Section 2463 · Maintenance of effort

No payments shall be made under this chapter for any fiscal year to a State unless the Secretary determines that the fiscal effort per student or the aggregate expenditures of such State for vocational education for the fiscal year preceding the fiscal year for which the determination is made, equaled or exceeded such effort or expenditures for vocational education for the second preceding fiscal year.

The Secretary may waive the requirements of this section (with respect to not more than 5 percent of expenditures by any State educational agency) for one fiscal year only, upon making a determination that such waiver would be equitable due to exceptional or uncontrollable circumstances affecting the ability of the applicant to meet such requirements, such as a natural disaster or an unforeseen and precipitous decline in financial resources. No level of funding permitted under such a waiver may be used as the basis for computing the fiscal effort required under this section for years subsequent to the year covered by such waiver; such fiscal effort shall be computed on the basis of the level of funding which would, but for such waiver, have been required.