Program Monitoring Validations Begin – Title I, II, and IV
GRANTS MANAGEMENT
10/5/2026
This October may bring more a trick than a treat if you are selected for program monitoring validations on your ESSA-funded programs! The good news is that if you are picked, you will have until almost Christmas to submit the paperwork. If you weren't selected the last 2 years and aren't selected this year, you can bet all your candy that you WILL be selected in the next 3 years (TEA is validating all public schools with funding on a 6-year cycle starting last year)! Read on to find out what the random validations will entail so it doesn’t feel like torture!
What is being Validated?
The Federal Program Compliance Division at TEA will notify all school systems that will be selected via the Smartsheets Workapp system on October 27, 2026. The ESC for each school system selected will also be notified in order to provide technical assistance to selected districts prior to the due date. School systems that are selected will submit documentation for all of the ESSA programs for which they received funding in the 2025-26 school year:
Title I Part A
Title I Part C (Migrant, not likely for charters)
Title II Part A
NEW Title III, Part A ELA
Title IV Part A
NEW TEHCY
School systems that were selected for validation in these programs (know as “The Big 4”) in Years 1 (2024-25) and 2 (2025-26) will be excluded from the LEA Selection Pool for 2026-2027. Remember: the Program Validations process reviews program requirements for the previous school year.Any of the above programs that were marked non-compliant on the 2025-26 ESSA Compliance Report (due 9/30/26) will be excluded, but the ones you marked compliant will all require response documents if validated. Self-reporting non-compliance on the 2025-26 ESSA Compliance Report will put you in a separate corrective action group with your area ESC.
Instructions for submission will be included in the email notification, and documents will be uploaded via the Federal Program Compliance Program Monitoring Validations Workapps system. Documents will be due December 8, 2026.
Your area ESC will provide technical assistance between 10/28/26 and 12/8/26 if you are selected. You will be able to see if your LEA was selected by accessing links from the TEA’s Program Validations Page after notifications go out on Oct. 27.
The inSchools federal team strives to make sure our partner schools are always ready for validation, and we work in tandem with the technical assistance provided by your ESC in the event our schools are randomly selected!
Where is information on what is being validated?
The inSchools federal team urges all charter districts, selected for validation or not, to review the program-specific requirements. Here is a link to the pdf training slides 26-27-pmv-statewide-slides.pdf. All resources will go live on the TEA Program Validation website Oct. 16,2026.
When will we find out how we did?
The results will be communicated to the selected participants after April 30, 2026. There will be 3 possible results:
Met Requirement – TEA will close out upon notification
Approaching Compliance – LEA will have 20 days to submit a plan to TEA; TEA will close out upon approval of plan. If plan is not approved, an “improvement needed” will be assigned.
Improvement Needed – LEA will be assigned a compliance officer to engage in the Non-compliance Resolution Process and points will be added to the LEA’s risk assessment
Final results are expected in the Smartsheets workapp on May 1, 2026.