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 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 program, must be based on effective means of improving student achievement and included strategies to support parental involvement.

Fund usage
Title I, Part A-Basic funds generally offer:

• smaller classes or special instructional spaces
• additional teachers and aides
• opportunities for professional development for school staff
• extra time for teaching Title I students the skills they need
• a variety of supplementary teaching methods
• an individualized program for students
• additional teaching materials which supplement their regular instruction

For more information, please visit the links below:

Requirements

• AYP
• Comparability Handbook
• Committee of Practitioners
• Monitoring
• Evaluation
• Reporting Requirements (annual Reports to the Public)
• Transferability

Resources 

• OMB CIRCULAR A-87
• Legislation
• Regulations
• Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR)

Contact: The Division of District Enrichment has the primary responsibility of supporting and providing technical assistance as it relates to Title I, Part A. However, each LEA has been assigned a District Contact Person .