Special Education Grants to States — CFDA 84.027 obligations

What $66.41 billion on 347 awards means

Assistance listing 84.027 is titled SPECIAL EDUCATION GRANTS TO STATES in the USAspending.gov files this site indexes. The obligation total on that code is $66,405,886,055.34. An obligation is a recorded federal commitment on an award. It is not an outlay. Treating $66,405,886,055.34 as cash already spent on special education services mixes two series. SpendingVault keeps the label as obligations.

347 awards sit under that dollar book. Dividing $66,405,886,055.34 by 347 produces a mean near $191 million per award record. That quotient is derived from the two packet totals. It is not a typical per-pupil IDEA amount and not a related-services cost. Formula dollars often sit on state-agency assistance actions, which is why 347 records can carry $66,405,886,055.34.

The 76 recipients in the extract are organizational recipients stored on those award rows, not a count of students. 59 states appear in the place-of-performance coding. None of those volume stats converts the dollar total into an IEP census.

76 recipients across 59 states

CFDA 84.027 lists 76 recipients and 59 states against 347 awards. Recipient count is not unique children. It is how many organizational recipients the assistance extract stores for this listing. A state education agency can appear on multiple awards; 76 is not a headcount of special-education directors. The 59-state span is a coded-jurisdiction count, not a map of every classroom.

Because 347 awards are few relative to the dollar total, a handful of large state actions can move $66,405,886,055.34 without a matching jump in the 76-recipient count. Extra modifications can lift award volume while dollars barely move. The special-education hub keeps dollars, awards, recipients, and states visible so one statistic is not inferred from another.

Obligations versus IDEA outlays

USAspending.gov publishes obligations on assistance awards. The $66,405,886,055.34 figure for CFDA 84.027 can include commitments that will disburse later. Department of Education IDEA allocation tables and a single fiscal year’s special-education appropriation are different publications. This page does not translate the obligation total into those series.

If a number you expected is missing, the usual cause is a different reporting concept. Start from the obligation definition, then open the 84.027 program page. Do not stretch 347 awards or 76 recipients to cover every special-education dollar that touches a district.

What the 84.027 tables omit

The Special Education Grants to States hub lists award-backed obligations from USAspending.gov. It is not an IEP file, not a child-count table, and not a dispute-resolution log. Series that never appear as assistance awards will not show up in the $66,405,886,055.34. That omission is definitional rather than a gap in the 347 award rows.

Place-of-performance on 59 states is a coding field. A statewide grantee coded to one cell can dominate geography while services sit in many districts. Read the program page before any state split.

How to cite CFDA 84.027

A complete citation is $66,405,886,055.34 in obligations for CFDA 84.027, covering 347 awards, 76 recipients, and 59 states, drawn from USAspending.gov assistance awards on SpendingVault. Name the series as obligations. If the question is concentration rather than dollars, lead with 347 awards and 76 recipients, then the dollar total.

Start with the Special Education Grants to States program page, then the all-programs index. Agency pages show awarding organizations; they do not replace this listing’s obligation total. Nothing here is placement advice.

A worked reading of the 84.027 extract

Start from the four packet facts: $66,405,886,055.34, 347 awards, 76 recipients, and 59 states under CFDA 84.027. The mean near $191 million is a quotient from a modest award count, not a per-pupil IDEA amount. If a later USAspending.gov file adds a few large state actions, dollars can jump while 76 recipients barely move. If modifications proliferate, 347 can rise while the dollar book stays close to $66,405,886,055.34.

Nothing in the extract splits ages 3–21 grants from other IDEA parts, or flow-through to districts from state set-asides. Those cuts live in Department of Education publications. Treat CFDA 84.027 as an assistance-listing tag on USAspending.gov award files. Open the Special Education Grants to States program page, then the all-programs index, for a same-series ranking. Cite 347 awards and 76 recipients next to the dollars.

Questions

How much is obligated under Special Education Grants to States?

USAspending.gov assistance awards indexed on SpendingVault show $66,405,886,055.34 in obligations for CFDA 84.027. That sum is an obligation total, not a Treasury outlay total and not a count of students with IEPs. The same extract lists 347 awards, 76 recipients, and 59 states.

Why does CFDA 84.027 have only 347 awards?

The indexed award count is 347. IDEA Part B dollars often sit on a relatively small number of large state-agency assistance actions, which is why $66,405,886,055.34 can coexist with a modest record count. The 347 figure is a file statistic, not a count of students. 76 organizational recipients are stored on those rows.

Does the special-education total include money already spent in schools?

Not as a cash-paid sum. USAspending reports obligations—commitments to pay—rather than outlays. The $66,405,886,055.34 figure can include amounts that will disburse later. The 347-award count is a record tally, not a count of district drawdowns. Cite CFDA 84.027 with the obligation total from USAspending.gov assistance awards, not an outlay series.

How many states appear on CFDA 84.027?

The extract codes 59 states for Special Education Grants to States. That count is place-of-performance geography in USAspending.gov assistance files, not a map of every classroom. Those rows still sit under the $66,405,886,055.34 obligation total and the 76-recipient count. Cite CFDA 84.027 with the obligation total from USAspending.gov assistance awards, not an outlay series.