Elementary and Secondary Education Act

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is the cornerstone of national education policy and family literacy has an important role. Family literacy is mentioned in seven different titles in ESEA. The following provides a few highlights of where family literacy appears and in what context it is included in the legislation.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act was first authorized in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” Since that time, the act’s purpose remains unchanged: to target extra resources at schools serving students in areas of economic disadvantage. It was reauthorized with the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002. The provisions of this act are administered by the U.S. Department of Education.

Funding: Formula grants to states, Title I, Part A, is the single largest federal investment for elementary and secondary education. This program provides over $14 billion per year to fund system-wide supports and additional resources for schools to improve learning for students at risk of educational failure.

Use of Funds: The U.S. Department of Education has emphasized that Title I is in full support of the family literacy approach and that Title I funds can be used to support the full range of Even Start Family Literacy Program services.

States educational agencies must submit plans containing assurances that they will encourage local educational agencies and individual schools to offer family literacy services using Title I, Part A funds if a substantial number of students being served have parents who do not have a high school diploma or its equivalent or have low levels of literacy. Further, local educational agencies must submit plans explaining how they will coordinate and integrate Even Start, Head Start, Reading First and Early Reading First into their overall preschool initiative. In addition, local educational agencies must set aside 1 percent of their total Title I, Part A allocation to improve parental involvement, including promoting family literacy and parenting skills.

Two other Title I, Part A programs provide funds that may be used to foster parental involvement. Schools receiving Schoolwide Programs funds and Targeted Assistance Schools funds are required to provide strategies to increase parental involvement. Family literacy is listed as an example of an acceptable parental involvement strategy. Schoolwide Programs funds may also be used to establish or enhance prekindergarten programs, such as Even Start or Early Reading First. Children participating in Head Start, Even Start or Early Reading First during the previous two years are automatically eligible to receive services from a Targeted Assistance School Program.

Title IX defines family literacy throughout ESEA as the four component model in use by the Even Start Family Literacy program.

In addition to Titles I and IX, five other titles of the act include programs that either expressly state family literacy is an allowable use of funds under that title or the programs authorized by that title dovetail with family literacy’s components.

Family literacy is an authorized use of funds appropriated under Title VII, Part A, subparts 1 and 2, Part B and Part C for Indian, Native Hawaiian and Alaskan Native Education.

While not an expressly authorized use of funds appropriated under Titles II, III, IV and V, those funds may be tapped by family literacy programs to fund one or more of the four components individually.

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