(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.) The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is launching an online process designed to streamline how the state’s school districts comply with Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) program requirements in response to a recommendation by the Missouri State Auditor (MSA) to improve program monitoring.

Now this should be interesting. The departments of Agriculture and Labor have awarded some $200 million in competitive awards to 10 states to fund pilot projects designed to help Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) participants find jobs and work toward self-sufficiency. Such pilots will be conducted in California, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) Officials with the Department of Housing and Urban Development encouraged state and local low-income housing representatives to stay abreast of new regulations and program developments from HUD that can affect their housing programs.

This week is going to be an exciting week! Not only is it the start of the NCAA basketball tournament and all the hype surrounding that event both on the court and off, but today marks the beginning of International Grant Professionals Week. If you missed our blog post about this a couple of weeks ago, International Grant Professionals Week recognizes and celebrates the impact of grant professionals, administrators, consultants, managers, grantmakers and writers for their beneficial contributions to people, government agencies and nonprofit organizations.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service). Officials within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Public and Indian Housing plan to develop a monitoring policy by the end of June to help public housing authorities (PHAs) properly administer the community service and self-sufficiency requirement), in response to a recent HUD Office of Inspector General (OIG) recommendation.

With all the efforts that have been made to improve racial inequality over the last several decades, it seems lately that we were just spinning our wheels. News reports recently from Ferguson, Mo., and the University of Oklahoma show that interracial harmony in many places is still a long way away. If our founding fathers said that all men were created equal, sometimes you have to wonder if that were really true.

(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook). The Department of Labor (DOL), when stipulating the requirements for financial reports from nonfederal entities, will continue to inform its recipients whether the report will be submitted on a cash or on an accrual basis. This provision was one of several revisions the agency made to its grant regulations when adopting the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) uniform grant guidance.

The calendar is full of special days, weeks or months to recognize certain members of society. We have Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Veteran’s Day, Black History Month, Spanish Heritage Month, and so on. But have we ever recognized grants professionals? Up until now, the answer had been no. The time has come to change all that.