On Friday, the U.S. Department of Education issued a letter clarifying the impact of sequestration on federal education programs with advanced funds (Title I, Title II, IDEA and Perkins). Based on the new guidance, schools do not have to plan for any of the cuts of sequestration impacting schools during the 2012-13 school year. The memo clarifies that all cuts will be felt during the 2013-14 school year.

What Changed: Absent this clarification, the understanding had been that any federal dollar available under FY13 budget authority (Oct. 1 2012- Sept. 30 2013) would be subject to the sequester. This would have included the advanced portions of FY12 dollars for the four programs listed above and would have impacted schools during the 2012-13 school year. The new guidance clarifies that while the calculation for the sequester will still consider the advanced portion of FY12 and the regular FY13 appropriations, none of the cuts based on that calculation will be made until July 2013. Consequently, schools do not need to brace for sequestration-related cuts in the 2012-13 school year.

An overview and the text of the memo are available on the AASA blog.