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Supplement Not Supplant

AG Opinion I10-003

Supplanting defined

• In general, the supplement not supplant (SNS) requirement is intended to ensure that services provided with Federal (State) funds are in addition to, and do not replace or supplant, services that students would receive otherwise.

Supplement not supplant

• Title I• Vocational Education• JTED• Classroom Site Fund

Questions to ask yourself – Title I

• Does the District use Title I funds to provide services that the District is required to make available under state, local or federal law?

Questions to ask yourself – Title I

• Does the District use Title I funds to provide services that it provided in the prior year with non-federal funds?

Questions to ask yourself – Title I

• Does the District use Title I funds to provide services for children participating in a Title I program or in a Title I school that it provides with non-federal funds to children in non-Title I schools?

Questions to ask yourself – Title I

• In other words –

What would have happened in the absence of federal funds? Would other monies have been used from state or local sources to pay for the items?

Supplement not supplant

• If you answered yes to any of these questions, your District is at risk of supplanting.

Guilty until innocent?

• SNS carries a presumption of violation unless proven otherwise.

• Where state funding is discontinued, a District may be able to replace eliminated funds with Title I dollars.

• Documentation is the key.

How to document

• Budgets

• Governing Board Minutes

• Salary schedules and/or accounting records

• Internal memoranda

Shifting Gears…

Attorney General Opinion I10-003

Don’t shoot the messenger

Can we buy food?

It depends

Question #1

• Can we buy refreshments for meetings from student activities?

Question #2

• Can a District buy refreshments for a parent for planning or committee meetings?

Question #3

• Can a District use M&O funds to pay for a really expensive dinner and invite spouses, too?

Question #4

• My Governing Board approved the use of district funds for providing refreshments at a training for district personnel. The training is mandatory, is conducted at the District Office, after school hours, and clearly has an educational purpose. Each attendee at the training has language in their contract allowing this, and the amount is considered de minimus. Is this allowable?

Recommendations

Smell test

Use your judgment

QUESTIONS?

Thank you.