Center for IDEA Fiscal Reporting

The Center for IDEA Fiscal Reporting (CIFR) at WestEd provides technical assistance to state education agencies (SEAs) on their federal special education fiscal data collection and reporting obligations.

This multi-million, five-year cooperative agreement is funded by the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs.

CIFR works collaboratively with states and other federally funded technical assistance centers with the primary goal of improving outcomes for children and youth with disabilities. CIFR intends to accomplish this goal by:

• Improving the capacity of SEA staff to collect and report accurate fiscal data related to two specific requirements associated with services provided to children ages 3–21+ under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act IDEA Part B
• Increasing SEA’s knowledge of the underlying fiscal requirements and the calculations necessary to submit valid and reliable data

WestEd and CIFR partners provide SEAs with general, targeted, and intensive support through knowledge development, tool and template development, and technical assistance and dissemination activities.

The center addresses data quality and compliance issues that could have a profound effect on states’ and school districts’ ability to provide education services, not just to students with disabilities, but to all students, as states may suffer significant monetary consequences as a result of non-compliance with these fiscal data collections.

CIFR is led by WestEd with partners AIR; the Center for Technical Assistance for Excellence in Special Education at Utah State University; Westat; and The Improve Group.