came in, "For Expansion Grant States that plan to add new pre-K programs, MOUs will not be available until the new programs are selected. Is it sufficient for the Expansion State to describe the selection process for new subgrantees along with MOUs for existing subgrantees?"

To receive full points under D1, Expansion grantees must have identified all subgrantees and provided a letter of support for preliminary MOU from each subgrantee.

We're going to take another moment and see if there's some additional questions. I think there are. So we will take a moment and check that out.

Hello, folks. So there is a comment that came in that in the last three slides that we put up prior to the Next Steps slides, you could only see the headers as being legible and the tables themselves were not legible. Since we are going to be posting this as soon as we can, you will be able to see the full tables at that time, which only should be a few days. Of course you can refer back to the original documents to look at those tables in the application.

We are still trying to craft a few answers here to some questions. I ask you to all be patient and hold, and we will be right back.

**Steven Hicks:** Hi. This is Steven. We have a question about the examples that we presented. I think this is in reference to Table A, where it shows Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4 for the match on Slide 13. And it says that in the example, it looks like this State is planning to decrease its investment in Year 1 versus 2014. And you see that in the match, it's a $10 million increase from 2013 to 2014 because 2013 was $10 million, 2014 was $20 million. So the difference is $10 million. That was an increase in funding which you can count towards the match.

And then Year 1, that's another increase in funding. These years of match are increases in funding. So Year 1 is a $2 million increase. Year 2 is a $6 million increase. Year 3 is another $6 million increase, and Year 4 is a $10 million increase. These are increases from the previous year.

We're going to look at another question that we received. We'll be right back.

We had another question regarding the match. The question was, "Are the amounts of State matching funds each year supposed to be the State investment over and above what is done in FY '14?"

So we want to make sure that you're clear that there's a difference between State investment and the match. The section F in the FAQs talks a lot about matching. F1 in particular talks about the matching includes any non-Federal funds. So please refer to those. The match is funds above that have been contributed in addition to those original funds. So it's progressive.

All right. We have a question again about the matching, and we do know this is complicated. The question is, "In 2015, they made a $2 million increase in investment. And they keep sustaining that increase in 2006. But they didn't--

**Richard Gonzales:** '16.

**Steven Hicks:** I mean 2016. But they didn't raise it above the $2 million. Can they count it in 2016 as well?"

Yes. Because they are counting it above the base year, which was 2014. So they're adding from 2014, their base year, they're adding another $2 million in 2015. And . . .

**Libby Doggett:** . . . keeping that

**Steven Hicks:** Keeping that investment with the additional $2 million.

I want to just remind you in the matching and other areas of the Selection Criteria, the important thing is to explain to the peer reviewers in your application, explain in your application how it is you calculated these figures, what it is that you're trying to show as your investment, what it is you're trying to show in your match, and explain your work.

We have received some questions again on mixed age classrooms or mixed-income classrooms and how funds can be used. We're going to be providing another FAQ. It's going through clearance right now. But we'll post on that that more fully explains that. But we do want to direct you to C3 in the FAQs. C3 asks, "Can funding be used to support four-year-old children in mixed-age settings?"

Yes. Funds may be used to support high-quality preschool programs for eligible children in a mixed age classroom, as long as the program meets the definition of a high-quality preschool program, and grant funds are only used to serve eligible children. So the grant funds could only be used for eligible children.

**Richard Gonzales:** Another question that came in, "Are special needs children who are above 200% of poverty eligible?" The answer is, "No."

And then, "Are special needs children who are three-year-olds eligible?" The answer is, "No."

Please hold while we continue to look at questions.

**Steven Hicks:** Again, this really relates to C3. Perhaps if the questioner is thinking of serving those children in the mixed-setting. So again, the grant funds can only be used for the eligible children. But you can have children in a mixed-setting, whether they're special needs, of a different age, or whether they're from families that have higher than 200% Federal poverty level.

Hold please.

We received this question regarding MOUs. So I want to clarify that I believe this question is in regards to Expansion Grants because that's where a binding agreement would be required, such as a preliminary MOU. But I suppose that Development Grants could provide one if they wanted to, but it's not required to identify your subgrantees, only your high-need communities in Development Grants. So I'm going to assume this is for Expansion Grants.

The question is, "Is it permissible to add additional subgrantees to be funded with State matching funds in Years 2 through 4 that are not specifically identified in the application, and for which we don't have a preliminary MOU?"

Remember that when you submit your ambitious and achievable plan, you will be identifying your subgrantees. Now, things change over time and you could later change those or request to change those. But in your application, you'll be identifying your subgrantees that you have through your budgetary process and also in your plan to provide these funds to offer high-quality preschool programs. So you will be identifying all of your subgrantees.

We have this question, "A school District chooses to increase their investment for example for their preschools by $5 million. Can this be used as match if the group is a subgrantee?"

