§ 200.78 Allocation of funds to school attendance areas and schools.

(a)

(1) After reserving funds, as applicable, under § 200.77, including funds for equitable services for private school students, their teachers, and their families, an LEA must allocate funds under this subpart to school attendance areas and schools, identified as eligible and selected to participate under section 1113(a) or (b) of the ESEA, in rank order on the basis of the total number of public school children from low-income families in each area or school.

(2) To determine the number of children from low-income families in a secondary school, an LEA must use—

(i) The same measure of poverty it uses for elementary schools; or

(ii) An accurate estimate of the number of students from low-income families by applying the average percentage of students from low-income families in the elementary school attendance areas that feed into the secondary school to the number of students enrolled in the secondary school if—

(A) The LEA conducts outreach to secondary schools within the LEA to inform the schools of the option to use this measure; and

(B) A majority of the secondary schools approve the use of this measure.

(3) If an LEA ranks its school attendance areas and schools by grade span groupings, the LEA may determine the percentage of children from low-income families in the LEA as a whole or for each grade span grouping.

(b)

(1) Except as provided in paragraphs (b)(2) and (d) of this section, an LEA must allocate to each participating school attendance area or school an amount for each low-income child that is at least 125 percent of the per-pupil amount of funds the LEA received for that year under part A, subpart 2 of Title I. The LEA must calculate this per-pupil amount before it reserves funds under § 200.77, using the poverty measure selected by the LEA under section 1113(a)(5) of the ESEA.

(2) If an LEA is serving only school attendance areas or schools in which the percentage of children from low-income families is 35 percent or more, the LEA is not required to allocate a per-pupil amount of at least 125 percent.

(c) An LEA is not required to allocate the same per-pupil amount to each participating school attendance area or school provided the LEA allocates higher per-pupil amounts to areas or schools with higher concentrations of poverty than to areas or schools with lower concentrations of poverty.

(d) An LEA may reduce the amount of funds allocated under this section to a school attendance area or school if the area or school is spending supplemental State or local funds for programs that meet the requirements in § 200.79(b).

(e) If an LEA contains two or more counties in their entirety, the LEA must distribute to schools within each county a share of the LEA's total grant that is no less than the county's share of the child count used to calculate the LEA's grant.

[82 FR 31712, July 7, 2017, as amended at 84 FR 31676, July 2, 2019]