IFG for FY21

The X Factor application that used to be on www.agriculturaleducation.org will now be housed internally at ISBE. I am working out the details on that, it will likely be in a Microsoft form for teachers to fill out the checklist. We will not be pre-populating any of the fields this year to provide a quicker turnaround. 

• X-Factor application: Anticipated release date in April. It will be due 30 days following release. This will be a hard deadline, if it is not submitted by cutoff date, no funding will be allowed. Once scores are released, there will be a 1-week challenge period. 
• Budget application: Anticipated release date in mid-late May. This will be due by 11:59 pm on June 30. Applications submitted after July 30 will be subject to not being funded.
• Audits for all ag grants will be increased during FY21. You are required to keep records related to all ISBE grants for five years, unless otherwise stated. For IFG grants this will include documentation to support your X-Factor checklist. Much of the information will be maintained online at www.ilaged.org, however you are responsible for maintaining records for other items.

Three Circles for FY21

The Initial application that has been used in previous years will be changing this year. Only district administrators will be permitted to submit the application to ISBE, it is the intent that teachers would be able to start the application, but administration would submit (the same as all budget applications in IWAS). 

• Initial application: This application is used to determine the allocation amount for the district per teacher (asks for salary/benefits information). This is anticipated to be released in April with a due date of mid-May. This will be a hard deadline unless a school is a new start-up that starts after the deadline. Applications not received by the due date will not receive funding for FY21.
• Budget application: Anticipated release date of June 1. This will be due by 11:59 pm on June 30. Applications submitted after July 30 will be subject to not being funding.
• New for FY21: Allocation changes will not be permitted after July 31. The only exceptions to this deadline are for districts who are going through contract negotiation and have not yet settled by July 31 or for districts who hire a new teacher. These districts will need to submit a request for extension via email and indicate this in their IWAS Budget application. Allocation corrections that require an increase in allocation will not be guaranteed after July 31.