Yes. The answer is yes. It depends though, because it must be part of the high-quality plan and it must be serving eligible children and it must meet the definition of high-quality preschool programs.

Just on that last one, we are planning to have an FAQ that goes into a little more detail regarding that. But the short answer is, yes and it depends.

Okay, we have another question regarding subgranting. "Can a subgrantee of a subgrantee claim indirects? For example, if we subgrant with a school District, and they subgrant to a community partner, can the community partner then claim indirects?"

The answer is yes. On our indirect flowchart, in the slides, we show some indirect costs. In E9 in the FAQs, talks further about indirect costs. But we would expect that grantees and their plans would be prudent and reduce some of those costs.

So we had a follow-up for the adding additional subgrantees. I want to clarify that in your ambitious and achievable plan -- this is for Expansion Grants -- you will be identifying your subgrantees. That'll be in your budgets and also in your narrative, and that'll be in your plan of how you're going to provide high-quality preschool programs.

Now, for Years 2 through 4, or later on, you may choose to work with us to change subgrantees if something happens, or you add more additional funds somehow. You may work with us and we'll work with the grantees to do that. But the original question said that in Years 2 through 4 subgrantees that are not specifically identified in the application. But all of the grantees should be identified for Years 1 through 4. That's the entire span of the grant. You're not just applying for Year 1, although those are the funds that we know have been appropriated as of now. But the grant period is for four years, and the ambitious and achievable plan should span the four years of the grant.

We received a question about uses of funds, and the question is, "Can subgrantees use grant funding to purchase playground equipment?"

I want to direct you to FAQ E1 about allowable uses of funds associated with the cost of slots. There's new slots for E1, and improved slots for E2 and we list a number of allowable expenses, and also not allowable expenses. The bottom line is the State will make their case in their plan and costs should be reasonable and necessary.

We received a couple of questions on the mixed classrooms again. We know you're trying to find creative ways to serve children, given your current situation. So just again, we want to make sure you look at C3 that talks about mixed classrooms and we are going to have another FAQ that we'll post on our website. But this question is, "In mixed classrooms, can only a portion of the teacher's salary be charged to the grant?"

Yes. That would be correct. Because remember the Preschool Development Grants funds can only be used for eligible children. The State will need to, in their plan, in their budgets, account for that. 

We have another question. "We know that States and Federal Programs sometimes use different fiscal years or different years. The question is, for purposes of this grant, so grant periods 1 -- Years 1, 2, 3, and 4 -- is the grant year the Federal fiscal year or January 1st - December 31st?"

So Year 1 will be January 1st, 2015 to December 31st, 2015. So it will be one year from January to December.

We have this question that came in. "Can you talk about if a State can use Federal resources to support the writing of this grant? For example, can State staff funded with special education funds collaborate on the writing of the grant to ensure the grant is inclusive of all children?"

We would encourage you to talk to your State fiscal officers. In general, we would expect that reasonable and necessary costs are used, but that's really something that you should check with your State fiscal officers.

Hi. Sorry for the delay. Gotten some really great questions out there. We are excited because we can really tell you're working through the application and thinking of how this might work in your State. So this question we're going to have to interpret a little bit. But it says, "Does the use of funds for improvement need to be only with State-funded pre-K classrooms, or can early learning providers, who are connected with the subgrantee, receive funds to raise the quality of the programs?"

So we want to make sure that you look at E1 and E2. The high-quality preschool programs are either to create a new State Preschool Program Slot or improve a State Preschool Program Slot for eligible children. So you can create a new slot, or you can improve a State Preschool Program Slot in the ways addressed in E2.

Hi. We have a question, and this is in reference to some of the data that we're asking for, I believe regarding the 200% threshold for the Federal poverty level. "I can collect data on the 200% threshold prior to kindergarten entry. But kindergarten Free and Reduced Lunch uses a limit of 185% of the poverty rate. NHDOE collects accounts of students who apply for Free and Reduced Lunch by school and district. Can I use this formula? Or do we need to develop a new one for children at kindergarten entry?"

We provided the number of children at 200% for your State in the chart on our website and that was configured for 2012. We would expect that you will use the data sources that are available to you, and that you will explain how you came up with those. Any assistance that we need to give for funded grantees, we will provide those at a later date. But just explain how you came up with those numbers and your rationale in your ambitious and achievable plan.

We have a couple other questions that unfortunately we can't answer right now because they're in our new FAQ addendum that we will be putting out soon, and we'll make sure that we announce that to all the Governor's offices and on our Listservs. But if you haven't had your question answered, that's why, because we have it in a new FAQ that's being cleared right now and we can't read that until it's cleared.

Thank you so much for your attention today and your patience with us in answering these questions. We will post this webinar and the slides so you can refer to them on our website. We are grateful for your time and your effort in completing applications and submitting them by the October 14th deadline.

Thank you very much and have a great afternoon.

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