South Dakota — United States Department of Education to the Honorable Joe Graves (May 17, 2023)

Summary

A letter dated May 17, 2023, from the Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education to Secretary of Education Graves of the South Dakota 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 LEAs with memberships of fewer than 200 students as small, and that South Dakota has 29 small LEAs out of 166 statewide. It states the proposed tolerance is up to a 5 percent decline in per-pupil funding, impacting two small LEAs, and that the Department determined the approach reasonable.

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Full text

                           UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
                                OFFICE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION




                                                    May 17, 2023

The Honorable Joe Graves
Secretary of Education
South Dakota Department of Education
800 Governors Drive
Pierre, SD 57501-2291

Dear Secretary Graves:

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) received your written plan for a reasonable
level of tolerance when calculating whether the South Dakota Department of Education (SDDE)
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 South Dakota’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).)

SDDE considers LEAs with memberships of fewer than 200 students to be small. Under this
proposed threshold, South Dakota has 29 small LEAs out of 166 statewide. SDDE asserts that
calculated per-pupil funding amounts for these small LEAs are significantly affected by minor
changes in attendance rates due to declining enrollment. This makes the per-pupil funding
amounts in South Dakota’s small LEAs an imperfect indicator of whether the SEA has achieved
the intent of maintaining equity in funding across LEAs. For its 29 small LEAs, SDDE proposes
a tolerance of up to a 5 percent decline in per-pupil funding. Applying this tolerance would
impact two small LEAs that the State identified as meeting the definition of high-need or
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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
highest-poverty in Fiscal Year 2022; together, these districts served .16 percent of South
Dakota’s students.

After reviewing SDDE’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 South Dakota 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: SouthDakota.OESE@ed.gov.

                                                   Sincerely,
aura Jimenez
                                                   Laura 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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