Education Week - October 9, 2013 - 21

were expected to shutter if the shutdown
continued beyond Oct. 4, Sally
Aman, a spokeswoman for the association,
said.
Some grantees may be able to dip
into their reserves to cover the lapse
in aid, said Kenneth Wolfe, a Health
and Human Services spokesman.
Making matters worse for Head
Start: The shutdown came on top
of a 5 percent hit to the program
through sequestration, which already
has meant loss of access for
57,000 children.
Clare Higgins, the executive director
of a Head Start program at Community
Action of Franklin, Hampshire,
and North Quabbin Regions,
in Massachusetts, said her program
already had to delay the start of its
school year by 10 days because of sequestration.
The center would have
had to close its doors altogether if
the state hadn’t stepped in with an
advance on a state grant.
But that bridge funding “will basically
get us through two weeks,”
Ms. Higgins said. “It buys time for
Congress to get their act together.”
Ms. Higgins isn’t sure whether her
new grant will be retroactive to Oct.
1. If it isn’t, “we’re going to be in a
financial bind,” she said.
In anticipation of a long shut-
down, the National Head Start Association
is beginning to compile
lists of centers whose annual grants
are set to expire Nov. 1.
On another front, federal impact
aid—which helps districts make up
for tax revenue lost because of the
presence, for example, of an American
Indian reservation or a military
base or other federal installation—is
in a precarious position.
Stopgap Solutions
Most federal education programs
are largely “forward funded,” meaning
that districts start the school
year with the bulk of their money
already in hand; impact aid receives
payments on a different schedule,
making it more vulnerable to the
vagaries of Congress.
As of last week, the roughly 1,200
impact-aid districts had yet to feel a
sting from the shutdown, said John
Forkenbrock, the executive director
of the National Association of Federally
Impacted Schools. Districts that
receive shares of the more than $1
billion in impact aid usually don’t get
their money until late October, even
in a typical, functional budget year,
he said.
But if the shutdown goes on for a
long time, or if Congress passes a series
of short-term extension measures
keeping the government open for just
a week or two while lawmakers hammer
out their differences, things could
get messier for impact-aid districts.
Some districts have already asked
for an advance on their federal funding—but
were turned down, for now,
because of the shutdown.
They include the Midwest CityDel
City district, near Oklahoma
City. The district gets roughly
$500,000 to $600,000 in impact
aid annually. Superintendent Pam
Deering doesn’t yet expect to lay
off staff members or cut programs
because of the delay. But she is worried
about depleting her funding reserves
in a year when Oklahoma is
facing fiscal issues of its own.
Education researchers have also
felt an immediate impact from the
shutdown, which postponed the
release of the NAEP-TIMSS linking
study, which uses states’ 2011 scores
on the National Assessment of Educational
Progress, or NAEP, in math
and science to project how they
would have scored on the Trends
in International Math and Science
Study, or TIMSS.
Not the Last Crisis
The Institute of Education Sciences
website and related sites also
posted nothing but a message saying
they were “down due to a lapse
in appropriations.”
But a temporary shutdown pales
against what may happen if Congress
fails to raise the debt ceiling.
Clare McCann, a policy analyst
for the New America Foundation,
warned that a downgrading of the
U.S. credit score, which happened
the last time the country nearly defaulted,
could have implications for
districts’ own credit ratings.
And if a default shakes the overall
economy, schools could feel a serious
squeeze, she added. Districts were
largely able to blunt the impacts of
sequestration, in part because the
brightening state and local fiscal
forecasts meant policymakers were
able to boost K-12 spending to make
up for the federal cuts.
But another economic downturn
would mean all bets were off, Ms.
McCann said: “This would be another
hit on of all the other [blows]
we’re current dealing to schools.”
Associate Editor Catherine Gewertz,
Assistant Editor Sarah D. Sparks, and
Staff Writers Christina A. Samuels
and Andrew Ujifusa contributed to
this article.
Title I Rules
On Charters
Clarified
By Katie Ash
New guidance from the U.S. Department
of Education could result
in more funding for new and expanding
charter schools across the country,
say charter school experts.
The guidance, which provides fur-
ther clarification about how Title I
funds should be distributed to such
schools, attempts to clarify federal
laws that charter advocates say prevent
the schools from receiving their
fair share of funds. It was sent out to
Title I directors around the country
late last month.
The Elementary and Secondary
Education Act requires that districts
receive a Title I allocation that is at
or above its “hold-harmless” level—in
other words, a level of funding that
would not have a dramatic different
and negative effect. How much
money each district receives depends
upon a formula that draws on district
data from the prior year.
But for new charter schools and
expanding charters—many of which
start with one grade level and add
one more grade each year—the base
rate of funding can be difficult to
determine since the number of students
in the school fluctuates.
The issue is further complicated
by reductions in total federal funding
for Title I, making it harder for
states to fulfill all districts’ holdharmless
funding levels.
The federal guidance around this
issue provides more details into how
new and rapidly growing charter
schools’ Title I allocation should be
determined and specifies that if holdharmless
requirements are unable
BLOGS www.edweek.org/go/blogs
Mich. Website Survives
Common Core ‘Freeze’
| STATE EDWATCH_News | The Michigan
Department of Education nearly had to
shutter its website on Oct. 1—but it wasn’t
because of the federal government shutdown.
