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The SIA is allocated to LEAs for the benefit of schools that meet the identification criteria for Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI), Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI) or Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI), as defined in the New Jersey  Department of Education’s  approved ESSA State Plan. SIA allotments are based on several school-specific metrics and shall not be transferred among identified schools, except in rare instances as directed by the Office of Comprehensive Support.

Important Note: The SIA shall not be used for any of the LEA’s non-identified schools.

The SIA project period for the initial allotment and the availability of carryover spans 27 months. The Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) project period and carryover availability are as follow:

• FY25 Project Period: July 1, 2024 – September 30, 2025
• FY25 Carryover Availability: July 1, 2025 – September 30, 2026

To ensure that students realize the intended benefits of federal funds, the ESEA requires Title I, Part A funds to supplement, and not supplant, State and local funds. Prior to the ESSA, LEAs complied with this requirement by ensuring that all Title I, Part A – funded resources satisfied several conditions. The ESEA, as amended by the ESSA, maintains that Title I, Part A funds must supplement State and local funds; however, LEAs demonstrate compliance in a different manner. from the US Department of Education indicates that “under ESSA, an LEA’s allocation of State and local funds to schools is examined as a whole to ensure that Title I, Part A funds supplement, and do not supplant, State and local funds… Therefore, an LEA must show that its methodology to allocate State and local funds to schools results in each Title I school receiving all of the State and local funds it would otherwise receive if it were not receiving Title I, Part A funds. In other words, an LEA’s methodology must be “Title I neutral” in that it allocates State and local funds to schools without regard for Title I status.” Further, ESEA 1118(b)(3)(A) indicates that no LEA shall be required to demonstrate that an individual cost or service is supplemental.

Effective planning for school improvement requires strategic utilization of limited resources in a cost-efficient manner. Purposeful budgeting is realized, in part, when grant funds are dedicated to capacity-building practices that have a long-term impact on student outcomes rather than on material acquisitions that have limited long-term value.

The purpose of Title I is to “provide all children with a significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable and high-quality education and to close educational achievement gaps.” Towards this end, the SIA supports implementation of evidence-based approaches in CSI, TSI, and ATSI schools that are designed to mitigate factors that hinder optimal educational outcomes, as identified through the comprehensive needs assessment (CNA), and to support the realization of progress goals, as outlined in the school improvement plan located within the Annual School Planning System. A thorough CNA is the foundation of an impactful Annual School Plan (ASP) that is aligned with the SIA purpose.

The CNA is a systematic approach to identify needs, to examine root causes, and to set priorities for addressing identified needs. In most instances, there is not sufficient time or resources to address all needs. The effective facilitation of the CNA process will aid ASP teams in identifying the most consequential areas to address the school’s improvement challenges. The CNA is an essential pre-requisite for all subsequent elements of the ASP, including the SIA budget. The ESSA law requires a solid, thoughtful, transparent, accurate assessment of the school’s challenges. Additionally, the school’s likelihood of success is dependent on high fidelity to the continuous improvement process, of which the CNA is a critical element. The efficacy of this step largely determines the likelihood of the SIA being used for high-impact, consequential practices. An essential component of the CNA is the identification of evidence-based strategies to address identified priority performance needs.

Evidence-based practices – which include activities, strategies, and interventions – are designated as such based on objective evidence of their efficacy. This evidence is designed to assist LEA and school teams in making informed decisions to ensure that limited resources are dedicated to efforts that are likely to have maximum impact on schools’ improvement challenges. The ESEA, as amended by the ESSA, defines four evidence tiers; however, only practices that meet the top three levels can be funded with the SIA, as illustrated below:

ASP teams and district administrators must ensure that all SIA-funded resources reflected on the ASP’s SMART Goals panel are aligned with tier 1, 2 or 3 evidence-based practices listed on the Root Cause Analysis panel. Additionally, all costs must be consistent with federal cost principles as described below.

District and school leaders must ensure that SIA-funded evidence-based practices are consistent with basic cost principles as outlined in the (UGG). The following information, abstract ted from the UGG, describes general criteria that shall be the basis for determining whether or not an expense is allowable: 

• Be necessary and reasonable for the performance of the Federal award and be allocable thereto under these principles.
• Conform to any limitations or exclusions set forth in these principles or in the Federal award as to types or amount of cost items.
• Be consistent with policies and procedures that apply uniformly to both federally-financed and other activities of the non-Federal entity.
• Be accorded consistent treatment. A cost may not be assigned to a federal award as a direct cost if any other cost incurred for the same purpose in like circumstances has been allocated to the Federal award as an indirect cost.
• Be determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), except, for state and local governments and Indian tribes only, as otherwise provided for in this part.
• Not be included as a cost or used to meet cost sharing or matching requirements of any other federally financed program in either the current or a prior period.
• Be adequately documented.
• Cost must be incurred during the approved budget period.

The following table, though not exhaustive, highlights the type of resources that are allowable if they meet the parameters described above - that is that the expenditure is consistent with the purpose of the SIA per the ESSA, the CNA and subsequent priority need, the evidence-based standard, and federal cost principles. This chart also includes a non-exhaustive list of items that are not allowed.