What is Title I?
Title I is a federal education program housed under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 which was reauthorized under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2001.Title I funding is an allocation of federal money designed to help schools whose families are affected by poverty. Using Title I funding, supplemental education services are provided that allow schools to meet the needs of economically disadvantaged students.
The focus of Title I schools is to help students achieve proficiency on core standards, closing academic gaps that may exist. These efforts include providing targeted supports to at-risk students, building teachers’ capacity through professional development, and strengthening parents’ abilities in helping their children succeed.
Title I provides flexible funding that may be used to provide additional instructional staff, professional development, extended-time programs, and other strategies for raising student achievement in high-poverty schools. The program focuses on promoting schoolwide reform in high-poverty schools and ensuring students’ access to scientifically based instructional strategies and challenging academic content. Title I provisions provide a mechanism for holding states, school districts, and schools accountable for improving the academic achievement of all students and turning around low-performing schools while providing alternatives to students in such schools to enable those students to receive a high-quality education.
Title I includes four major parts:
- Part A: Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged
- Part B: Even Start Family Literacy
- Part C: Migrant Education
- Part D: Services for Neglected or Delinquent Children & Youth
Title I funds must be used in addition to District and State funds. All of the services students would receive in the absence of Title I must be in place before Title I funds are used.
Title I, Part A provides Utah with more than $50 million in federal funds each year to help higher poverty schools provide supplemental educational services to meet the needs of educationally disadvantaged students.
Why is my child’s school a Title I school?
Based on the percent of students enrolled in your child’s school, at least 40% of students qualify for free lunch (identified by the free/reduced-price lunch application).
How are Title I funds used in Wasatch County School District?
Title I funds are used in Wasatch School District for parent engagement initiatives, implementing evidence-based strategies, funding district preschool programs, class size reduction, staffing schools with paraprofessionals who are highly-qualified, extended day programming, extended year programs, providing services for students experiencing homelessness, providing targeted interventions to students who need additional help, providing professional development to Title I teachers, and other strategies and interventions that provide help to students and their families.
What are my rights as a parent of a student attending a Title I school?
- Timely information about Title I programs
- A description and explanation of the curriculum and assessments used to measure student progress
- Information on the level of achievement and academic growth of the student
- The right to opt out of mandated assessments
- If requested, opportunities for regular meetings to provide suggestions and to participate, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their children
- The opportunity to be involved in the planning, review, and improvement of the engagement policy and school-wide program unless the school already has a process in place for involving parents (with adequate representation)
- If the school plan is not satisfactory to parents, the school will submit any comments to the LEA (district Title I director)
- Timely notice if their child has been assigned to, or taught, for 4 or more consecutive weeks by a teacher who does not meet applicable State certification or licensure requirements for the grade level or subject area taught.
- Parents/Guardians have the right to request information about the professional qualifications of both the teachers and the paraprofessionals who teach and work with their children in an understandable and uniform format, including alternative formats upon request, and, “to the extent practicable,” in a language that parents understand.
Who should I contact in Wasatch School District with questions about Title I funding?
Please contact Eric Campbell at eric.campbell@wasatch.edu, 435.654.0280
