Title I Ranking Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
Note: Additional Information on grade–span option is available in the School Grade Span Group Assignment Web page.
- May an Local Educational Agency (LEA) still select CalWorks data as a poverty measure for ranking schools?
Yes. The LEAs may still use CalWorks data to rank schools eligible for Title I funding. The California Department of Education no longer receives this data. However, the LEA must obtain the data directly from their County Welfare Office. Please be aware that in many cases, these data may not be available. The LEA must then select an alternative poverty measure.
- A school that received Title I funds last year is no longer at or above the district wide poverty percentage. Can the school qualify for funding for one more year?
Yes. The grandfather provision (Ranking Exception "e") allows for an additional year of funding for schools that were funded last year but no longer rank high enough in the current school year to receive Title I, Part A. The school does not need to be the next ranked school after all eligible schools that are at or above the district wide poverty percentage in order to be eligible.
- One of our high schools just missed being one of the schools at or above the district wide poverty percentage (or grade span percentage). Is there a way that we can qualify the school?
Yes. Occasionally middle schools and high schools do not qualify for funding because students are reluctant to participate in the free or reduced meal program or fail to turn in the income data needed to the school. You may use the Feeder Pattern exception to make these schools eligible. To use the Feeder Pattern, an LEA may project the number of low-income children in a middle school or high school on the basis of average poverty rate of the elementary school attendance areas that feed into that school. For examples of how to calculate feeder pattern, please go to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Policy Guidance Web page. Click on the link to “Identifying Eligible Title I Schools and Attendance Areas.”
- My district has an enrollment of less than 1,000 students. What ranking rules apply?
Any LEA with a total enrollment of less than 1,000 students is not required to allocate funds to school attendance areas or schools in rank order of poverty. Also, the LEA is not required to determine a per-pupil amount and multiply that figure by the number of poor children in each attendance area or school in order to arrive at an allocation. In addition, neither provision applies regarding (1) requiring an LEA to allocate a higher per pupil amount to areas or schools with higher poverty rates than it allocated to areas or schools with lower poverty rates or (2) requiring that the per pupil amount used to determine each school's allocation be at least 125 percent of the LEA's per pupil Title I allocation in cases where a school district serves a school with a poverty rate below 35 percent.
However, the LEA must have a rational basis for how it allocates Title I funds/resources among its schools that is based on an assessment of the needs of the students in those schools. An LEA cannot use this special provision arbitrarily to skip a school if its students have a demonstrated need that is as great as or greater than another school.
- May a school with a poverty percentage above 75 percent be skipped if an LEA funds the school from other sources to the same level as if the school had received Title I funds?
Yes. Under Section 1113(b) (1) (D) an LEA may choose not to serve an eligible school attendance area or school that has a higher poverty percentage provided:
- the school meets the comparability requirement in Section 1120A(c) of the Title I statute;
- the school is receiving supplemental funds from other state or local sources that are spent according to the requirements of sections 1114 (schoolwide program school) or 1115 (targeted assistance school) of the Title I statute; and
- the amount of supplemental funds expended per poverty child from State or local sources equals or exceeds the amount of Title I, Part A funds that would otherwise be allocated to that school.