Title I

Equitable Participation of Nonpublic Students for Title I

Background Information

Equitable Title I services must be available for low-achieving nonpublic students whose residence of record (parents’/guardians’ place of residence) is in a public school attendance area that receives Title I funds.  This includes nonpublic students in Title I eligible, but not participating (skipped) attendance areas.  Students who receive services must meet Title I criteria, i.e., multiple objective, educationally related criteria to determine which nonpublic students from the school attendance areas are considered low performing.

Low-income children who attend nonpublic schools are included in the census poverty counts that the United States Department of Education uses to determine the public school district’s Title I allocation, therefore these children are entitled to Title I services.  Title I services are offered under the Child Benefit Theory, which was developed to comply with the Constitutional prohibition against federal funding to private schools.  Therefore, Title I funds must benefit the individual child, not the nonpublic school, and be provided by the local educational agency (LEA).

Serving Nonpublic Students

To ensure that eligible nonpublic students receive Title I services, school districts must apply a three-phase process:

  1. Locating and counting the nonpublic students
  2. Consulting with the nonpublic school officials
  3. Providing Title I services for eligible nonpublic students