The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is intended to provide federal financial assistance to states in ensuring that qualified students with disabilities are receiving a free appropriate public education (FAPE). Indeed, approximately 6.4 million students ages 3-21, representing about 13% of school-age children, received services under IDEA in 2012-2013 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2015). To ensure the adequacy of funding in special education, IDEA 1997 amendments and the IDEA 1999 regulations included the requirement of maintenance of effort (MOE) for local education agencies (LEAs). MOE stipulates that the LEA must continue to maintain the same effort of state and/or local funding for the education of children with disabilities as they did during the previous fiscal year. Additionally, documentation of MOE was required from the LEA prior to receiving IDEA funding for the next fiscal year (Association of Educational Service Agencies, 2014). Although MOE is a long-standing IDEA requirement, confusion over the ever-changing interpretation of this requirement has created difficulty and confusion among state education agencies (SEAs) and LEAs. Further, the reauthorization of IDEA has been overdue, and this situation has exacerbated the concern over the MOE issue and led to the need to address the issue outside the IDEA reauthorization cycle. Due to the importance of providing appropriate funding to ensure FAPE, as well as the pertinence of the topic of LEA MOE due to updated regulations that were effective July 1, 2015, the purpose of this article is to provide an overview of trends and issues associated with MOE to aid the school administrator in understanding the complexities of the issue. Specifically this article will include a review of Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) letters of guidance, a discussion of select state practices (e.g., South Carolina), and summaries of both the 2015 MOE regulations and The Building on Local District Flexibility in IDEA Act.