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White Paper

Using Federal Grants to Hire Personnel: Advice for K-12 Districts

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Using Federal Grants to Hire Personnel: Advice for K-12 Districts

Hiring additional reading and math coaches, counselors, school psychologists, tutors, and other support staff is key to helping your district meet students’ academic and social-emotional learning needs. Tracking grant-funded activity is critical for federal compliance.

Federal grant programs are critical resources for closing achievement gaps that have widened during the pandemic. With the help of federal programs, school systems can supplement their existing personnel, reduce class sizes, and add much-needed specialists to improve student outcomes. However, using federal grants to offset personnel expenses requires a plan for what to do when the funding runs out. It also requires careful reporting and documentation of the time and effort that each employee spends on grant-supported activities.

Although this process can be challenging, K-12 grants administrators can make it easier by establishing clear and consistent procedures, communicating the importance of this process to employees, working closely with HR and payroll departments, and implementing an effective timekeeping system. An automated workforce management solution can also simplify the process and reduce the chance of errors in reporting.

This white paper takes a closer look at the documentation required of school systems that use federal funding for labor-related expenses, and it reveals key strategies for completing this process successfully.