January 10, 2019

Dear Colleagues:

Happy New Year! Below please find a few questions that we have been receiving, along with responses to those inquiries. Please continue to reach out to your Perkins Regional Coordinators (PRCs) or the cte@ed.gov mailbox if you have additional questions and we will respond promptly.

What is the status of the Department of Education in light of the partial Government shutdown?
The Department currently has funding through the fall of 2019 and is completely operational during the partial shutdown. Please continue to draw funds for your grant programs as usual.

What is the status of the Perkins V State Plan Guide and Consolidated Annual Report (CAR) information collections?
The 60-day public comment period on Regulations.gov for both information collections has ended. The Department has received all the comments and is in the process of completing its final responses. The next step is for the Department to transmit its responses to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and for them to post the Department’s responses on Regulations.gov for a 30-day public comment period. This is the time when the public can see how we have responded to the initial round of comments and can make any further comments before the information collection(s) are finalized. Please note, however, that due to the partial shutdown, Regulations.gov is not operational and, thus, we are not able to get this next 30-day clock in motion. We will keep you updated on this situation.

When will the Department release its program memo with estimated FY 2019 Perkins State grant allocations?
The Department has posted preliminary allocations for FY 2019 to the ed.gov Website at https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/statetables/19stbyprogram.pdf (see page 19). You may use these preliminary allocations for planning purposes and we will issue final estimates as soon as they become available.

Best-

Sharon Lee Miller
Director, Division of Academic and Technical Education