Instructions for Speadsheet

Instructions for Completing the Fiscal Year (FY) [insert appropriate year] Spreadsheet

For the Small, Rural School Achievement Program and the

Rural and Low-Income School Program

Introduction

Part B of Title VI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) authorizes two separate formula grant programs that target funds to rural school districts – the Small, Rural School Achievement Program (ESEA Section 6212) and the Rural and Low-Income School Program (ESEA Section 6221). Under the Small, Rural School Achievement (SRSA) program, the Department makes formula allocations directly to eligible local educational agencies (LEAs). Under the Rural and Low-Income School (RLIS) program, the Department makes formula grants to State educational agencies (SEAs), which in turn award subgrants to eligible LEAs on a formula or competitive basis.

These instructions are to assist you in providing the data that the Department needs in order to establish eligibility for, and make allocations under, the SRSA and RLIS programs. In addition, the Department is collecting information needed to help ensure that program accountability requirements are met. You may provide the data for all LEAs in your State or only for those LEAs that meet the REAP SRSA or RLIS eligibility requirements.

You will provide the data in the electronic Excel spreadsheet accompanying these instructions. Because your data entries will affect all State and LEA allocations, we request that you submit your data by the requested date. In addition, to help minimize the possibility of errors in the submission, we suggest that you provide LEAs in your State with an opportunity to review the data prior to submitting it to the Department. The Department intends to make the data States provide available on its webpage prior determining allocations.

Once the Department has received the information from all States, we will use the data provided to establish LEA eligibility for the programs and generate fiscal year (FY) [appropriate year] allocation amounts. You should enter the data in the appropriate columns and submit the completed Excel spreadsheet electronically to the Department at [email protected].

REAP Eligibility

SRSA Eligibility

To be eligible to participate in REAP-Flex and the SRSA grant program, an LEA must –

1. have a total average daily attendance (ADA) of fewer than 600 students, or serve only schools that are located in counties that have a population density of fewer than 10 persons per square mile; and

2. serve only schools that have an National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) school locale code of 7 or 8 or be located in an area of the State defined as rural by a governmental agency of the State.

RLIS Eligibility

An LEA is eligible for an allocation under the RLIS program if –

1. 20 percent or more of the children age 5 to 17 served by the LEA are from families with incomes below the poverty line;

2. all schools served by the LEA have a school locale code of 6, 7, or 8 (assigned by the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics; see Appendix A for discussion of these locale codes); and

3. the LEA is not eligible to participate in the SRSA program.

REAP Accountability

To meet the requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act, the Department has established three performance goals for the REAP program. For the SRSA and RLIS programs, the performance goals are that LEAs make adequate yearly progress (AYP) after participating in the program for 3 years. For the REAP-Flex authority, the performance goal is that eligible LEAs use the REAP-Flex authority. To be able to measure progress toward these goals, the Department is collecting data on the AYP status of LEAs participating in the SRSA and RLIS programs and the identity of LEAs using the REAP-Flex authority.

Spreadsheet Column-by-Column Instructions

The headings listed below refer to the respective columns on the Excel worksheet. You will need to provide data in columns 11 (ADA), 16 (Title II, Part A allocation), 17 (Title II, Part D allocation), 18 (Title IV, Part A allocation), 19 (Title V, Part A allocation), 20 (AYP status), and 21 (use of REAP-Flex). In addition, you may choose to provide data in columns 10 (LEAs defined as rural) or 12 (county population density) if that information is needed to help establish an LEA’s eligibility for the SRSA program. The Department has already provided data in the other columns.

Column 10. Is the LEA in an area defined as rural by the State? Only States that choose to use a rural definition as an alternative means of establishing part of an LEA’s eligibility under the SRSA program should complete this column. If no governmental agency of the State has an approved definition of rural or if all LEAs that are defined as rural by a governmental agency of the State meet the locale code requirement for eligiblity, you may leave column 10 blank or enter “NA” (“not applicable”). If you enter “yes” in column 10, you must provide the following additional information with respect to the applicable LEAs:

1. The identity of the State governmental agency that established the definition; and

2. A copy of the rural definition.

To be acceptable, the definition must identify LEAs as being located in a rural area of the State; they may not just identify LEAs that serve significantly smaller numbers of children than other LEAs in the State. At the end of this document are instructions for submitting the additional information that is required if you enter “yes” in column 10 with respect to any LEA.

Column 11. Average Daily Attendance (ADA): In the [appropriate year] Excel spreadsheet, you should provide the ADA data for LEAs for the preceding school year. Report the number of students in Average Daily Attendance (ADA) in kindergarten through grade 12 at the schools served by the Local Education Agency (LEA) during the fall of SY [appropriate year]. The count date should be no later than December 1, [appropriate year].

