A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Uses Of Funds By SEAs

An SEA may retain up to 15 percent of the State's Title VI funds, and may use the funds for four purposes:

• Administration of programs including supervision of the allocation of funds to LEAs; planning, supervision, and processing of State funds; and monitoring and evaluation of programs and activities;

• Technical assistance which assists LEAs to provide targeted assistance;

• Direct grants to assist LEAs to provide targeted assistance; and

• Statewide education reform activities including effective schools programs which assist LEAs to provide targeted assistance.

Administration

Title VI provides that the SEA may use up to 25 percent of the funds that it retains in any fiscal year for State administration. The SEAs administer programs through planning and supervision of the allocation of funds and through monitoring and evaluation of programs.

The SEA has significant flexibility in carrying out its administrative responsibilities subject to the statute and applicable regulations.

An SEA may opt to consolidate its Title VI administrative funds with administrative funds from other ESEA programs. In doing so, the SEA may gain broader flexibility in coordinating activities across programs to carry out required tasks. Further, this consolidation removes the burden of keeping records relating to the costs of administration for individual programs. For a more detailed discussion of consolidation of administrative funds, including the requirements that must be met, see the Cross cutting Provisions section of this guidance.

Example: A State which receives the minimum allocation under Title VI has $68,000 to administer the Title VI program. This is due to the limitation that an SEA may use only 25 percent of the funds it retains for its own use (up to 15 percent of the total allocation) for administration. In this case, the SEA may choose to consolidate its Title VI administrative funds with administrative funds from one or more other ESEA programs. Consolidating the funds will permit the SEA to combine supervision, monitoring and evaluation activities of the programs, resulting in better coordination and cost savings.

Technical Assistance

An SEA may use Title VI funds reserved for State use to provide technical assistance to its LEAs. Technical assistance may be in the form of direct support to an LEA based upon its local needs. It may also include conducting statewide education reform activities which assist LEAs in providing services under the innovative assistance programs contained in section 6301(b) of Title VI. These statewide programs may provide support for activities and programs consistent with the State's Goals 2000 plan or other school reform efforts.

Example: To support its Goals 2000 plan or other school reform activities, an SEA could use Title VI funds to conduct a statewide: health-related program as part of its school reform activities program to meet the educational needs of gifted and talented students staff development program for media specialists and librarians in the effective use of a statewide computer network related to school-based reform

Direct Grants

An SEA may use funds reserved for State use to award direct grants or contracts to LEAs. (See section 6201(a)(2), 20 USC 7331(a)(2)). In doing this, the SEA may wish to establish criteria for these grants or contracts and make such criteria known to all its LEAs. For example, an SEA may wish to conduct a statewide competition among its LEAs to carry out an effective schools program. Such effective schools programs must meet the definition of effective schools program contained in section 6003 of Title VI. While all elements of the definition need not be present at the inception of the effective schools program they should be the underlying structure of the planned program. In time, all elements must be reflected in the program.

Statewide Education Reform Activities

An SEA may also choose to use Title VI funds to coordinate statewide education reform activities that support its Goals 2000 strategic plan, taking advantage of the opportunity to address the following kinds of areas:

• Strategies to develop or adopt content and student performance standards and aligned assessments.

• Strategies to improve teacher training.

• Strategies to involve parents and the community to help all students meet challenging State standards and promote bottom-up reform.

• Strategies to help all LEAs and schools develop and implement needed improvements.

• Strategies to promote the principles of high-performance management such as site based management, accountability for results and flexibility.

• Strategies to provide all students an opportunity to achieve to high standards.

• Strategies to assist LEAs and schools to help school-age students who have dropped out of school.

• Strategies to bring technology into the classroom to increase learning.

Supplemental Guidance

Statewide and Local Reform - A number of State coordinators has asked who is responsible for defining statewide and local reform. The ESEA does not define educational reform. The spirit of the new legislation enacted in Congress allows far greater flexibility in how local school districts and States will carry out their initiatives, and more opportunities for education dollars to improve teaching and learning and making progress toward our National Education Goals. Rigid, fragmented programs that have often impeded innovation in education at the local level have been replaced with flexible initiatives that provide for systemwide educational improvement based on challenging academic standards for all students. The ESEA allows States real opportunities to implement meaningful and creative changes to their education systems in order to make progress toward the National Education Goals and their own State or local goals.

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