Washington — United States Department of Education to the Honorable Chris Reykdal (February 2, 2024)

Summary

A letter dated February 2, 2024 from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, signed by Laura Jimenez, to Chris Reykdal, Superintendent of Public Instruction, of the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. It responds to Washington's written plan for a reasonable level of tolerance in calculating maintenance of equity under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for fiscal year 2023. For districts with 100 or fewer students the plan tolerates a 30 percent reduction in per-pupil funding, affecting 15 districts, and for those with 101 to 1,000 students a 10 percent reduction, affecting 13 districts. The Department determines the approach is reasonable and says Washington will need to make additional payments to other districts.

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                          UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
                           OFFICE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION




                                         February 2, 2024

The Honorable Chris Reykdal
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
600 South Washington Street
Olympia, WA 98504-7200

Dear Superintendent Reykdal:

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) received your written plan for a reasonable
level of tolerance when calculating whether the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public
Instruction (OSPI) 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 Washington’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 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 OSPI, Washington funds schools primarily through a set of
student-to-staff ratios that translate into an allocation for LEAs. Two facets of the school funding
system have particular implications for OSPI in meeting State maintenance of equity
requirements in small LEAs: (1) the impact of small school funding factors; and (2) State
funding allocations for students enrolled in Alternative Learning Experience programs, including
online learning. OSPI asserts that calculated per-pupil funding amounts for small LEAs are
significantly affected by small changes in student population, particularly when students have
moved from brick-and-mortar schools to online learning. This makes annual per-pupil funding
amounts in Washington’s small LEAs an imperfect indicator of whether the SEA has achieved
the intent of maintaining equity in funding across LEAs.
Accordingly, OSPI proposes two tolerance levels:
   1) For LEAs with 100 or fewer students, OSPI proposes to tolerate a 30 percent reduction in
      per-pupil funding from year to year. For FY 2023, this would impact 15 LEAs identified
      by the State as meeting the definition of high-need or highest-poverty that served fewer
      than 0.07 percent of Washington’s students.
   2) For LEAs with 101 to 1,000 students, OSPI proposes to tolerate a 10 percent reduction in
      per-pupil funding from year to year. For FY 2023, this would impact 13 LEAs identified
      by the State as meeting the definition of high-need or highest-poverty that served fewer
      than 0.33 percent of Washington’s students.

After reviewing OSPI’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 Washington has maintained equity in
FY 2023 and is consistent with OSPI’s FY 2022 tolerance request.

OSPI’s proposal indicates that Washington will need to make additional payments to LEAs
that experienced a disproportionate reduction in per-pupil funding in FY 2023 and are not
captured by this small LEA tolerance proposal. Please advise the Department when these
additional payments have been made.

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

                                                   Sincerely,

                                                    Laura Jimenez

                                                   Laura Jimenez
                                                   Director, Office of State and Grantee Relations


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