Federal Programs

IMPROVING THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF THE DISADVANTAGED

This program provides financial assistance through State educational agencies (SEAs) to local educational agencies (LEAs) and public schools with high numbers or percentages of poor children to help ensure that all children meet challenging State academic content and student academic achievement standards.

LEAs target the Title I funds they receive to public schools with the highest percentages of children from low-income families. Unless a participating school is operating a schoolwide program, the school must focus Title I services on children who are failing, or most at risk of failing, to meet State academic standards. Schools enrolling at least 40 percent of students from poor families are eligible to use Title I funds for schoolwide programs that serve all children in the school.

Title I reaches about 12.5 million students enrolled in both public and private schools. Title I funds may be used for children from preschool age to high school, but most of the students served (65 percent) are in grades 1 through 6; another 12 percent are in preschool and kindergarten programs.

Title I is designed to support State and local school reform efforts tied to challenging State academic standards in order to reinforce and amplify efforts to improve teaching and learning for students farthest from meeting State standards. Individual public schools with poverty rates above 40 percent may use Title I funds, along with other Federal, State, and local funds, to operate a “schoolwide program” to upgrade the instructional program for the whole school. Schools with poverty rates below 40 percent, or those choosing not to operate a schoolwide program, offer a “targeted assistance program” in which the school identifies students who are failing, or most at risk of failing, to meet the State’s challenging performance standards, then designs, in consultation with parents, staff, and district staff, an instructional program to meet the needs of those students. Both schoolwide and targeted assistance programs must be based on effective means of improving student achievement and include strategies to support parental involvement.

CCS Title I Board Policy

Title I Schools in Clay County

Hayesville Primary School

Hayesville Elementary School

 For more information, contact:

Angel Owens, Chief Officer of Federal Programs

Clay County Schools

154 Yellow Jacket Drive

Hayesville, NC 28904

828-389-8513

[email protected]

Title II is part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The purpose of Title II, Part A is to increase the academic achievement of all students by helping schools and districts improve teacher and principal quality and ensure that all teachers are highly qualified. Title II funding supports professional development opportunities for teachers and principals and assists with recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers and principals.

For more information, contact:

Angel Owens, Chief Officer of Federal Programs

Clay County Schools

154 Yellow Jacket Drive

Hayesville, NC  28904

828-389-8513

[email protected] 

The Rural and Low-Income Schools (RLIS) Program provides grant funds to rural school districts that serve concentrations of children from low-income families. RLIS funding supports a range of authorized activities in order to assist school districts in meeting the state's definition of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and/or meet Annual Measurable Objectives under the ESEA flexibility.

Awards are issued annually to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction which makes sub-grants to the state's LEA's and charter schools that meet the applicable requirements.

For more information, contact:

Angel Owens, Chief Officer of Federal Programs

Clay County Schools

154 Yellow Jacket Drive

Hayesville, NC  28904

828-389-8513

[email protected] 

Congress reauthorized the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act in January of 2002. This federal law includes the Education of Homeless Children and Youth Program that entitles children who are homeless to a free, appropriate public education and requires schools to remove barriers to their enrollment, attendance, and success in school. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Act protects all students who do not have a fixed, regular, and adequate residence.

Children and youth experiencing homelessness have the right to:

• Receive a free, appropriate public education.

• Enroll in school immediately, even if lacking documents normally required for enrollment.

• Enroll in school and attend classes while the school gathers needed documents.

• Enroll in the local attendance area school or continue attending their school of origin (the school they attended when permanently housed or the school in which they were last enrolled), if that is the parent's, guardian's, or unaccompanied youth's preference is feasible. If the school district believes the school selected is not in the student's best interest, then the district must provide the parent, guardian, or unaccompanied youth with a written explanation of its position and inform him/her of the right to appeal its decision.

• Receive transportation to and from the school of origin, if requested by the parent, guardian, or unaccompanied youth.

• Receive educational services comparable to those provided to other students, according to the student's need.

These rights are established under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. This act is the primary piece of federal legislation dealing with the education of children and youth experiencing homelessness in U.S. public schools. It was reauthorized as Title X, Part C, of the No Child Left Behind Act in January 2002. To qualify for these rights, children and youth must be considered homeless according to the McKinney-Vento definition of homeless.

Eligibility Under McKinney-Vento:

• Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason

• Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations

• Living in emergency or transitional shelters

• Living in a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings

• Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings

• Migratory children living in the above circumstances

• Unaccompanied youth living in the above circumstances