Column 12. County population density of fewer than 10 persons per square mile?: Only States that choose to use county population density as an alternative means of establishing part of an LEA’s eligibility under the SRSA program should complete this column. If you have no LEAs in your State that serve only schools that are located in counties with a population density of fewer than 10 persons per square mile or if all LEAs that meet that requirement are already eligible for the SRSA program, you may leave this column blank or enter “NA.”

County population density data are available on the Census website at http://factfinder.census.gov/

To obtain specific county population density data at the Census website:

1. Scroll down and click on the FactFinder “Data Sets” on the left hand side of the page;

2. Under the “Select from the following options:” on the right hand side of the page, click on “Geographic Comparison Tables”;

3. Under “Select a geographic type,” select “State”;

4. Under “Select a geographic area,” highlight your State; and

5. Under “Select a table format”, select “County” and then click “Next.”

6. Under “Select a Table”, select “GCT-PH1. Population, Housing Units, Area, and Density: 2000” and click on “show result.”

7. Use the Print/Download button on the web page to print a copy of the resulting table, or download the table to Excel, Word, or in another available format.

Column 16. [appropriate year] Title II, Part A Formula Allocation Amount: Enter the amount of the FY [appropriate year] Title II, A-Improving Teacher Quality formula grant award for each. Provide allocation amounts only for LEAs that accepted program funds; if an LEA declined the allocation, the allocation for that LEA should be zero.

Column 17. [appropriate year] Title II, Party D Formula Allocation Amount: Enter the amount of the FY [appropriate year] Title II, D-Educational Technology formula grant award. Provide allocation amounts only for LEAs that accepted program funds; if an LEA declined the allocation, the allocation for that LEA should be zero.

Column 18. [appropriate year] Title IV, Part A Formula Allocation Amount: Enter the amount of the FY [appropriate year] Title IV, A Safe and Drug-Free Communities formula grant award for each. Provide allocation amounts only for LEAs that accepted program funds; if an LEA declined the allocation, the allocation for that LEA should be zero.

Column 19. [appropriate year] Title V, A Formula Allocation Amount: Enter the amount of the FY [appropriate year] Title V, A- Innovative Education formula grant award for each LEA. Provide allocation amounts only for LEAs that accepted program funds; if an LEA declined the allocation, the allocation for that LEA should be zero.

Column 20. [appropriate year] Adequate Yearly Progress Status: Please put “Yes” for those LEAs that met your State’s definition of AYP in [appropriate year] and “No” for those LEAs that did not make AYP.

Column 21. [appropriate year] Use of REAP-Flex Authority: Please put “Yes” for those LEAs that used the REAP-Flex authority in [appropriate year] and “No” for those LEAs that did not. (For more information on the REAP-Flex authority, consult the Department’s website at http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/reap03guidance.doc.)

Submitting Additional Information

Addition of LEAs not included in the Excel spreadsheet provided or other corrections

The list of LEAs on the spreadsheet provided is from the Department’s most recent Common Core of Data (CCD). As a result, the list of LEAs provided may not be complete. You may need to include any new LEAs that are not included on the spreadsheet, including any new charter schools if they are considered LEAs by your State. In addition, please provide the names of any LEAs that may be consolidating or closing prior to or during the next school year. States should submit the additional information concerning new or closing LEAs in the Excel spreadsheet, “Blank - Corrections Spreadsheet.xls” provided.

An LEA not on the list included in the CCD is unlikely to have locale codes assigned to the schools it serves. Eligibility for the LEAs can still be determined based on the information provided by each State. If a State submits the required information, including the addresses for all schools served, for the new LEA by the established deadline, the Department will assign locale codes for those new schools. In addition, an LEA could still be eligible for SRSA if, in addition to meeting the size requirement, the LEA is located in an area defined as rural by a governmental agency of the State.

Supporting documentation for LEAs whose eligibility is based, in part, on a State definition of “rural”.

If you are submitting a State definition of rural for one or more LEAs, use the “Blank - LEAs Defined as Rural by State.doc” spreadsheet that we have designated for this purpose.

NOTE: You should submit any additional information that needs to be provided in response to these instructions as attachments in an email sent to: [email protected]

Please use the provided corrections spreadsheets where appropriate.

Contact for assistance

For questions concerning the Rural Education Programs or the Excel spreadsheet and these instructions, contact the following:

Eric Schulz

Office of School Support and Technology Programs

U.S. Department of Education

400 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Room 3E108

Washington, D.C. 20202

(202) 260-7349

[email protected]

Robert Hitchcock

Office of School Support and Technology Programs

U.S. Department of Education

400 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Room 3E236

Washington, D.C. 20202

(202) 260-1472

[email protected]

Paperwork Burden Statement

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 1810-0646. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 40 hours per response, including the time to review instructions, search existing data resources, gather the data needed, and complete and review the information collection. If you have any comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate(s) or suggestions for improving this form write to: Regulatory and Information Management Services (RIMS), U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. 20202-4651.

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