ED Applies 2024 Uniform Guidance to All Its Awards

One of the last grant-related actions taken by the Department of Education (ED) under the Biden Administration was certainly a bold one — although it may create some audit issues down the line.

The April 2024 revisions to the uniform guidance generally became effective for awards issued on or after Oct. 1, 2024. ED states in a Jan. 16 Federal Register notice that the revisions “provided new flexibilities and due process protections to grantees, and also clarified several grant requirements.”

To allow these flexibilities to apply uniformly to ED grantees, the agency updated the terms and conditions of its grants to clarify that the 2024 revised guidance will apply to all ED grants subject to the uniform guidance, even those awards issued prior to the Oct. 1, 2024, effective date that would have followed a prior version of the guidance.

ED grantees will not automatically receive a new printed Grant Award Notice, and are not required to take any action “other than continuing to draw down funds to take advantage of this change, but are encouraged to maintain a copy of [the Jan. 16 Federal Register notice] within their grant files as documentation for grant management and auditing purposes.”

This creates some interesting questions, particularly when auditing these awards. When monitoring awards for the audit period July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, would the auditor apply the old rules to the first six months, and then start applying an updated set of rules after Jan. 16? If awardees did not “maintain a copy of the notice within their grant files” and began applying the 2024 uniform guidance provisions, would their auditors be aware of this change when determining findings? Also, if an auditee expends under $1 million annually, when would this new audit threshold apply to ED awards? Moreover, will ED, particularly under the new administration, ensure that it addresses all these questions as part of its program audit guidance in the 2025 Compliance Supplement?

ED grantees themselves may have their own questions about this change. For instance, can local educational agencies ask for revised indirect cost rates reflecting the new $50,000 subaward limit? The Bruman Group, which has partnered with Thompson Grants, is providing webinars specially for the ED grantee community that dive into some of these question. For our part, Thompson Grants will provide other information about federal grants and agency actions that may affect their awards. To be continued…

Join us for our following Thompson Grants events:
2025 Thompson Grants Workshop: Procurement | Jan. 30, 2025 | Virtual Event
2025 Thompson Grants Workshop: Indirect Costs | March 25, 2025 | Virtual Event