Impact Aid School Districts Bear Brunt of Federal Budget Cuts


Last Updated: November 04, 2013
 

By the end of FY 2013, Impact Aid School Districts had received $68M less in federal funding and were facing a second round of federal budget cuts in the 2013-14 school year. Many Impact Aid schools are located in rural communities with a limited local tax base and high levels of poverty. For some school districts, Impact Aid funding accounts for up to 65 percent of their operating budget.

The Impact Aid Program, Title VIII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), provides assistance to local school districts with concentrations of children residing on Indian lands, military bases, low-rent housing properties, or other Federal properties and, to a lesser extent, concentrations of children who have parents in the uniformed services or employed on eligible Federal properties who do not live on Federal property. There are basically four areas of federal impaction: Indian trust or treaty lands, low-rent housing, projects, and military bases, and other federal ownership of land such as national parks, federal prisons, VA hospitals, and other federally-owned parcels of land.

To cope with the budget shortfalls, Impact Aid schools are deferring maintenance and/or purchases, eliminating non-instructional staff, increasing class sizes, reducing professional development and eliminating instructional staff. In addition, school districts have reduced academic programs, eliminated extracurricular or summer activities, cut their transportation budgets and closed or consolidated schools.

To learn more about how Impact Aid Schools are dealing with the second round of federal budget cuts, please read: National Association of Federally Impacted Schools (NAFIS) Sequester Report October 2013

For background information on Impact Aid Schools, please visit: Impact Aid School Districts Brace for Sequester