Districts are reminded that the DE has guidance in the Uniform Procedures Manual for LEAs regarding lawful uses of these funds available electronically at:  http://www.iowa.gov/educate/content/view/129/358/.  Click on chapter 9 and scroll about halfway down to PERL.

Note the guidance that types of expenditures “include those necessary to establish and maintain public recreation places and playgrounds and necessary accommodations, to provide public educational and recreational activities authorized under [Iowa Code] chapter 300, and to provide community education authorized under [Iowa Code] chapter 276.”

Notably absent from the types of allowable expenditures under PERL are before- and after-school programs and preschool, programs for which fees may be charged.  The guidance explains as follows:
It is the purpose of chapter 276 to provide educational, recreational, cultural, and other community services and programs through the establishment of the concept of community education with the community school serving as the center for such activity. … A related purpose of chapter 276 is to develop a sense of community in which the citizenry cooperates with the school and community agencies and groups to resolve their school and community concerns and to recognize that the schools belong to the people, and that as the entity located in every neighborhood, the schools are available for use by the community day and night, year-round or any time when the programming will not interfere with the elementary and secondary program.