Letter to the Ohio Department of Education — Reasonable Level of Tolerance (July 26, 2023)

Summary

This is a letter dated July 26, 2023 from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the United States Department of Education to J. Christopher Woolard, Interim Superintendent of Public Instruction at the Ohio Department of Education (ODE). The letter states that the Department received ODE's written plan for a reasonable level of tolerance when calculating whether Ohio met State maintenance of equity requirements for a subset of its local educational agencies. It describes ODE's proposal of two tolerance levels, an 8 percent reduction in per-pupil funding for LEAs with an enrollment of 1,000 or fewer and a 2.5 percent reduction for LEAs with an enrollment between 1,001 and 1,600. It states that the Department found the first level reasonable for FY 2022 but does not find extending tolerance to LEAs with an enrollment between 1,001 and 1,600 students to be reasonable.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

                           UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
                             OFFICE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION




                                                    July 26, 2023

The Honorable J. Christopher Woolard
Interim Superintendent of Public Instruction
Ohio Department of Education
25 South Front Street
Columbus, OH 43215

Dear Superintendent Woolard:

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

ODE asserts that calculated per-pupil funding amounts for small LEAs are significantly affected
by minor changes in student population. This makes per-pupil funding amounts in Ohio’s small
LEAs an imperfect indicator of whether the SEA has achieved the intent of maintaining equity in
funding across LEAs. Accordingly, ODE proposes two tolerance levels:
   1) For LEAs with an enrollment of 1,000 or fewer, ODE proposes to tolerate an 8 percent
       reduction in per-pupil funding from year to year. This would impact 13 small LEAs
       identified by the State as meeting the definition of high-need or highest-poverty in FY
       2022 that served 0.6 percent of Ohio’s students.
                                400 MARYLAND AVE. SW, WASHINGTON, DC 20202
                                               www.ed.gov

   The Department of Education’s mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by
                               fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access
   2) For LEAs with an enrollment between 1,001 and 1,600, ODE proposes to tolerate a 2.5
      percent reduction in per-pupil funding from 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 0.4 percent of Ohio’s students.

After reviewing ODE’s tolerance proposal and accompanying data, the unique circumstances in
the State, and our further State-specific analysis, we have determined that the proposal related to
small LEAs with 1,000 or fewer students includes a reasonable level of tolerance when
calculating whether Ohio has maintained equity for these LEAs in FY 2022. However, we do not
find extending tolerance to LEAs with an enrollment between 1,001 and 1,600 students to be
reasonable. It is unclear how changes in enrollment in LEAs at this level would affect per-pupil
funding in ways that are unrelated to maintaining equity as compared to an LEA with many
fewer students.

ODE’s proposal indicates that Ohio will need to make additional payments to LEAs that
experienced a disproportionate reduction in per-pupil funding in FY 2022 and that are not
captured by this small LEA tolerance approval. Please advise the Department as additional
payments are made.

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

                                                   Sincerely,

                                                                        Laura Jimenez

                                                   Laura Jimenez
                                                   Director, Office of State and Grantee Relations


File and source

File

department-of-education-7-26-2023-used-response-to-tolerance-proposal-fy22-www-ed-gov-0b857ceb47.pdf

Size

169,419 bytes

SHA-256

2151a698fe91ba4294eebf34b83243ccf936cc715bb4cd30f8af9daa67ed66ef

Our copy

department-of-education-7-26-2023-used-response-to-tolerance-proposal-fy22-www-ed-gov-0b857ceb47.pdf

Original

www.ed.gov