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No Educator Left Behind:
Title I Funds

No Educator Left Behind is a series providing answers from the U.S. Department of Education to questions about the federal No Child Left Behind Act and how it will affect educators. If you have a question about No Child Left Behind, send an e-mail to Ellen Delisio, and we will submit your question to the Department of Education.

QUESTION:

Did NCLB change the way Title I, Part A funds are allocated to states?

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION:

Yes. In addition to authorizing the significant increase in Title I appropriations states receive, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act modified the formulas under Title I-A in order to ensure that funds are better targeted to high poverty districts and schools than in the past. Federal Title I funds are now more accurately targeted than ever before to the poorest children and schools in America.

As under previous law, four different formulas are authorized for the allocation of Title I-A funds to states and local school districts: Basic, Concentration, Targeted, and Education Finance Incentive Grants (EFIG). An amount equal to the FY 2001 appropriation will be allocated under the Basic and Concentration Grant formulas, and for the first time under the law, any increases are allocated under either an updated version of the Targeted Grant formula, or a substantially modified version of the EFIG formula. Once funds reach local school districts, the amounts under the four formulas are combined and used jointly for local Title I programs.

Both the Targeted Grant and the revised EFIG formulas allocate substantially higher shares of Title I-A funds to the highest poverty local school districts than do the previously funded Basic and Concentration Grant formulas. In addition, NCLB requires the U.S. Department of Education to use the most updated and reliable poverty data in order to send funds to the areas where impoverished children are currently attending school. 2000 Census data was used in order to make fiscal year 2004 allocations.

Read previous questions and answers in our No Educator Left Behind archive.