Letter to the Indiana Department of Education — Reasonable Level of Tolerance (January 25, 2024)

Summary

A letter dated January 25, 2024 from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, signed by Laura Jimenez, Director, Office of State and Grantee Relations, to Secretary Katie Jenner of the Indiana Department of Education. It responds to Indiana's written plan for a reasonable level of tolerance in calculating State maintenance of equity under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for fiscal year 2023. Indiana has 54 districts with fewer than 500 students and proposes a tolerance of up to a five percent decline in per-pupil funding, which would affect three small districts serving 0.07 percent of Indiana's students. The Department determines that the approach is reasonable and consistent with the fiscal year 2022 request.

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Issuer: Congressional materials
Document type: Department Of Education 1 25 2024 Used Response To Tolerance Proposal Letter Fy23 Www Ed G
Case: Department Of Education 1 25 2024 Used Response To Tolerance Proposal Letter Fy23 Www Ed Gov 57De31De68

Cite this document

“Letter to the Indiana Department of Education — Reasonable Level of Tolerance (January 25, 2024).” Original at www.ed.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/department-of-education-1-25-2024-used-response-to-tolerance-proposal-letter-fy23-www-ed-gov-57de31de68/, SHA-256 867ece155f403e60028ea626fa439e8534d3046d4c335550e46109df974a1745.

Full text

                      UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
                          OFFICE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION




                                        January 25, 2024

The Honorable Katie Jenner
Secretary of Education
Indiana Department of Education
100 N. Senate Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Dear Secretary Jenner:

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) received your written plan for a reasonable
level of tolerance when calculating whether the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) has
met State maintenance of equity requirements in fiscal year (FY) 2023 under the American
Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP Act). This written plan applies only to a subset of Indiana’s local
educational agencies (LEAs).

The ARP Act State maintenance of equity requirements help ensure that State funding supports
LEAs with high concentrations of poverty and the students who have been subject to
longstanding opportunity gaps in our education system and experienced the greatest impact from
the COVID-19 pandemic. These requirements are vital for ensuring that States maintain funding
to address the impact of the pandemic on students’ education, and for protecting students in high-
need and highest-poverty LEAs from disproportionate cuts if reductions in State effort do occur.

The Department determined that it is consistent with the State maintenance of equity
requirements to allow a State educational agency (SEA) to calculate whether it has maintained
funding equity with respect to its very small high-need and highest-poverty LEAs within a
reasonable “tolerance level.” The Department’s determination is based on the possibility of
significant volatility in the calculated per-pupil funding amounts for very small LEAs caused by
small changes in student enrollment, which may be unrelated to whether an SEA has achieved
the intent of the requirements. (See Frequently Asked Questions, American Rescue Plan
Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Program, Maintenance of Equity
Requirements, July 26, 2022, Question 21(a).)

IDOE considers LEAs with membership counts of fewer than 500 students to be “small
districts.” Under this proposed threshold, Indiana has 54 such LEAs. IDOE asserts that
calculated per-pupil funding amounts for these small districts are significantly affected by small
changes in attendance rates and students’ educational needs. This makes annual per-pupil
funding amounts in Indiana’s small districts an imperfect indicator of whether the SEA has
achieved the intent of maintaining equity in funding across LEAs. For its 54 small districts,
IDOE proposes to implement a tolerance of up to a five percent decline in per-pupil funding. For
FY 2023, applying this tolerance would impact three small districts that served 0.07 percent of
Indiana’s students.
After reviewing IDOE’s tolerance proposal and accompanying data, the unique circumstances in
the State, and our further State-specific analysis, we have determined that this approach includes
a reasonable level of tolerance when calculating whether Indiana has maintained equity for small
districts in FY 2023. Further, the approach is consistent with IDOE’s FY 2022 tolerance request.

We appreciate your diligence in developing this proposal. If you have any questions, please
contact your program officer at: Indiana.OESE@ed.gov.

                                                   Sincerely,
aura Jimenez
                                                   Laura Jimenez

                                                   Laura Jimenez
                                                   Director, Office of State and Grantee Relations

File and source

File: department-of-education-1-25-2024-used-response-to-tolerance-proposal-letter-fy23-www-ed-gov-57de31de68.pdf
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SHA-256: 867ece155f403e60028ea626fa439e8534d3046d4c335550e46109df974a1745
Our copy: department-of-education-1-25-2024-used-response-to-tolerance-proposal-letter-fy23-www-ed-gov-57de31de68.pdf
Original: www.ed.gov