Your first wave of stimulus money has rolled in, and you'll likely get another wave this fall. How will you put it all to the best use? How do you make sure the impact is felt long after the last stimulus dollars have tumbled in? Is your plan sustainable beyond the two-year funding cliff, or have you fallen into the quick-fix trap? Are you seeing the long-term picture through the whirl of extra dollars you can spend right now?

Anna M Munson, executive director of federal grants management for the St. Louis Public Schools, walks you through the lurking pitfalls and promising practices associated with special education and Title I stimulus spending. Make sure you're managing your district's stimulus money effectively -- and according to the latest federal guidance. Anna will lead you through the smartest strategies and potential mistakes associated with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act spending, including:

Smart Strategies (Dos)

• Investing in assistive technology to improve outcomes for students with disabilities
• Paying for training and professional development for starting or enriching your district's Response to Intervention (RTI) model
• Boosting funding for coordinated early intervening services (CEIS) to reduce special ed costs associated with overidentification
• Investing in programs that will save and/or generate dollars in two years
• Effectively using IDEA funding to serve students with disabilities in pursuit of AYP and school improvement
• Pooling resources with other districts to hire experts, consultants or specialists in autism and low-incidence disabilities

Pitfalls (Don'ts)

• Hiring new staff now, when you won't be able to pay for them later
• Abusing (or confusing) the supplement, not supplant rules for Title I and special ed program funding
• Failing to track and report the money trail — "who, what, when, where and how"
• Comingling ESEA and IDEA funds