Now that the school year has begun, it is time for school leaders to assess how the process of implementing the delivery of federal equitable services programs for students and educational personnel in schools is working. These programs include benefits for students with disabilities using IDEA (Individuals With Disabilities Education Act) and the Title programs under ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) that serve all students and teachers. Direct and indirect services may be provided to eligible students under IDEA and Title I-A, III-A and IV-A. Title II-A and IV-A services are available for educational personnel including teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals and training for other school personnel to address issues related to conditions for student learning. The following is a checklist of things to consider now, before it is too late to make any needed adjustments.
The LEA (local public school district) in which the school is located is required to provide equitable services to eligible students and educational personnel as indicated in IDEA and all the Title programs other than Title I-A. The administrative responsibility for the Title I-A program belongs to the LEA in which the eligible child resides. That may be different from the one in which the child’s Catholic school is located. For all programs, the needs of students drive the services. While needs may differ among public and private school students, the LEA must provide programs, benefits and expenditure of funding for private school students and teachers comparable to similarly situated students and teachers in the public schools.
The LEA must initiate a consultation process with private school officials before beginning any planning for distribution of equitable services. Consultation should take place towards the end of the last school year for programs to begin at the start of the new term. The consultation process should provide private school officials with a start date like that for their public schools, the dollar amounts available for services, how students will be selected to receive them, how services will be provided and when they will be evaluated. If consultation has not occurred by the end of the school year, the LEA should be contacted and be reminded of their obligations to provide equitable services with a firm request that action begin immediately.
The LEA is required to consult with private school officials during the design, development and implementation of the programs. This allows for adjustments and modifications to the services so they may better meet the needs of the students or personnel in a timely manner.
The LEA calculates a proportionate share of funding for both public and private school students based on the relative enrollments of eligible students in the district. If private school students are eight percent of the total enrollment, then eight percent of the funding is reserved to serve those students. The LEA is required to tell the private school officials that dollar amount and how it was calculated. Private school officials should provide the LEA with the information and documentation needed to determine the proportionate share.
The consultation process must discuss this and give due consideration to the requests of the private school officials before any decisions are made. Services may be provided during the school day or beyond the school day or school year, which may include summer school programs. Providers of services may be LEA personnel or third-party contractors. The latter may include private corporations or private school personnel employed to deliver services outside of their regular employment.
Pooling is a mechanism to maximize available benefits. Using this process, the LEAs combine the total amount of funds generated for services for eligible children and educators in each of the private schools located in the LEA that choose to participate. Each school determines whether it will participate or receive services as a single entity. Pooling may occur across LEAs as well, but in either scenario funds are separated by program title and are not combined across programs. The consultation, among all involved private school officials and the LEA representatives, determines the criteria by which funding will be allocated for services.
During the original consultation process, the LEA may not have received notice from the SEA of final dollar amounts it will receive. Once the school year has begun, they should have that information and private school officials should ask about it. Also, ask again early in the second semester to see if there is additional money available and make requests for services for unmet needs of students.
The checklist highlights some major points to consider during the consultation and implementation processes that govern equitable services programs. Much more information and technical assistance is available in the guidance documents that the U.S. Department of Education has provided to help guide interpretation of various issues and questions specific to private school participation in each of the ESEA and IDEA programs. Those documents can be accessed on the NCEA website at www.NCEA.org/publicpolicy. Private school officials engaging in the consultation process should download these documents, become familiar with them and bring copies to the meetings to share with LEA officials who may not be familiar with the contents.
These federal programs are benefits provided by Congress to students and their teachers in both public and private schools. Benefits and services are funded with the taxpayer dollars of the students’ parents and that of the educational personnel at the school; eligible students and teachers are entitled to them. For Catholic schools, safeguards are built into the law to protect the school’s independence to operate as a faith-based organization, so fear of federal government “intrusion” is not a valid concern for a school to refuse to participate.
Catholic school leaders should be proactive about supplementing school resources with available federal benefits that require equitable participation of their students and teachers and advocate for their equitable share of services. The consultation and paperwork processes should not be undue burdens for school administrators. A group of schools within an LEA may designate a single individual to serve as the primary contact/consultor for all the schools and inform the LEA of the school they will represent. The needs of the students and teachers should be driving the program, not the convenience of the officials in either the private school or the LEA.
Please take advantage of opportunities to be informed about these program benefits and become an effective advocate for students and educational personnel. Don’t leave money on the table!
Sister Dale McDonald, PBVM, Ph.D.
is the vice president of public policy for NCEA.
McDonald@ncea.org