The state’s spending freeze on the Common
Core State Standards began that day, and
the state department was preparing to
close down its Internet presence because
of common core’s footprint throughout the
website, the Detroit Free Press reported. But
the decision ultimately was made that the
website, including any pages dealing with the
standards, could remain up and running. The
department is barred from posting anything
new about the standards, however.
The Michigan House, meanwhile, approved a
resolution that would fund the standards and
the associated tests. But the state Senate was
in no rush to consider the resolution before the
Oct. 1 “freeze” kicked in. Officials have said
the freeze mostly affects the state’s work on
assessments, since it’s ultimately up to districts
and schools to implement the standards in
classrooms at this juncture. GOP Gov. Rick
Snyder supports the common core. —ANDREW UJIFUSA
Federal Judge Tosses Suit
On FERPA Rules Change
| THE SCHOOL LAW BLOG_News | A federal judge
has a thrown out a lawsuit challenging 2011
regulations for the main federal education
privacy law that added student identification
numbers to the “directory” of information that
may be disclosed by schools and colleges.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center
and four individuals sued the U.S. Department
of Education over the rules for the Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, or
ferpa. But Judge Amy Berman Jackson, of the
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia,
ruled Sept. 26 that the plaintiffs lack legal
standing to bring their suit.
FERPA governs the disclosure of student
records by educational institutions receiving
federal funds. Most records generally may not
be disclosed without a parent’s consent, or the
consent of an adult student. But schools and
colleges may disclose some directory information
without consent, including a student’s name,
address, participation in sports and activities,
dates of attendance, and degrees awarded.
—MARK WALSH
Calif. Testing Bill Signed,
Despite Duncan Warnings
| CURRICULUM MATTERS_News | Remember
all the hubbub when California announced a
plan to dump most of its existing state testing
system for 2013-14 and instead use field tests
developed by a consortium of states? It sparked
a stern warning from U.S. Education Secretary
Arne Duncan that doing so could cost the state a
chunk of its federal Title I money.
But that apparently hasn’t slowed down
the Golden State in its plans to use the field
tests from the Smarter Balanced Assessment
Consortium. Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed
the pertinent legislation Oct. 2.
Cue a jubilant statement from California
Superintendent Tom Torlakson, and silence from
the U.S. Department of Education, where hardly
anyone was working because of the government
shutdown.
EDUCATION WEEK | October 9, 2013 | www.edweek.org | 21
to be fully funded because of reductions
in budgets, each district should
receive a proportional amount of
funds “that is as close as possible to
its hold-harmless level” so that no
specific district or set of schools is
particularly negatively affected.
Previously, the funds were distributed
by first fully funding the school
districts’ allocations to the previous
year’s level, leaving little to no funding
leftover for new charters and those
charters that have had significant increases
in enrollment.
The guidance says it aims to address
that inequity and prevent some charter
schools from being “disadvantaged
by the fact that it had no Title I allocation
in 2012-13.”
‘More Equitable Allocation’
Colin Miller, the vice president
of policy for the California Charter
Schools Association, based in Los Angeles
and Sacramento, said that this is
an area that his organization has been
pushing for more clarification on, and
he is happy with the outcome.
“We think that this is going to
result in a more equitable allocation
of Title I dollars,” he said. The
California charter group requested
guidance on this issue in January
2012 after hearing back from charter
school members who felt they
were not receiving their fair share of
funds, said Mr. Miller.
The CCSA analyzed data and found
that charter schools in the state were
indeed receiving fewer Title I funds
than regular public schools.
The association last week contacted
the California Department of Education,
which reported that it is working
to determine the overall implications
of the guidance and exactly how much
money charters that are growing or
starting up can expect to receive.
“Schools serving high-needs populations
need additional resources to
provide necessary supports,” said
Mr. Miller. “This guidance will en-
sure students receive similar support
whether they attend a district
or charter school.”
Reaction Positive
Nina Rees, the president and chief
executive officer for the National Alliance
for Public Charter Schools, in
Washington, also praised the move.
“We are thrilled that the [federal] department
of education recognizes how
important it is for new and expanding
charter schools to get the share of Title
I funding they need to serve disadvantaged
students,” she said in an email
last week.
“This guidance ensures that the federal
hold-harmless provisions will be
carried out in the way they were intended
and not in a way that disadvantages
charter schools,” she continued.
The guidance is expected to take
effect in time for the 2013-14 school
year allocations. The state is required
to provide the funds to new or greatly
expanding charter schools within five
months of the opening or the significant
expansion of enrollment.
The guidance does not apply to
non-charter school districts or charter
schools that are not seeing a dramatic
influx of students.
Although the guidance was initially
requested from the charter school association
in California, it was sent
from the federal Education Department
to Title I directors in all states,
suggesting that charter schools nationwide
needed clarification around
these allocations.
The document also provides detailed
explanations on how to calculate
a new or significantly expanded
charter school’s prior-year base
amount of Title I funding, and how
that number should be used to meet
Title I’s hold-harmless provisions.
Scan this tag with your
smartphone for a link to
the full document.
edweek.org/links
—CATHERINE GEWERTZ
http://www.edweek.org/links http://www.edweek.org/go/blogs http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - October 9, 2013

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