Understanding School Intervention Financial Requirements Jesse Fry Regional Coordinator Pennsylvania Department of Education Division of Federal Programs

Background Accountability has been a mandated portion of federal programming for some time. Accountability provisions are statutorily established within the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), state-specific waivered versions of NCLB, and now with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

Background The Division of Federal Programs (DFP) depends on several partners to ensure that accountability provisions are being met. Kelly Fortney, Jill Neuhard, and others with the Statewide Planning Team are indispensable to DFP regarding quality and content.

Background The Bureau of Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction, of which DFP is a subdivision, includes several complimentary divisions which provide assessment data. The Pennsylvania Value-Added Assessment System (PVASS) data provided by IU 13 is also of import.

General Items School Intervention (SI) formula monies should be distinguished from School Improvement Grants (SIG) that are competitive in nature. Many of the recipient buildings overlap but the requirements and level of funding attached to each funding stream vary significantly.

General Items School Intervention formula dollars align conceptually with the old School Improvement formula dollars from years ago. School Improvement provisions under NCLB included such designations as Warning, School Improvement I, etc.

General Items School Intervention provisions under the waivered Pennsylvania version of NLCB now use designations such as Priority, Focus, Reward, and Undesignated. The Every Student Succeeds Act has a similar tiered approach.

General Items Under NCLB 20% of the LEA Title I allocation had to be reserved for School Choice or School Choice and SES. The LEA could provide an attestation to PDE toward the end of the year stating that such programming was promoted and utilized in full. The attestation was used to allow for the rollover of any balance of the 20% remaining.

General Items Under the Pennsylvania waivered version of NCLB the 20% set aside requirement was suspended for one transition year and School Choice and SES were no longer mandated. After the first year of the waiver the 20% set aside requirement came back into play but with new mandated uses.

General Items The 20% set aside is currently for Priority and Focus designated buildings. The 20% is the third layer of funding above and beyond the state and local level and the regular Title I distribution. LEAs should be aware of supplanting in relation to such funding.

General Items PDE does not prescribe how the 20% is to be distributed across designated Priority and Focus buildings. As Kelly mentioned, Priority and Focus buildings do have to design and implement the requirements within their School Improvement Plan.

General Items Priority schools must also make sure that such funds are used to implement the 7 Turnaround Principles: – Strong Leadership – Effective Teachers – Increased Learning Time – Strengthened Instructional Program – Use of Data to Inform Instruction – Safe School Environment – Family and Community Engagement

General Items Focus schools must implement a strategy to address at least one of the 7 Turnaround Principles. A SIG model can also be used for compliance. The four models are: Restart, Closure, Turnaround, and Transformation.

General Items Additional School Intervention allocations outside of the LEA Title I allocation also come out in the spring of every year. This is not part of the 20% set aside and is a stand-alone supplementary grant based upon designation and PVASS growth. Most allocations range between $40K and $80K.

General Items Expenditures for the extra monies should follow both School Improvement Plan and the provisions related to the 7 Turnaround Principles. There is not a rollover feature for such funding and they must remain at building level. However, an automatic carryover year is granted because of the timing of this grant.

Moving Forward The PA waivered version and all specific allowances become void in August Any 20% set aside balance from the school year can be rolled over for other uses once approved by the Regional Coordinator. This rollover feature is likely to remain intact for set asides but cannot be guaranteed.

Moving Forward School reconfiguration changes may have an effect on federal designations and associated requirements. I should be notified of any changes that occur over the summer.

Moving Forward with ESSA ESSA is still being interpreted at the federal and state levels via the negotiated rulemaking process. Targeted Support Schools may be analogous to Focus and Comprehensive Support Schools to analogous to Priority.

Moving Forward with ESSA The state will be designing TSI and CSI entrance and exit criteria over the next year and will be notifying LEAs accordingly. Please contact me anytime. /