Title I, Part A District Budget Planning The “Small” Stuff Julie McGuire, MEd Federal Funds Coordinator Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD

Ok, you have your District Title 1, Part A planning amounts, now what?

Collecting data for determining poverty levels for your schools.  Federal regulations require Title I funds to be allocated at the building level based on the number of low-income children residing in each attendance area.  School districts are allowed to use any month’s data to determine their free and reduced eligible child count. Use the month that is most advantageous for your school district. However, one month must be used uniformly for all buildings within the district.

Title I Eligibility  40% - 100% - School-Wide  35% % - Targeted  If the school’s poverty rate is at least as high as the district’s average poverty rate.

What is a “Feeder Pattern Option”?  How do we determine eligibility based on feeder pattern?

Feeder pattern is a used to determine a secondary school campus Title I funding eligibility based on the percentages of low- income students in the elementary school/schools that “feed” into it.  If a junior high/middle school or senior high school building has been determined ineligible, then using the feeder pattern may make that building eligible.

 To use the feeder pattern list of elementary schools that feed into the school building they hope to make eligible. The average percent of poverty for those elementary schools would be applied to that building giving it a new poverty percentage.

Grandfather Option  The grandfather option may be used to continue to serve a school that was eligible for Title I funds and was served in the preceding year as a Title I school but would no longer be eligible.  The grandfather option may only be used to provide Title I services for one additional year.

Does an LEA have to serve all eligible schools?  75% Rule – all schools 75% and above MUST be served!  125% Rule – If a district chooses to serve any school with a poverty rate below the 35% threshold, any school/schools with rates above 35% must receive an amount per student equal to or above the 125% of the district per-child allocation.

Does an LEA have to serve all eligible schools?  Grade Span - Once all schools above the 75 percent threshold are served, and LEA may choose to rank schools within grade spans, rather than all the schools together. This means an LEA could rank elementary schools separately from middle and high schools, and it could choose to serve some grade spans but not others. Within a grade span, higher poverty schools still must be served first and get more money per low-income child. If an LEA’s schools have irregular grade spans, a school should be included in the grade span deemed most appropriate by the LEA.

Skipped Campus Skipped Campus - An LEA may choose to “skip a campus” if ALL the following conditions are met:  Comparability of Services Requirement  Skipped campus must receive supplemental funds which are expended to meet either the requirements of TEC §1114 or §1115  Supplemental funds must equal or exceed the Title I, Part A funds that are not being provided to the “skipped campus”

Skipped Campuses & Private School Participation Skipped Campus Requirements: Private School Participation  If the LEA chooses to “skip” a campus, the LEA must provide the opportunity to receive Title I, Part A services to all eligible private school children who reside within the boundaries of the attendance area of the “skipped” campus.

Reservation of Funds/Set-Asides  Before allocating funds, an LEA shall reserve funds, off the top, that are reasonable and necessary to conduct other authorized activities such as preschool programs, summer school and intersession programs, professional development, program improvement, and coordinated services.  There is no maximum amount that an LEA may reserve for administration, staff development, or other reservations. However, please bear in mind that Title I funds are primarily to be used to enable participating children to make adequate progress towards meeting the challenging State standards

Reservation of Funds/Set-Asides  Comparable services  Homeless students in non-participating schools  Students in Neglected Facilities  School Improvement Requirements  School Improvement-20% unless the LEA meets these requirements with non-Title I funds or unless a lesser amount is needed  a minimum of 10% for professional development.  School Choice-related transportation

 Title I, Part A and other programs do not have an administrative cap must maintain an amount of funds reserved for administration of the program are reasonable and necessary. As a rule of thumb, 5% admin is considered by USDE as reasonable and necessary.

Reservation of Funds/Set-Asides  Professional Development – For professional development is required if a Title I school has teachers who do not meet the “highly-qualified” definition of NCLB. Amount must be at least 5% of current entitlement  Parental Involvement - 1% if LEAs entitlement exceeds $500,000; with 95% of the 1% reserved being allocated to Title I campuses in addition to their basic campus allocation  Private School Programs  Preschool, Summer School, Intercession Programs

125% Special Allocation Rule 125% Special Allocation Rule:  Serving campus below 35%  All participating campuses receive an amount that is at least 125% of LEAs per-pupil allocation 125 Percent Per-Pupil Calculation Total LEA entitlement divided by Total Number of low-income students in LEA=Base amount per pupil Base amount multiplied by 125% (1.25)= minimum amount per pupil to ALL campuses being served.

An LEA uses this Special Allocation Rule only when serving campuses below 35%.  If an LEA chooses to fund any school attendance areas or schools with a poverty level below 35% (twice the national average of children aged 5-17 in poverty) then the per low-income amounts allocated to all its participating schools or areas must be at least 125% of the per low-income pupil the LEA received for that year under Title I.  PURPOSE: The purpose of the 125% rule is to ensure that funds are focused on the highest poverty schools in the LEA. It has no relevance for higher-poverty LEAs in which all schools have 35% or higher poverty. It definitely has an impact on less-impoverished LEAs with schools below 35% poverty; the 125% rule forces these less-impoverished LEAs to focus their money on their highest poverty schools, regardless of local pressure to spread the funds more widely. This rule applies regardless of whether the LEA is a Single Attendance Area or Multiple Attendance Area.

125% Special Allocation Rule  The LEA must calculate the 125% per-pupil amount based on the LEAs total entitlement, not on the amount remaining after reserves are determined.  The LEA must allocate at least the minimum amount for each low-income child at each campus the LEA serves with Title I, Part A funds, not just for those campuses below 35% poverty.

Carryover Funds  ESEA limits the amount of Title I, Part A funds a district may carry over from one fiscal year’s allocation to not more than 15 percent of the total Title I, Part A funds allocated to the district for that fiscal year.

Carryover Funds  Although a district may not use carryover funds to provide services in an ineligible Title I school, a district has considerable discretion in handling carryover funds. Some of these options include:  Adding carryover funds to the district's current- year allocation and distributing them to participating areas and schools in accordance with allocation procedures that ensure equitable participation of private school children.  An LEA may also use the carryover for district- level activities, such as parental involvement.  Allowing each campus to retain its carryover funds for use in the subsequent year.

 An LEA that is a Single Attendance Area or that has a total enrollment of fewer than 1,000 students may allocate funds to any campus, regardless of rank order of poverty

 Districts may not take funds from a building that has a larger allocation and distribute it to buildings that have smaller allocations.

 An LEA that chooses to serve campuses with 75 percent poverty or less using grade span groupings may determine different per-child amounts for different grade spans as long as those amounts do not exceed the amount allocated to any campus above 75 percent poverty. Per-child amounts within grade spans may also vary, as long as the LEA allocates higher per- child amounts to campuses with higher poverty rates than it allocates to campuses in the grade span with lower poverty rates.

 An LEA must bear in mind, however, that the goal of Title I, Part A is to enable participating children to make adequate progress toward meeting the challenging student performance standards that all children are expected to meet. The per child allocation amount must be large enough to provide a reasonable assurance that a school can operate a Title I program of sufficient quality to achieve that purpose.

 The Title I statute requires allocations to be based on the total number of low-income children in a school attendance area or school. Therefore, poverty is the only factor on which an LEA may determine funding. In other words, an LEA may not allocate funds based on the instructional model, educational need, or any other non-poverty factor. In fact, now that Title I, Part A places the responsibility for selecting participants and designing programs on schools rather than on the LEA, the LEA will not necessarily be in a position to know in advance the instructional model or educational need when determining allocations.