1. Special Education Maintenance of Effort
Public Education Department
Project Closure Presentation
November 13, 2018
PED CIO, Matthew Goodlaw
Project Manager, Mark DeCamp

2. Outline Overview Certification History Project Costs Close Out Summary
Lessons Learned

3. Overview Business Problem: Project Goals: Desired Project Outcomes:
The Office of Special Education Programs 2016 review of New Mexico’s MOE resulted in a number of findings. At PED, the Maintenance of Effort (MOE) has proven to be very costly to coordinate and perform finding computations
Project Goals:
Improve data quality, and reduce internal processes for gathering needed data and the inadequate data systems
Desired Project Outcomes:
Implement a comprehensive solution that will enable the state system to reliably and efficiently conduct the federal maintenance of effort reporting
The New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED, PED) Special Education Program Office is required to submit annual Maintenance of Effort (MOE) reports to the US Department of Education regarding program implementation data. The Office of Special Education Programs’ (OSEP’s) review (2016) of New Mexico’s Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B MOE reduction and Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS) resulted in a number of findings in the Local Education Agency (LEA) MOE/CEIS data submissions. As a result of not meeting federal requirements this past year, LEAs are at risk of losing federal funding for MOE.

4. Overview (cont.) Phase I concluded on June 30, 2017 completing:
Stakeholder research and needs assessments
Local Education Agencies (LEA) stakeholder process maps, use case definition
Process re-engineering recommendations
User interface designs
Business requirements definition
Data validation rule analysis
Preliminary solution design
Phase II was terminated on April 11, 2018
It was originally planned to include the refinements to the solution design, building and testing a solution, conducting security testing, documentation, training and change management/user adoption for a real-time, integrated, open-source solution.
On April 11, 2018 a stop work order was issued and this phase was canceled, and the contract terminated.
Phase II Schedule start date was 10/10/2017 but did not start until 2/1/2018
Factors for cancelation were delay in contract approval, a delayed project start date, and a collapsed project schedule would still not allow adequate time to finish development and client dissatisfaction .

5. Certification History
Date
Amount
Funding Source(s)
01/25/2017
(Initiation/Planning)
$584,000.00
IDEA –B Federal Fund, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
9/27/17
$1,096,128.46
Total
$1,680,128.46
This project passed TARC certification on September 14, 2017

6. Project Expenditures Schedule and Cost Planned Start Date 3/15/2017
Actual Start Date
Planned End Date
5/30/2018
Actual End Date
4/11/2018
Planned Cost (Budget)
$1,845,886.21
Actual Cost
$746,254.01

7. Close Out Summary
The Special Education Maintenance of Effort (MOE) Phase II Project closed in a Red status.
On April 2, 2018, PED IT Project Management initiated a stop-work order, dated April 5, 2018, to the prime contractor, RESPEC.
Factors were delay in contract approval, a delayed project start date, and a collapsed project schedule would still not allow adequate time to develop the automated MOE calculator.
RESPEC was asked, by NM PED, to finish the design deliverable, which was 90 percent complete.
The Solution Design was the only objective met for the project.
The Contract officially closed on May 7, 2018.
The PED Special Education Department has a manual workaround for managing the process with the LEAs and to deliver adequate Maintenance of Effort reporting to the Federal Government.

8. Lessons Learned
The cost of this project was prohibitive and was not in alignment with the Agency priorities and was in excess of cost vs. reward.
Cost benefit analysis is a valuable tool and should be utilized prior to engaging on any project
The original findings were addressable using improved manual processes
It takes strong leadership to stop a train
The project manager was just the messenger

9. Thank you