Impact Aid Program – Application for Section 7003 Assistance

The U.S. Department of Education is requesting approval for the Application for Assistance under Section 7003 of Title VIII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This application is for a grant program otherwise known as Impact Aid Basic Support Payments. Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) whose enrollments and revenues are adversely impacted by Federal activities use this form to request financial assistance. Regulations for the Impact Aid Program are found at 34 CFR §222. The statute and regulations for this program require a variety of data from applicants annually to determine eligibility for the grants and the amount of grant payment under the statutory formula. The least burdensome method of collecting this required information is for each applicant to submit these data through a web-based electronic application hosted on the Impact Aid Grant System (IAGS) website. The Impact Aid Program, authorized by Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), provides financial assistance to local educational agencies (LEAs) whose enrollment or revenues are adversely affected by Federal activities. The statute and implementing regulations (34 CFR Part 222) require information from applicants annually to determine eligibility for and the amount of payments. The least burdensome method of collecting this required information is for each applicant to submit it as part of its annual Impact Aid application, previously approved under OMB 1810-0687. ED is now requesting to revise this collection. Previously, applicants submitted applications through ED’s G5 website. Now, the Impact Aid Program is developing its own online grants management system to better serve the local educational agencies who receive Impact Aid funds. Grantees will now be able to submit the annual application through the Impact Aid Grant System. The program has revised the application to be more user-friendly and reduce burden. The data collected on the application is largely the same. All changes are summarized below. • The program regulations at 34 CFR §222.33 require that LEAs survey their Federally connected children “no earlier than the fourth day of the regular school year.” In order to monitor this, we will have each applicant enter the first day of school for students. • We now require first-time Charter School LEA applicants to submit their charter and their annual financial report at the time of application. The program has always required new charter school applicants to submit this information in order to verify that the school is financially independent and able to apply on its own behalf as an LEA, per the statutory definition in 20 USC 7713; however, they were requested after the charter school submitted the application. We are now asking for these documents with the application to speed the review process. • Another change requires applicants to affirm they have enough children to qualify for categories F and G before being allowed to enter child counts in those categories. This is intended to save them effort in data entry. This does not require any additional submissions with the data collection. • We no longer require the Housing Official Certification form. We ask only for the Housing Official’s contact information so that we may obtain data required to calculate housing renovation claims directly from the official. • We have eliminated the requirement to upload a signed cover page and assurances page, and will permit applicants to sign the required attestations and certifications electronically.

The latest form for Impact Aid Program – Application for Section 7003 Assistance expires 2022-09-30 and can be found here.