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Federal Legislation 
Title I of “Every Student Succeeds Act" provides federal assistance to school districts to help fund high quality, challenging instructional programs for children in schools that have highest concentrations of poverty. 

Program Description 
Title I is a federal program that provides opportunities for the children served to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to meet challenging state content standards. Resources are distributed to schools where needs are the greatest, in amounts sufficient to make a difference in the improvement of instruction. Title I coordinates services with other educational services, and to the extent feasible, with health and social services programs. Title I provides greater decision making authority and flexibility within the schools and for teachers. However, greater responsibility for student performance in the exchange made for this flexibility. 


School Selection 
Title I schools within the district are selected based on information obtained from the March, 135th Day Attendance Count, and the percentage of students who are identified as a pupil in poverty (PIP). A poverty index for the district is determined and the schools are ranked from highest to lowest poverty. A school which serves an attendance area which is not less than 40% poverty may qualify to be Schoolwide. Schoolwide programs may use funds or services in combination with other Federal, State, and local funds it receives, to upgrade the entire educational program within the school. Schoolwide programs are eligible to use funds to support systemic reform and instructional improvement. All students attending school at a Schoolwide Title I site may use materials and/or be serviced by personnel funded through Title I. Targeted Assistance: A school which serves an attendance area which is less than 40% poverty may qualify to be Targeted Assistance. Schools identified for Targeted Assistance must utilize standardized test data and teacher judgment to identify students for participation in the Targeted Assistance program, and only those students identified through the student selection process as needing assistance may use materials and/or be serviced by personnel funded through Title I. Targeted Assistance schools must implement a scientifically-based instructional program to assist the identified students. 


Allocation of Funds 
The amount of funds allocated to each Title I school is based on a per poverty student enrollment allocation. The district Title I allocation is, in turn, allocated to schools based on the number of poverty students in each Title I school as determined by the 135th day PIP. Allocations may change from year to year, depending on a change in the number of PIP students within each school and/or a change in the district’s allocation. 


Planning Committee 
A school-level planning team must be assembled in each Title I school to give input on the use of all Title I expenditures. The required planning team representatives must include, but are not limited to: 1-principal, 2-teachers, 2-additional staff members, 2-parents, 1-student services worker, 1-district administrator, 1-technical assistance provider, 2-community members, and, if the school is a high school, 1-student. The planning team should meet regularly throughout the year to discuss the implementation of the current plan and to decide on changes or additions to the plan for the next school year. The planning team should be given an agenda and sign-in attendance sheet for documentation purposes. The Title I committee chairperson will need to take notes in order to keep track of adjustments that need to be made to the plan. 


Needs Assessment 
The law requires that in each Title I school, a comprehensive needs assessment should be conducted in order to identify the needs of the students. The plan developed at each school must reflect needs identified by the needs assessment and programs designed to meet these needs. The needs assessment should: 1.) discuss discrepancies between what exists and what students need in order to achieve, 2.) describe present conditions and areas of weakness, 3.) provide a reason for areas where the greatest need exists, 4.) contain at least 3 years of test data, 5.) use additional data received from attendance reports, teacher surveys, parent surveys, etc. A needs assessment will not only identify areas that need to be addressed by the Title I plan, but will act as a basis for building a priorities list on which subsequent plans can be based. 


Research-Based Instruction 
Once the areas of greatest need have been determined, research-based strategies must be selected to address them. The South Carolina Curriculum Standards should be used as a basis for deciding which instructional strategies should be selected. Only the best and most effective research-based instruction should be included to address the needs of the students within the Title I school. 


Parent and Family Engagement
Parent involvement is a critical portion of the Title I plan. Every Title I school is expected to include a certain percentage of the total allocation toward improving Parent and Family Engagement within the school. Each school/district must also develop a Parent and Family Engagement policy, outlining expectations and opportunities for including parents in the education of their children. Parents must be included on the planning committee and should be notified of all activities implemented through Title I. Parents must also be offered the opportunity to give feedback on the plan. 

Documentation 
Documentation is a necessary but often time-consuming part of implementing the Title I plan. Office of Federal Programs' staff works with the school staff on a routine basis to design a system to most effectively document efforts. Regularly occurring monitoring visits by independent and/or SDE auditors ensure the school followed all legal requirements for planning and implementing the written plan. Activities listed within the Title I plan must have written documentation to show that the strategies are implemented as defined in the school plan. While documentation can be cumbersome, it can be quite beneficial to future planning. Documentation can show the progress of instructional strategies and whether or not they were successfully implemented supporting adjustments made in subsequent plans. The agenda, sign-in sheet, and minutes from the planning team meeting need to be uploaded into the Federal Programs monitoring platform for documentation purposes. 


Evaluation of Adequate Progress 
Following the implementation of a Title I plan the State Department of Education will determine whether a school made adequate academic progress from the prior year based on the school’s most recent PASS/SC READY test results.