ACTION REQUIRED

October 7, 2011

TO THE ADMINISTRATOR ADDRESSED:

SUBJECT: Title I, Part A—Comparability of Services requirement

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) (Public Law 107–110, Section 1120A[c]) requires that campuses receiving Title I, Part A funding must receive the same level of services through state and local funds as campuses that are not receiving Title I, Part A funding. If all campuses in a local education agency (LEA) are receiving Title I, Part A funds, then the LEA must ensure:

1. That the services provided by state and local funds at their Title I, Part A campuses are substantially comparable, taken as a whole, at each Title I campus; or
2. That the services provided by state and local funds at their Title I, Part A campuses with higher percentages of low-income students are equal to or greater than the services provided at their Title I, Part A campuses with lower percentages of low-income students.
   

LEAs that participate in Title I, Part A are required to conduct comparability testing and to submit that data to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) by Friday, November 11, 2011.

How to Respond

LEAs that receive Title I, Part A funding and that have more than one building for each grade span are required to submit two documents to TEA, the Comparability Assurance Document and the Comparability Computation Form (CCF). LEAs should use their latest budgeted data for the 2011–2012 school year to conduct the comparability testing required to complete the CCF.

LEAs that do not participate in Title I, Part A, or that have only one campus for each grade-span group, are required to submit only the Comparability Assurance Document.

The required documents may be downloaded from the NCLB Reports section of the Texas Education Agency Secure Environment (TEASE). To download the forms:

1. Logon to TEASE at https://seguin.tea.state.tx.us/apps/logon.asp.
2. Select NCLBReport—No Child Left Behind Reports.
3. Click on Download Response Templates.
4. Click on the applicable title to download the template.

LEAs will also use TEASE to submit their completed documents. To upload the forms:

1. Logon to TEASE at https://seguin.tea.state.tx.us/apps/logon.asp.
2. Select NCLBReport—No Child Left Behind Reports.
3. Click on Upload Response Templates.
4. Click on the applicable title to upload the template.

Current instruction manuals for completing the documents are published on the Title I, Part A—Comparability of Services Requirement website at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/
index4.aspx?id=6996&menu_id=798.

Deadline

LEAs must submit comparability of services documentation on or before Friday, November 11, 2011.  Failure to meet this important deadline will result in suspension of the LEA’s Title I, Part A funds.

TEASE and NCLB Reports

Individual LEA staff members must have a TEASE userid and logon to access and submit the comparability documents. Staff members who do not have a TEASE userid and logon should visit the TEASE Information Center online at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/opge/
egrant/index.html. An overview of the TEASE online request process can be found at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/opge/egrant/eGrantsOverview.pdf.  Further assistance is available from the eGrants Help Desk at (512) 463-7025 or at egrants@tea.state.tx.us.

To add NCLB Reports to an existing TEASE account, log on to TEASE, click on Add/Modify Application Access, and Select NCLB Reports from the menu.

USDE Guidance

The US Department of Education (USDE) has published the following additional guidance on comparability of services:

1. The USDE has clearly stated that only one division to a single grade span group (small campuses and large campuses) may be made based on a disparity of enrollment. The LEA has the flexibility to decide where the higher enrollment/lower enrollment division is made, but there may only be one division. For example, in an LEA where there is a significant disparity in enrollment at a particular grade span (i.e., high schools ranging from 150 students to 3,500 students), the higher-enrollment high school campuses grouped for comparison might include campuses with 900 students to 3,500 students and the lower-enrollment group could include campuses from 150 students to less than 900 students.
   

2. In general, campus groupings must be made based on broad organizational categories: elementary, middle, and high school. LEAs may not group campuses by exact grade spans. The expectation by the USDE is that this will produce fewer grade-span groupings within each LEA and will result in more campuses being compared to similar campuses.
   
3. LEAs with fewer than 1,000 students will no longer be exempted from the comparability of services requirement.

If you have questions regarding the Title I, Part A Comparability of Services requirement, please contact Ms. Cindy Watson in the Division of Federal Program Compliance at cindy.watson@tea.state.tx.us.

Sincerely,

Cory Green, Chief Grants Administrator
Office for Grants and Fiscal Compliance