Supplemental Educational Services

Determining Per Student SES Rate

• Section 1116(e)(6): each SES student must get lesser of: a. District’s total Title I, Part A allocation, divided by number

of census poverty poor children; orb. Actual costs of services student receives.

• The Census Poverty Poor count is DIFFERENT THAN the free/reduced lunch count. Now called “relevant age 5-17 in families in poverty.”

Check: http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/saipe/saipe.cgi for preliminary census poverty count. Available each December.

Example: Per Student SES Rate

Change: Choice 5% $600,000

SES 5% $600,000

Parent Outreach 1% $2,400

Remaining 9% $1,197,600

Total Reservation Costs $2,400,000

Census Poverty Poor: 2106

(Relevant age 5-17 in families in poverty) $2,400,000 ÷ 2106 = $1140 per student

Verify final SES rate information on CDE website

SES Per Student Costs

• Amount varies throughout the state. Average is $1100 per student per year for SES.

• If parents request services that cost less, the law says district can pay the smaller amount.

Student EligibilityStudent Eligibility

Who is Eligible for SES?• Regulation 200.45: Only students who are “low-income.”

– All low-income students receive notification of services.

• Section 1116(e)(12): To decide who qualifies as low-income, use same method you use for allocating Part A funds among schools (ranking).

• Often districts determine eligibility using free or reduced price lunch information.– See SES Guidance (F-5). – Be sure providers understand the confidentiality of this

information. Written permission from parent is needed to release student academic information to providers.

Eligible Students• All students from low-income families are eligible to

receive SES notification! In Provisions 2 & 3 schools – district can qualify all students.

• SES eligibility is NOT dependent upon: –Achievement level. –Whether the student is a member of: •Subgroup that failed to meet AYP;•Targeted Assistance Schools: student doesn’t need

to be receiving Title I services; •Participation in the required assessments; or•Grade level not included in the assessments.

More Kids than Funds?After notifying all parents of students from low-income families, if the demand for SES is greater than the funding available:

–Priority goes to the lowest achieving, low-income eligible students.

–District uses a fair, equitable objective criteria to determine low achievement (See choice criteria).

How to Prioritize Services• Some districts can’t serve all of the children

requesting SES services.

• Be sure you have used the full 20% before denying services to students.

• Remember SES is a district program, not a school program. Best to prioritize across the district, not at each school.

• Can use same priority system to allocate slots to popular providers who are limited in their service capacity.

How to Prioritize Services (Cont.)• Examples of a district protocol for defining eligibility criteria:

– Serve lowest achieving, low-income students at all grade levels first

– List low-income students, then rank by achievement, lowest to highest

– Lowest achieving, all grades and subjects– Lowest achieving in a specific subject – Subjects that caused the school/district to be identified for PI– Concentrate on the lowest performing students in particular

grades• Communicate with those parents that didn’t get a space; let

them know their placement on the waiting list.

Audit Finding

• District must first offer services to all low-income students.

– District inappropriately prioritized because they first applied academic criteria to determine eligibility for SES, and then applied income criteria to make a final eligibility determination.

– List of eligible students did not include students from low-income families who scored above the basic level.

Audit Finding

• District determined a student’s eligibility for SES based solely on a student’s performance on California’s standardized tests. – The District:

• Did not identify SES-eligible, low-income students that performed at the proficient level or above on standardized tests.

• Identified low-achieving students that were not low-income as eligible for SES.

Audit Finding

• District inappropriately limited access to SES.

– The district restricted eligibility to low-achieving students that were classified as low-income without first determining whether the demand for services (as measured by the number of requests for SES from families meeting the income criteria alone) would exceed available funding.

– List of eligible students did not include students from low-income families who scored above the basic level.

Audit Finding

• District denied SES to low-income students because other schools provided SES to low-achieving students who were not low-income or were enrolled at a school that was not required to offer SES.

• District denied SES to low-income students who were at or above a certain academic achievement level so it would have SES funds available for low-achieving students who applied for SES later in the school year. District should not deny SES to eligible students in anticipation of future requests from lower-achieving students.

Eligible Student Proposal

• OIG recommends that reauthorization should give consideration to whether the focus of SES eligibility should be on academic proficiency rather than family income.

• Alternative approaches to eligibility that merit consideration: 1. Further limit SES eligibility to only low-achieving students in low-

income families, thereby focusing services on those with the greatest overall need. (Not serving high achieving, low-income)

2. Modify SES eligibility to include all low-achieving students. 3. Expand SES eligibility to include not only low-income students, but also

low-achieving, higher income students not currently eligible.

2009-10 Targets

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