Rhode Island — United States Department of Education to the Honorable Angélica Infante-Green (April 18, 2023)

Summary

A letter dated April 18, 2023 from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, signed by Laura Jimenez, to Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green of the Rhode Island Department of Education. It responds to Rhode Island's written plan for a reasonable level of tolerance in calculating maintenance of equity under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The plan treats districts with fewer than 1,000 students as small, counts 23 such districts, and proposes a tolerance of up to a 10 percent decline in per-pupil funding. Applying it would affect one district in fiscal year 2022, serving 0.006 percent of the State's students, and the Department determines the approach is reasonable.

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Full text

                             UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
                                  OFFICE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION




                                                    April 18, 2023

The Honorable Angélica Infante-Green
Commissioner
Rhode Island Department of Education
Shepard Building
255 Westminster Street
Providence, RI 02903

Dear Commissioner Infante-Green:

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) received your written plan for a reasonable
level of tolerance when calculating whether the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE)
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 Rhode Island’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).)

RIDE’s plan considers LEAs with memberships of fewer than 1,000 students, and that receive
formula funding aid based upon the characteristics of various sending LEAs, to be small. Under
this proposed threshold, Rhode Island has 23 such LEAs. RIDE asserts that calculated per-pupil
funding amounts for these small LEAs are significantly affected by small changes in attendance
rates and students’ educational needs. For these 23 LEAs, RIDE proposes to implement a
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   The Department of Education’s mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by
                               fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access
tolerance of up to a 10 percent decline in per-pupil funding. Applying this tolerance would
impact one LEA in FY 2022 that served 0.006 percent of Rhode Island’s students. According to
RIDE, all LEAs receive most State funding via the State’s education funding formula based on
core educational costs, enrollment, and the local community’s ability to fund education. The one
LEA impacted by this proposal serves students statewide; therefore, the per-pupil amounts at this
LEA vary year to year based on the community characteristics of sending LEAs. This makes the
per-pupil funding for this LEA an imperfect indicator of whether the SEA has achieved the intent
of maintaining equity in funding.

After reviewing RIDE’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 Rhode Island has maintained equity for
small LEAs.

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

                                             Sincerely,
aura Jimenez
                                              Laura Jimenez

                                             Laura Jimenez
                                             Director, Office of State and Grantee Relations


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