Oklahoma — United States Department of Education to the Honorable Ryan Walters (August 11, 2023)

Summary

This is a letter dated August 11, 2023 from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the United States Department of Education to Ryan Walters, State Superintendent at the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE). The letter states that the Department received OSDE's written plan for a reasonable level of tolerance when calculating whether Oklahoma met State maintenance of equity requirements for a subset of its local educational agencies. It states that OSDE proposes a tolerance of up to a six percent decline in per-pupil funding for small LEAs, defined as those with an average daily membership of fewer than 750 students. It states that the Department determined the approach includes a reasonable level of tolerance for small LEAs in FY 2022.

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Full text

                           UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
                                OFFICE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION




                                                  August 11, 2023

The Honorable Ryan Walters
State Superintendent
Oklahoma State Department of Education
2500 North Lincoln Boulevard
Oklahoma City, OK 73105

Dear Superintendent Walters:

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

OSDE considers LEAs with an average daily membership of fewer than 750 students to be small.
Under this proposed threshold, Oklahoma has 373 small LEAs out of 596 statewide. OSDE
asserts that calculated per-pupil funding amounts for these small LEAs are significantly affected
by minor changes in attendance rates and students’ educational needs. This makes the per-pupil
funding amounts in Oklahoma’s small LEAs an imperfect indicator of whether the SEA has
achieved the intent of maintaining equity in funding across LEAs. For its 373 small LEAs,
OSDE proposes to implement a tolerance, of up to a six percent decline in per-pupil funding.
Applying this tolerance would impact 14 small LEAs that the SEA identified as meeting the
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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
definition of high-need or highest-poverty in FY 2022; collectively, these LEAs served 0.6
percent of Oklahoma’s students in FY 2022.

After reviewing OSDE’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 Oklahoma has maintained equity for
small LEAs in FY 2022.

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

                                                   Sincerely,
aura Jimenez
                                                   Laura Jimenez

                                                   Laura Jimenez
                                                   Director, Office of State and Grantee Relations


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