Consultation Meeting with Private School Partners Rochester City School District Office of Grant & Program Accountability February 6, 2008

Objectives 1) To provide clarity on financial compliance items of mutual interest 2) To provide clarity on program compliance items of mutual interest 3) To discuss viable options for moving forward for the remainder of the academic year 4) To discuss tentative plans for the delivery of Title I services in

Consultation must include:  How the children’s needs will be identified  What services will be offered  How and when decisions about the delivery of services will be made  How, where and by whom services will be provided  How services will be assessed and improved based on assessment results  Size and scope of services

Add’l Consultation topics  Criteria to identify and select eligible private school children  Coordination of the Title I program with instruction in the classroom  Appropriate assessment tools  Process for LEA monitoring

Financial Compliance: Context  The Child Benefit Theory was developed to comply with the prohibition against Federal funding to private schools.  Title I Services: Benefit the individual child, not the private school Are provided by the LEA, not the private school NO FUNDS GO TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Financial Compliance: Context  Funds must be used for instructional services Exception: The equivalent of $8/child (low- income resident of the City of Rochester) must be used for parent involvement activities.  The LEA must carryover unspent funds designated for services to the next year’s program for private school participants.  Carryover is not a viable option if schools are closing.

Financial Compliance: Pooling funds If funds generated by low-income private school children are pooled* within an LEA, services provided to eligible children in a particular private school are not dependent upon the amount of funds generated by low- income children in the private school.

Financial Compliance: Bottom Line Private schools may not directly hire staff Private schools may not use funds to purchase materials and supplies Private schools may not receive funds to support professional development

Program Compliance: Who may receive Title I services?  Private school children who reside in Title I participating public school attendance areas AND are failing or most at risk of failing to meet high standards  LEA selects participants from names of eligible children provided by private school officials based on multiple, educationally-related, objective, developmentally-appropriate criteria  Poverty is NOT a criterion

Program Compliance: What criteria may be used to determine if students are “at-risk?”  Achievement tests, teacher referral and recommendation based on objective, educationally related criteria, academic performance in the regular classroom  Children from preschool through grade two are selected solely on the basis of such criteria as teacher judgment, interviews with parents, and developmentally appropriate measures. [See Section 1115(b)(1) and (2)]

Program Compliance: Allowable types of Services  Direct instruction or tutoring outside the regular classroom in a dedicated space After or before school programs Saturday programs or Summer school  Early childhood  Counseling  Appropriate professional development  Computer-assisted instruction, or  Combination of these services

Program Compliance: Do’s & Don’ts Placing materials and supplies in the private school to be used by private school personnel is not allowable.

Program Compliance: Supplement, not supplant Title I services must be in addition to and cannot replace services that would be provided by private schools to their private school participants.

Program Compliance: Do’s & Don’ts Title I services cannot be provided in the regular classroom through cooperative learning or joint teaching.

Program Compliance: Do’s & Don’ts Private school teachers cannot provide Title I services unless they are employees of the LEA or under contract with the LEA

Program Compliance: Do’s & Don’ts  Provider of Title I services must be either an employee of the LEA or an employee of a third party under contract with the LEA.  LEA teachers must meet HQT requirement.  Paraprofessionals must meet the qualification requirements, provide instructional support, and be under the direct supervision of and in close and frequent proximity to a HQT public school teacher.

Program Compliance: Do’s & Don’ts  Title I funds may only be used to meet the needs of participating children.  Non-Title I private school children may not use materials paid with Title I funds.  LEA must retain title to all materials (i.e. – including computers) purchased with Title I funds.  All materials, etc. purchased with Title I funds must be labeled “Property of Rochester City School District” and placed in a secured location when not in use.

Program Compliance: Assessment  After consulting with private school officials, the LEA must establish what assessment will be used to measure the effectiveness of the Title I program against the agreed upon standards.  May use the State assessment or another assessment that is aligned to the agreed upon standards.  All participants are assessed annually.

Program Compliance: Assessment Every year, the LEA, after consulting with private school officials, must determine what constitutes acceptable annual progress for the Title I program.

Program Compliance: Assessment If the expected annual progress is not met, the LEA, after consulting with the private school officials, must review the program and determine what modifications it should make to the Title I program in order to improve the achievement of the private school participants.

Moving Forward: remainder of  The RCSD may provide additional services during the remainder of the year  The RCSD may carry over any unspent funds the private school participants for the next school year.

Moving Forward: remainder of Requests for materials and supplies or professional development in the Title I program must be made on the RCSD Title I request form and must include a clear justification for how the request will be used to support Title I students Send requests to Linda Kendall at

Next year: ’08 - ’09  Brief discussion of options

Contact us:  Mr. Terry Hofer  Dr. Ray Giamartino  Ms. Linda Kendall