You asked the following questions about federal Title I funding for Groton and New London:

1. What is the formula for distributing Title I funds? Is it a tiered or step system of percentage of children on free or reduced price lunch programs?

2. What do schools in Groton and New London receive through Title I?

3. What discretion does a local board of education have on what level of Title I money is used and how?

SUMMARY

The “Title I” grant, named for Title I of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, is the largest federal education grant to states and local school districts. It supports educational programs for low-income students. Funds are distributed based on formulas established in federal law. The major factor used in the grant distribution formulas is the percentage and number of each school district's students coming from poor families. Because the poverty threshold for receiving Title I funding is relatively low, all but 30 of Connecticut's 167 school districts will receive Title I funding in FY 08.

For Title I purposes, the number of poor students in each district is determined by the U. S. Census Bureau using models and data from several databases. The Census Bureau's poverty numbers have no relationship to the numbers of low-income students eligible for free and reduced price school lunches.

For FY 08, according to figures provided by the State Department of Education (SDE), Groton will receive $ 599,925 in Title I funding and New London will receive $ 1,416,601.

Federal law requires local school districts to use Title I funds to provide programs for low-income students and schools. Districts have discretion to design their own programs to comply with federal goals. SDE must approve district Title I programs and planned expenditures in accordance with federal guidelines.

TITLE I DISTRIBUTION FORMULAS AND POVERTY COUNTS

Distribution Formulas

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (known as the No Child Left Behind Act) includes the federal government's largest grant to states and local school districts for providing educational services to disadvantaged students, known as Title I. Title I distributes federal funds to school districts under four formulas: basic, concentration, targeted, and incentive. These formulas are established by federal law.

The basic formula provides funds to school districts in which at least 2% of the school-age population, with a minimum of 10 students, are classified as poor according to the most recent satisfactory population data available from the U. S. Census Bureau. Concentration grants go to districts where the number of students identified as poor exceeds 6,500 or 15% of the school-age children. Targeted grants go to districts where the number of children identified as poor is at least 5% of school-age children, with a minimum of 10 students. Finally, Education Finance Incentive Grants (“incentive grants”) distribute funds to states based on (1) the state's effort to provide financial support for education compared to its per-capita income and (2) the degree to which education expenditures among districts are equalized. Once the incentive grant for each state is determined, grants to its local districts are determined using the same factors that are used for targeted grants.

Groton receives funds through the basic, targeted, and incentive formulas and New London receives funds under all four of the formulas.

Poverty Counts

The law requires the number of poor students to be determined based on the following: (1) the number of children aged five to 17 in the district from families below the federal poverty level; (2) the number of children from the district living in institutions for neglected and disadvantaged children that are not included in the first group; and (3) the number of children in the district from families above the poverty level. Poverty criteria must be the same as used in the last decennial Census, updated by increases in the Consumer Price Index (P. L. 107-110, Title I, Part A, Subpart 2, § 1124 (c)). The estimates are not related or comparable to numbers of students eligible for free and reduced-price school lunches.

The Census Bureau calls its Title I estimates “Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates” (SAIPE). They are derived from models that incorporate data from various sources, including:

1. income and poverty estimates derived from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) of the Current Population Survey (CPS) ;

2. direct estimates of income and poverty from 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial census data;

3. data summarized from federal individual income tax returns;

4. numbers of food stamp recipients;

5. information from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), in the form of personal income estimates;

6. Supplemental Security Income recipients; and

7. demographic intercensal estimates of the population of states and counties, by age and group quarters status.

A general overview of the SAIPE program is available on the Census Bureau's web page at http: //www. census. gov/hhes/www/saipe/overview. html (copy attached).

The most recent Census estimate for Title I grant formulas are for 2004. Table 1 shows the estimates for the Groton and New London districts.

Table 1: SAIPE Program Estimates for Groton & New London, 2004

2007-08 TITLE I FUNDING FOR GROTON AND NEW LONDON

According to Marlene Padernacht, Title I Coordinator for the State Department of Education's Bureau of Curriculum and Instruction, Groton and New London have applied for Title I funds I for FY 08. The funding amounts in Table 2 are the total Title I grants each district will receive under all the formulas described above. Of Groton's total, certain amounts are reserved for the two private entities listed, which house eligible neglected children.

Table 2: FY 08 Title I Funding for Groton and New London

School-by-school totals for the districts for FY 08 are shown in Table 3. The school allocations for Groton are final while New London's are still to be determined. We will forward the updated school amounts when we receive them.

Table 3: FY 08 Title I Funding for Groton and New London, By School

BOARD OF EDUCATION CONTROL OVER HOW TITLE I FUNDS ARE USED

Title I Program Goals and Requirements

Federal law requires Title I funds to be used for academic support and learning opportunities for low-income and low-achieving children to enable them to master challenging curricula and meet state standards in core academic subjects. The federal law's five goals for Title I grants are:

1. by 2013-14, all students will reach high standards, at a minimum attaining proficiency or better in reading and mathematics;

2. all limited English proficient students will become proficient in English and reach high academic standards, at a minimum attaining proficiency or better in reading and mathematics;

3. by 2005-06, all students will be taught by highly qualified teachers;

4. all students will be educated in learning environments that are safe, drug-free, and conducive to learning; and

5. all students will graduate from high school with the skills necessary to be successful in the 21st century.

Local school districts have discretion to design programs to achieve these goals. They must target the funds to their schools with the highest percentages of low-income students and, within those schools, must focus the Title I-funded services on the children who are failing or most at-risk of failing. If more than 40% of an individual school's students qualify for Title I, the school may use the Title I money, along with other state, federal and local funding, to provide an instruction program for the whole school.

School districts must design their programs in consultation with parents. Programs must be based on effective means of improving student achievement and include strategies to support parent involvement. The SDE must approve the proposed programs in accordance with federal guidelines.

Approved Title I Programs for FY 08 for Groton and New London

According to SDE, Groton will use its FY 08 funds for the following purposes at the targeted schools: Pre-K teachers, benefits, professional development, parent activities, travel, and instructional supplies and equipment. It will also use funds for district-wide professional development and parent activities.

New London proposes to use its Title I grant for: salaries (teachers, literacy coaches, instructional assistants, secretaries, library media technicians, tutors, and a district data facilitator); employee benefits; purchasing professional and technical services; supplemental educational services; and transportation for students seeking to transfer from failing to better-performing schools within the district. Federal law requires districts with schools needing improvement to allocate an amount equal to 20% of their Title I funding for students who attend those schools to access supplemental educational services or transportation to better-performing schools within the district.

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