Letter to the Indiana Department of Education — Reasonable Level of Tolerance (March 31, 2023)

Summary

A letter dated March 31, 2023, from the Department of Education to Secretary of Education Jenner of the Indiana Department of Education, responding to its written plan for a reasonable level of tolerance under State maintenance of equity requirements. The letter reports that the plan treats districts with fewer than 200 students as very small, and that Indiana has 26 such LEAs. It states the proposed tolerance is up to a 5 percent decline in per-pupil funding, impacting four very small districts in FY 2022. The Department states it determined the approach reasonable.

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Issuer: Congressional materials
Document type: Department Of Education 3 31 2023 Used Response To Tolerance Proposal Letter Fy22 Www Ed G
Case: Department Of Education 3 31 2023 Used Response To Tolerance Proposal Letter Fy22 Www Ed Gov 2A6F6D7499

Cite this document

“Letter to the Indiana Department of Education — Reasonable Level of Tolerance (March 31, 2023).” Original at www.ed.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/department-of-education-3-31-2023-used-response-to-tolerance-proposal-letter-fy22-www-ed-gov-2a6f6d7499/, SHA-256 f8d48951c5d11021736c97eb1367dcb7f2a5be8c0b788b40e2f7733d00e2c841.

Full text

                      UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


                                         March 31, 2023

The Honorable Katie Jenner
Secretary of Education
Indiana Department of Education
South Tower, Suite 600
115 West Washington Street
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 (IDE) 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 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).)

IDE considers LEAs with a membership count of fewer than 200 students to be “very small
districts.” Under this proposed threshold, Indiana has 26 such LEAs. IDE asserts that calculated
per-pupil funding amounts for these very small districts are significantly affected by small
changes in attendance rates and students’ educational needs. This makes the per-pupil funding
amounts in Indiana’s very small districts an imperfect indicator of whether the SEA has achieved
the intent of maintaining equity in funding across LEAs. For its 26 very small districts, IDE
proposes to implement a tolerance of up to a 5 percent decline in per-pupil funding. Applying
this tolerance would impact four very small districts in FY 2022 that served 0.17 percent of
Indiana’s students.
After reviewing IDE’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 very
small LEAs.

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

                                                   Sincerely,
                                                   Laura Jimenez
                                                   Laura JimenezLaura Jimenez

                                                   Laura Jimenez
                                                   Director, Office of State and Grantee Relations
                                                   Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
                                                   United States Department of Education

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Our copy: department-of-education-3-31-2023-used-response-to-tolerance-proposal-letter-fy22-www-ed-gov-2a6f6d7499.pdf
Original: www.ed.gov