ESEA and Private Schools’ Participation

Federal Program Directors’ Conference

Waterfront Place Hotel, Morgantown

March 13, 2013

-- Socrates

Disclaimer“The only thing I know is that I do not know it all.”

ESEA – The Law

SEC. 9501. PARTICIPATION BY PRIVATE SCHOOL CHILDREN AND TEACHERS.(a) PRIVATE SCHOOL PARTICIPATION-(1) IN GENERAL- Except as otherwise provided in this Act, to the extent consistent with the

number of eligible children in areas served by a State educational agency, local educational agency, educational service agency, consortium of those agencies, or another entity receiving financial assistance under a program specified in subsection (b), who are enrolled in private elementary schools and secondary schools in areas served by such agency, consortium, or entity, the agency, consortium, or entity shall, after timely and meaningful consultation with appropriate private school officials provide to those children and their teachers or other educational personnel, on an equitable basis, special educational services or other benefits that address their needs under the program.

Requirements for all ESEA programs

• Meaningful Consultation· how the needs of children and teachers will be identified;· what services will be offered; · how, where, and by whom the services will be provided; · how the services will be assessed and how the results of the

assessment will be used to improve those services; · the size and scope of the equitable services; · the amount of funds available for those services; and · how and when the LEA will make decisions about the delivery of

services. ESEA §9501(a)(2)

Requirements for all ESEA programs

Services provided must be:• Secular, neutral, and nonidealological services of

benefits• Equitable in comparison to services and other benefits

for public school children and teachers• Provided in a timely mannerAnd MAY be provided directly or through contracts with

public and private agenciesESEA §9501(a)(3)

Requirements for all ESEA programs

Expenditures for educational services and other benefits provided for eligible private school children, their teachers, and other educational personnel serving those children shall be equal, to the expenditures for participating public school children.

ESEA §9501(a)(4)

Requirements for all ESEA programs

An agency may provide services directly or through contracts with public and private agencies, organizations, and institutions.

ESEA §9501(a)(5)

Requirements for all ESEA programs

The control of funds used to provide services under this section, and title to materials, equipment, and property purchased with those funds, shall be in a public agency for the uses and purposes provided in this Act, and a public agency shall administer the funds and property.

ESEA §9501(d)(1)

INSTRUCTION PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT

PARENTINVOLVEMENT

Title I Equitable Distribution Allocation to

schools

Private Schools

Title II Equitable Distribution

• Assess, address, and evaluate the needs and progress of both public and private school teachers;

• Spend an equal amount of funds per student to serve the needs of public and private school teachers and their students;

• Provide private school teachers with an opportunity to participate in Title II activities equivalent to the opportunity provided public school teachers; and

• Offer educational services to private school teachers that are secular, neutral, and non-ideological [Section 9501(a)(2)].

Title III Equitable DistributionParticipation is considered to be equitable if the LEA

• Assesses, addresses and evaluates the needs and progress of public and private school students and educational personnel on a comparable basis

• Provides, in the aggregate, approximately the same amount of services to students and educational personnel with similar needs

• Spends an equal amount of funds to serve similar public and private school students and educational personnel

• Provides both groups of students and educational personnel equal opportunities to participate in program activities.

Highly Qualified IssuesTitle I - The highly qualified personnel requirements apply to those

teachers and paraprofessionals who are directly employed by the LEA. These requirements do not apply to a third party provider contracted by the LEA. (Title I private school guidance,B54)

Title II - The requirement for the equitable participation of private school teachers and other educational personnel applies only to the LEA’s Title II, Part A funds to the extent that the LEA uses these funds for professional development of its teachers and other staff. (Title II, non-regulatory guidance, section G)

Title III - LEA employees or third-party contract employees, are subject to the requirement that teachers in a Title III program must be fluent in English and any other language used for instruction. (USDE Office of Non-Public Education, Frequently Asked Questions)

Equipment Considerations

According to OMB Circular A-122, equipment is defined as an article of nonexpendable, tangible personal property having a useful life of more than one year and an acquisition cost which equals or exceeds the lesser of the capitalization level established by the non-profit organization for financial statement purposes or $5,000. [Appendix B, ¶15(a)(2)] Regardless of the control levels selected, county Title I directors must develop and maintain controls to ensure that all Title I property is purchased in accordance with the LEA’s procurement procedures and that adequate controls are maintained to safeguard all equipment purchased with Title I funds. Therefore an inventory shall be maintained for all tangible property with a useful life of one year, regardless of the acquisition cost. The SEA and LEAs are not required to track consumable items, but are required to maintain an inventory of items such as computers, PDAs, cell phones, etc.

Adopted by WVDE federal program Committee of Practitioners - April, 2011

Equipment and Private SchoolsThe LEA is the owner of all equipment, and therefore all requirements for inventory controls for equipment apply to equipment purchased for use in private schools. [EDGAR §76.661(a)]

The subgrantee may place equipment and supplies in a private school for the period of time needed for the project. [§76.661(b)] The subgrantee shall remove equipment or supplies from a private school if no longer needed for the purposes of the project or to avoid uses for other than project purposes. [§76.661,(d)(1)(2)]

Off Site Equipment Form DISTRICT NAME

OFF SITE EQUIPMENT USAGE

DATE OUT PERSON RESPONSIBLE EQUIPMENT DATE RETURN PERSON RESPONSIBLE CONDITION OF EQUIPMENT UPON RETURN

http://wvde.state.wv.us/titlei/documents/offsiteequipmentrecord.doc

Serving Private Schools with Federal Program Recourses…

• is required for all “titles” under ESEA• is based on assessing the needs of the private

school through the process of meaningful consultation

• must be on an equitable basis with the service to public schools

• provides services, not funding to private schools

Resources for Information

Title I Non-Regulatory Guidance (Private School)www.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/psguidance.doc

Title II Non-Regulatory Guidancewww.ed.gov/programs/teacherqual/guidance.pdf

Title III Private School Fact Sheet (Office of Innovation and Improvement)

http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oii/nonpublic/title3-factsheet.html

Contact Information

John Ford, CoordinatorOffice of Federal Programs

jford@access.k12.wv.us (304) 558 – 7805 ext. 53349