Establishing Poverty Levels

A. The district must first decide what poverty criteria will be used and when the measure of poverty will be taken. Every school in the district is compared by the same criteria, measured at the same time of the year.

1. The Elementary and Secondary School Act allows each district to choose how it will determine poverty levels using any one or a composite of these sources: Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Free and Reduced Lunch eligibility, Medicaid eligibility and/or the last available United States Census data.

Note: Although the law allows the use of any of these sources, usability of each varies.

 Eligibility for Free and Reduced Lunch programs: This is the criteria used by most school districts in Oregon. The data is available locally and also provides the broadest range of eligibility. Families may have incomes above the national poverty level and still be eligible for reduced lunch rates. When districts choose to use free and reduced lunch eligibility as the criteria for targeting schools they will include limited income working families as well as those at the deepest levels of poverty within each school’s poverty percentage. Students do not have to be participating in a free/reduced meal program to be counted, but they must be eligible to participate.  Census Data, updated in 1999: Although allowed by federal law, in Oregon, census data information is not useful for targeting individual schools for Title I funds. The only districts that can derive a poverty measure using the count of children ages 5 to 17 living in families with poverty level income from the last US Census are those with only one attendance area (single school districts), and there is no need for those small, single school districts to follow any targeting procedure. In other states where the county and the school district unit are the same, geographical areas within the county/district can be identified by school attendance boundaries. In Oregon, because there are many school districts within each county boundary, the smallest unit of census data within each county available is that of the district.  A Composite: Districts may combine two or more of the sources of information for use as its poverty criteria. It must take care not to count the same children twice, however. Typically, free and reduced lunch count will be used for grades one through twelve and AFDC used for kindergarten.

2. In addition to deciding on what criteria to use, the district must determine a time when the poverty criteria will be applied across the district in order to determine a uniform poverty count. The district may choose a single date and take a poverty count, or the district may choose to select a series of dates or a span of time during which it will average poverty. The series of dates or the span of time must be the same for all schools. For example, one district may choose to take a poverty count on the first Monday of February. Another district may choose to average the poverty counts taken for each school on the first Wednesdays of October, December and February. Yet another district may choose to use the average poverty for each school during the month of November. Any date selection method is acceptable so long as it us uniformly applied. Most districts look at patterns of poverty enrollment over time and select the period of time when poverty tends to be highest in the district as a whole. A few districts simply use the annual fall report of poverty within the October report that is submitted to the Oregon Department of Education, Office of School Finance.

B. Next is the application of the poverty criteria - actually determining poverty levels by numbers of students from low income families and percentages of poverty. This has to be done for the district as a whole and for each school.

1. Establish poverty for the district by counting the number of children in poverty (based on the criteria selected and the dates established in Step One - A) who live within the district boundary. This count should include those children who are considered to be living in poverty and who are attending private as well as public school.1 (There is no obligation to include in the count children who are home-schooled.) To determine a percentage of district poverty, divide the number of poverty students by the total student enrollment of the district.

There is an additional option for large districts with more than one school at each grade level. Rather than establishing one district poverty average against which all schools are compared, the large districts may establish a district average of poverty for each grade span. For example, a district may establish an average of poverty for all of its elementary schools by dividing the total number of children enrolled in the district’s elementary schools into the total number of poverty children living in those elementary school attendance boundaries, then repeat the process to establish district poverty levels for the middle schools, then the high schools.

2. Establish the poverty level of each school. The district may establish the level of poverty in one of two ways:

Attendance area: Identify the total number of children living in each school attendance boundary or area. Within the total, identify the number of children living in poverty who live within each school attendance area. Include the number of children from poverty residences within each school boundary who attend private school. (See footnote 1.) Divide the total number of poverty students living in each school attendance area by the total number of children who live in each attendance

1 The district is required to consult with officials of all private schools located within the district boundary. To the degree possible, ascertain the number of private school students who meet the same level of poverty as is determined for the public school district. When private schools do not offer a free and reduced lunch program it can be challenging to determine an appropriate number of low-income students to be included in the count. If some private schools have scholarship programs based on similar poverty, those figures may be used. When a survey is taken to identify low-income children, addresses are necessary when the district uses school attendance area residence as the method for targeting eligible public schools (See STEP ONE, B-2), otherwise the surveys may be taken anonymously.

The district is not under obligation to derive a count from private schools that choose not to participate in Title I program services. area and attend public school. Using residence in a school attendance boundary is the primary and preferred method for establishing school poverty levels.

School Enrollment: When a district has an open enrollment policy (to accommodate magnet schools or some form of school choice) it may not have residential attendance boundaries identified for each school, or there may be so much crossing of boundaries by students that the poverty of individual schools can only be determined by who attends each school. Identify the total number of children attending each public school. Determine the number of children attending each school who live in a family with poverty level income. Divide the number of poverty students at the school by the total number of students at the school to determine the school’s poverty percent. When school enrollment is used to determine the poverty level of each school, the district must still identify the total number of poverty children from the district as a whole who attend participating private schools. Using school enrollment has implications for the funding of services to private schools, as well. See Step Five - C-2 and Illustration VII notes.

Another choice for the district in determining the poverty level of its schools exists. Whether using attendance area or school enrollment, the district then may choose to have each school, regardless of grade span, qualify by the actual poverty count of its students, or the district may choose to apply a feeder school pattern in order to establish poverty percentages for its middle and high schools.

Applying a feeder school pattern: Calculate the average percentage of poverty for elementary attendance areas/schools feeding into a particular middle school by dividing the total number of low-income children in those elementary schools by the total enrollment of the same set of elementary schools. Multiply that percent (which is an average for the schools feeding into a particular middle school) times the total enrollment of that middle school. If an elementary school feeds into two or more middle schools, it will be necessary to calculate that elementary school as though it were two (or more) boundaries and multiply the appropriate percentages toward the receiving middle schools. For example:

Illustration I # Elementary School Enrollment low-income Feeds to Middle School… Blueberry ES 313 210 Jefferson Grant ES 377 247 Blossom Fields Shaker Heights ES 298 186 Blossom Fields Washington ES 555 282 Jefferson Mulberry ES 319 141 split between JMS & BFMS MES 110 24 Jefferson (JMS) (Mulberry) 209 117 Blossom Fields (BFMS) Calculating Poverty for Jefferson MS: Add the feeder schools poverty counts, (210 + 282 + 24) 516, divide that sum by feeder schools total enrollments (313 + 555 + 110) 978 to determine a percentage of poverty for Jefferson MS = 53% poverty. Multiply enrollment at Jefferson MS by 53% to determine the number of students who will generate funds for determining the building allocation, if any. Repeat the process for Blossom Fields MS.

If the district has only one high school, the elementary school grade span average may be applied to the high school as its percent of poverty. If there is more than one high school, follow the same procedures outlined above, using the middle school poverty percentages to determine the percent and number of poverty students at each high school.

Reminder: Whether or not a feeder pattern is used, the district is still under obligation to determine the number of low-income children attending private schools. In the previous illustration, if the district’s poverty data were derived from residence within school attendance areas and Jefferson Middle School were to be served but Blossom Fields not, low- income residence of Jefferson MS boundary would generate funds for serving eligible private school children. If, however, this poverty data were derived from school enrollment, every low-income middle school student attending private school and living within the district boundary would generate funds for serving eligible private school students.