{ "id": "R45862", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "R", "number": "R45862", "active": true, "source": "CRSReports.Congress.gov, EveryCRSReport.com", "versions": [ { "summary": null, "sourceLink": "https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/details?prodcode=R45862", "source_dir": "crsreports.congress.gov", "type": "CRS Report", "formats": [ { "sha1": "f10f57de449c39ef861595fabb5a51268cce6129", "format": "PDF", "url": "https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45862/3", "filename": "files/2020-11-02_R45862_f10f57de449c39ef861595fabb5a51268cce6129.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/2020-11-02_R45862_f10f57de449c39ef861595fabb5a51268cce6129.html" } ], "title": "Flexibility for Equitable Per-Pupil Spending Under Title I, Part E of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act", "source": "CRSReports.Congress.gov", "retrieved": "2020-12-06T04:03:44.715665", "date": "2020-11-02", "typeId": "R", "id": "R45862_3_2020-11-02", "active": true }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 603443, "date": "2019-08-06", "retrieved": "2019-08-12T22:08:37.723278", "title": "Flexibility for Equitable Per-Pupil Spending Under Title I, Part E of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act", "summary": "The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA; P.L. 114-95) amended the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to add the \u201cFlexibility for Equitable Per-Pupil Spending\u201d authority as Title I, Part E. Under Title I-E, the Secretary of Education (the Secretary) has authority to provide local educational agencies (LEAs) with flexibility to consolidate eligible federal funds with state and local funding to create a \u201csingle school funding system based on weighted per-pupil allocations for low-income and otherwise disadvantaged students.\u201d The Title I-E authority is applicable to LEAs that are implementing \u201cweighted student funding\u201d systems to establish budgets for, and allocate funds to, individual public schools. In general, weighted student funding systems base school funding on the number of pupils in each school in specified categories. Under these funding systems, weights are assigned to pupil characteristics that are deemed to be related to the costs of educating such pupils\u2014such as being from a low-income family, being an English Learner (EL), or having a disability\u2014and their educational program (such as grade level or career-technical education).\nEligible federal funds that may be consolidated in an LEA\u2019s weighted student funding system include those available under ESEA Title I-A (Education for the Disadvantaged), Supporting Effective Instruction (Title II-A), English Language Acquisition (Title III-A), and Student Support and Academic Enrichment (Title IV-A). No non-ESEA funds (e.g., funds available under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) or the Perkins Career and Technical Education (Perkins) Act) may be consolidated. Once eligible federal funds are consolidated in a participating LEA\u2019s weighted student funding system, these funds are treated the same way as the state and local funds. \nLEAs participating in Title I-E must have a funding system that uses weights or allocation amounts that provide \u201csubstantially more funding\u201d than is allocated to other students to ELs, students from low-income families, and students with any other characteristic related to educational disadvantage that is selected by the LEA. The system must also ensure that each high-poverty school receives in the first year of the local flexibility demonstration agreement more per-pupil funding for low-income students than was received for low-income students from federal, state, and local sources in the year prior to entering into the agreement and at least as much per-pupil funding for ELs as was received for ELs from federal, state, and local sources in the prior year. The weighted student funding system must include all school-level actual personnel expenditures for instructional staff, including staff salary differentials for years of employment, and actual nonpersonnel expenditures in the LEA\u2019s calculation of eligible federal funds and state and local funds to be allocated to the school level. \nThe Title I-E authority is limited to 50 LEAs in school years preceding 2019-2020, but could be offered to any LEA from that year onward, if a \u201csubstantial majority\u201d of the LEAs participating in previous years have met program requirements. In February 2018, the Secretary announced that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) would begin accepting applications from LEAs to enter into agreements under the Student-Centered Funding Pilot, which is how ED refers to the Title I-E authority. To date, only six LEAs have applied for the Title I-E authority, and only Puerto Rico has been approved to enter into an agreement. Puerto Rico will begin implementing the Title I-E flexibility authority during the 2019-2020 school year. Thus, no LEAs will have implemented weighted student funding systems under Title I-E prior to the 2019-2020 school year. \nWhile it is unclear why relatively few LEAs have expressed interest in participating in the Title I-E authority, there are several possible explanations, some of which are summarized below:\nED did not act to implement the Title I-E authority until February 2018, more than two years after the enactment of the ESSA. \nLocal flexibility demonstration agreements are for a three-year period with a possible renewal. LEAs may not feel that the changes needed to implement the required weighted student funding system are worthwhile for a three-year period without knowing for certain if the authority would be extended.\nStates and LEAs that currently have weighted student funding systems often include funds for students with disabilities and career and technical education in their systems. However, LEAs would be prohibited from consolidating IDEA or Perkins funds under the Title I-E authority.\nPublic schools that operate schoolwide programs under Title I-A already have the authority to consolidate state, local, and certain federal funds, including those available under IDEA or Perkins. \nThere may be concerns that some public schools may lose funds by switching to a weighted student funding system. As the Title I-E authority does not include any funding to ease the transition to the new funding system for schools that may be negatively affected, LEAs may be hesitant to participate.\nUnder the ESEA Title I-A program, which accounts for over 76% of the eligible federal funds under Title I-E, funds have historically been provided to public schools with the highest concentrations of low-income students. Under the Title I-E authority, if an LEA chooses to consolidate its Title I-A funds it is likely that the distribution of Title I-A funds would be more diffuse. \nIt is possible that some LEAs may view the consolidation of federal funds and the resulting redistribution of funds among public schools in the LEA as a step toward the portability of federal funds, whereby funds would be associated with individual students rather than schools and could ultimately follow them to any school of their choosing, including a private school.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/R45862", "sha1": "82df170003fed26079a16714968458fe15ba3f37", "filename": "files/20190806_R45862_82df170003fed26079a16714968458fe15ba3f37.html", "images": {} }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R45862", "sha1": "6e6bea597baf1d86be5d0f2247f2607bbb17d6e5", "filename": "files/20190806_R45862_6e6bea597baf1d86be5d0f2247f2607bbb17d6e5.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [] } ], "topics": [ "Economic Policy", "Education Policy" ] }