Letter to the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction — Reasonable Level of Tolerance (October 17, 2023)

Summary

North Dakota State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler is told in an October 17, 2023 letter from Laura Jimenez that the Department accepts the amended tolerance plan of the Department of Public Instruction for FY 2022 maintenance of equity. The plan has five tiers, tolerating year-to-year per-pupil reductions of 70 percent for districts under 10 students, 40 percent for 11 to 35, 25 percent for 36 to 250, 15 percent for 251 to 350 and 10 percent for 351 to 1,000. The tiers would affect one, four, 26, nine and five high-need or highest-poverty LEAs, with the largest share, 3.4 percent of students, in the 36 to 250 tier.

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Issuer: Congressional materials
Document type: Department Of Education 10 17 2023 Used Response To Tolerance Proposal Fy22 Www Ed Gov Ebe
Case: Department Of Education 10 17 2023 Used Response To Tolerance Proposal Fy22 Www Ed Gov Ebef20104A

Cite this document

“Letter to the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction — Reasonable Level of Tolerance (October 17, 2023).” Original at www.ed.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/department-of-education-10-17-2023-used-response-to-tolerance-proposal-fy22-www-ed-gov-ebef20104a/, SHA-256 869596a39acc52e1790663b3fb2f0d62a2ae08ea39212a38fec2492a25023957.

Full text

                      UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


                                        October 17, 2023

The Honorable Kirsten Baesler
State Superintendent
North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
600 East Boulevard Ave., Dept. 201
Bismarck, ND 58505

Dear Superintendent Baesler:

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) received your amended plan for a reasonable
level of tolerance when calculating whether the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
(NDDPI) has met State maintenance of equity requirements under the American Rescue Plan Act
of 2021 (ARP Act). This written plan applies only to a subset of North Dakota’s local
educational agencies (LEAs).

The ARP Act’s 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).)

According to materials provided by NDDPI, North Dakota’s State funding formula, set bi-
annually by the legislature, is supplemented with an enrollment-driven formula to account for
special district needs. NDDPI asserts that calculated per-pupil funding amounts for its very small
LEAs are significantly affected by small changes in attendance rates. This makes the per-pupil
funding amounts in North Dakota’s very small LEAs an imperfect indicator of whether the SEA
has achieved the intent of maintaining equity in funding across LEAs.

Accordingly, NDDPI proposes five tolerance levels:
   • Tier 1: For districts with fewer than 10 students, NDDPI proposes to tolerate a 70 percent
      reduction in per-pupil funding, year to year. This would impact one LEA identified by the
      State as meeting the definition of high-need or highest-poverty in fiscal year (FY) 2022
      that served 0.007 percent of North Dakota’s students.
   •   Tier 2: For districts with 11 to 35 students, NDDPI proposes to tolerate a 40 percent
       reduction in per-pupil funding, year to year. This would impact four LEAs identified by
       the State as meeting the definition of high-need or highest-poverty in FY 2022 that served
       0.11 percent of North Dakota’s students.
   •   Tier 3: For districts with 36 to 250 students, NDDPI proposes to tolerate a 25 percent
       reduction in per-pupil funding, year to year. This would impact 26 LEAs identified by the
       State as meeting the definition of high-need or highest-poverty in FY 2022 that served 3.4
       percent of North Dakota’s students.
   •   Tier 4: For districts with 251 to 350 students, NDDPI proposes to tolerate a 15 percent
       reduction in per-pupil funding, year to year. This would impact nine LEAs identified by
       the State as meeting the definition of high-need or highest-poverty in FY 2022 that served
       2.3 percent of North Dakota’s students.
   •   Tier 5: For districts with 351 to 1,000 students, NDDPI proposes to tolerate a 10 percent
       reduction in per-pupil funding, year to year. This would impact five LEAs identified by
       the State as meeting the definition of high-need or highest-poverty in FY 2022 that served
       2.0 percent of North Dakota’s students.

After reviewing NDDPI’s amended tolerance proposal and accompanying data, the unique
circumstances in the State, and our further State-specific analysis, we have determined that
NDDPI’s tolerance proposal includes reasonable levels of tolerance when calculating whether
North Dakota has maintained equity for small LEAs in FY 2022.

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

                                                  Sincerely,

                                                  Laura Jimenez

                                                  Laura Jimenez
                                                  Director, Office of State and Grantee Relations

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