USED Releases Non-Binding Guidance on Supplement, Not Supplant Provision in ESSA Title I
As if the temporary end of the shutdown wasn’t exciting
enough, on Friday, USED contributed to a busy education-policy new cycle by
releasing non-binding guidance related to the supplement, not supplant
provisions of ESSA Title I.
- Background: ‘Supplement, not supplant’ (SNS) is a
provision in federal law designed to ensure that federal funds are in addition
to—not in place of—state and local dollars. The guidance released on Friday
applies only to ESSA Title I, but not to other federal education programs that
may have separate SNS provisions. Under NCLB, the SNS provisions had been beefed
up to a level that was burdensome and unnecessarily complicated. While the core
provision remains unchanged from NCLB to ESSA, the big change is that under
ESSA, no LEA can be required to identify that an individual cost or service is
supplemental. This provision rules out requiring an LEA to use the three presumptions
to comply with the supplement not supplant requirement, which were based on an
analysis of individual costs. LEAs no longer have to demonstrate SNS at the individual
cost or service level. Congressional Research Service released a good primer on SNS in early 2015.
- New Guidance: The guidance released by USED is a very
light touch, especially compared to the regulations proposed under the Obama
administration. The guidance released on Friday aligns much more closely with
the guidance document that had been released in the summer of 2015 (before ESSA
was even reauthorized!) You’ll recall AASA had deepreservations regarding the Obama regs, which mandated equalized spending
and would have resulted in forced transfers, among other concerns. The new
guidance avoids those traps, also clarifies that LEAs do not have to publicly
disclose their SNS methodology on their websites, but does clarify that LEAs
can’t simply use their per-pupil spending to demonstrate compliance with SNS.
The guidance includes sample methods LEAs can use in demonstrating SNS,
clarifies that list is not finite, and reiterates that USED cannot mandate the
SNS methodology.
You can read the guidance here.