Title 1 Section A Funding

What is Title 1 Section A Funding?

Title 1 Section A funding is part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 as part of his "War on Poverty" initiative. The intent of the larger Title 1 funding is to distribute funds to schools and school districts with a high percentage of students from low-income families, and support programs that will better serve children who have special needs that, without funding, could not be properly supported. Section A, which is the largest part, offers grants to schools and districts that meet certain criteria based on the low-income populations they serve.

Section A is divided into four grants with the following criteria:

• Basic - 10 "Formula Children" and 2%

• EFIG - 10 "Formula Children" and 5%

• Targeted - 10 "Formula Children" and 5%

• Concentration - 6,500 "Formula Children" or 15%

What is a "Formula Child" and how are they calculated?

"Formula Children" is a federally calculated standard to understand how many low income students are in a school district. This calculation is based on Federal Poverty income.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) , states determine "Formula Children" under one of the following methods:

1. The number of children ages 5–17 in poverty counted in the most recent census;

2. The number of children eligible for free and reduced price lunches under the National School Lunch Program;

3. The number of children in families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families;

4. The number of children eligible to receive Medicaid assistance;

or a composite of these data sources.

What is the problem?

Currently rural school districts and areas of low or declining population are receiving less than they should, compounded by the disparity of what is considered poverty versus low-income. For example, to qualify for the National School Lunch Program your family income must be less than 1.3. or 1.8x the poverty level for your family size. To be counted as a formula child however, you must be below the flat poverty income level. The other challenge pertains to the Basic grant level which requires a school district to have 10 "Formula Children" and 2% of your student population below poverty. For a district of 1,000 students, that means 30 children must be at or below the poverty line in order to qualify for the Basic grant under Title 1 Section A.

What would we like to change?

We would like for the calculation of formula children at a federal level to align with a more encompassing metric around financial security, such as students who qualify for the National School Lunch Program also counting in the Formula Children calculation. We believe that by modernizing these metrics, they will better serve the shifting populations of current school districts.

What have we done so far?

This issue was brought to us through a meeting with a rural school district in Massachusetts. Since then, we have met with the staff of Massachusetts's State Rep. Adam Hinds to learn more about what can be done at a state level. From that meeting we met with Chief Strategy and Research Officer at the Massachusetts's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

From those two meetings we learned that this is a problem plaguing not only Western Massachusetts rural schools, but rural schools across the state as well as all parts of rural America, and that to enact change would require changing the language in the Law.

Currently, we have been working to meet with Congressional members from various states and committees to raise awareness and gain a better understanding of what it will take to modernize the law as it pertains to Title 1 Section A.

Interested in learning more?

Title I Section A, like all federally funded programs, is inherently complicated. While one of our main focuses is on changing the metrics governing "Formula Children," we believe that there are many aspects of this funding that could be updated. If you would like to learn more about Title I Section A and our current efforts to modernize it, or if you would like to help us bring about this positive change, feel free to reach out to us on social media or our email accounts at shivaram@jlgtfoundation.org or chris@jlgtfoundation.org.