ED Letter Updates States on MOEquity Requirements
For the handful of state educational agencies (SEAs) that have been slow to finalize their federal fiscal year (FY) 2022 maintenance of equity (MOEquity) determinations, the time to act is now, according to recent Department of Education letter.
MOEquity provisions are intended to help ensure that schools serving large proportions of historically underserved groups of students receive an equitable share of state and local funds. ED’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) sent the letter recently to chief state school officers addressing state compliance with the FY 2022 MOEquity requirements under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) (Pub. L. 117-2)
As of August 31, 40 states had demonstrated compliance with ED’s state-level MOEquity requirements by: (1) submitting FY 2022 data assuring that highest-poverty and high-need local educational agencies (LEAs) did not experience disproportionate reductions in state per-pupil funding; (2) receiving ED approval of a tolerance proposal when a subset of small LEAs experienced changes in student enrollment that created variability in state per-pupil funding; and (3) making supplemental payments to LEAs to mitigate a FY 2022 shortfall. The letter added that 12 states have provided nearly $240 million in supplemental payments to more than 280 impacted LEAs. ED is still reviewing the remaining FY 2022 small LEA tolerance proposals and will provide related technical assistance, and the agency will begin issuing monitoring findings in October for states that continue to exhibit noncompliance.
“States that have not yet demonstrated compliance with FY 2022 requirements should immediately contact their state program officer [at OESE] to develop a plan to meet these requirements before enforcement actions begin,” the letter stressed.
On the local level, the letter noted that LEA-level MOEquity requirements help protect high-poverty schools serving high concentrations of economically-disadvantaged students from disproportionate reductions in elementary and secondary education funding and full-time equivalent (FTE) staffing levels. ED requires states to publish the following LEA-level MOEquity data: (1) a list of LEAs excepted from LEA-level MOEquity requirements; (2) a list of remaining (non-excepted) high-poverty schools; and (3) a description of how the SEA will ensure that each non-excepted LEA is maintaining both fiscal and staffing equity in its high-poverty schools in both FYs 2022 and 2023. As of August 31, 47 states had published required high-poverty school data and 29 states have demonstrated full compliance with LEA-level MOEquity requirements for FY 2022.
For remaining LEAs covered by ARPA statutes, for each school identified by the LEA as a high-poverty school, the LEA may not: (1) reduce combined state and local per-pupil funding by an amount that exceeds the total reduction, if any, in LEA per-pupil funding for all schools served by the LEA in such fiscal year; or (2) reduce the number of FTE staff per-pupil by an amount that exceeds the total reduction, if any, in FTE staff per-pupil in all schools served by the LEA in such fiscal year.
The letter urged states with LEAs that did not meet the local MOEquity requirements for applicable high-poverty schools to provide technical assistance to those LEAs on how to resolve any noncompliance. ED will monitor SEA implementation of the LEA requirements and compliance status in FY 2024.
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