Arkansas Department of Education
Title I Comparability Principles
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
Section 1120A(c)

The Arkansas Department of Education has established student/instructional staff ratio as the method used by local educational agencies (LEAs) for meeting the Title I comparability requirement.  A Comparability Report must be submitted annually.

A Title I school is considered comparable if its average student/instructional staff ratio does not exceed 110 percent of the average for non-Title I schools.  

When all schools in a grade span are Title I schools, the comparison is between the high- and low-poverty schools.  A higher poverty school is considered comparable if its average student/instructional staff ratio does not exceed 110 percent of the student/instructional staff ratio for the low-poverty comparison group.

An LEA must maintain source documentation to support the calculations and documentation to demonstrate that any needed adjustments to staff assignments are made.  [Section 1120A(c)(3)(B); Section 443 of the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA); and 34 CFR 76.730, and 80.42]

District/Schools 

The Title I comparability requirement applies to an LEA that has more than one building for each grade span.

A school with 100 or fewer students is not considered when determining Title I comparability.

The number of grade spans should match the basic organization of the schools in the LEA.  For example, if the LEA’s organization includes elementary, junior high, and senior high, the LEA would have three grade spans.

If the actual grade span of a school contains grades in two groupings, place the school in the group in which it has more grades.  If a school has an equal number of grades in each of the two groupings, place the school in the lower grades grouping.

Do not include schools containing only preschool programs when gathering data for comparability.  

An LEA must treat an otherwise eligible Title I school that is skipped as if it were a Title I school when determining comparability.

If there is a significant difference in the enrollments of schools within a grade span, the LEA may divide grade spans into a large school group and a small school group.  To qualify for this option, the largest school in the grade span must have an enrollment that is two times the enrollment of the smallest school in the grade span.

Instructional Staff

When counting FTE of instructional staff in a school, include the FTE of staff for grades K-12, only.  

Do not include preschool students or staff in comparability calculations.

Instructional staff is defined as teachers and other personnel assigned to schools who provide direct instructional services such as music, art, and physical education teachers, guidance counselors, speech therapists and librarians, as well as other personnel who provide services that support instruction, such as school social workers and psychologists.

Paraprofessionals are not includes in the definition of instructional staff.

Principals are not included in the definition of instructional staff.

When an instructional staff person works in more than one school, be sure to pro-rate the FTE to accurately reflect the time spent in each school.

Adjustments and Penalties for Failure to Achieve Comparability

When the data fails to demonstrate that every Title I school meets the criteria for determining comparability of services, adjustments in the distribution of local resources must be made that will demonstrate comparability of services by October 1 each year.  If the original comparability report indicates a school or schools out of compliance, a second Comparability Report is required after redistribution of local/state staff.

If adjustments are not made and the LEA is found to be out of compliance after December 1, an amount to be withheld or repaid is the amount or percentage by which the LEA failed to comply according to the comparability report, except that no adjustments shall be required during the then current school year if the failure to meet comparability requirements is due to one or more of the following:

1.	A failure in the pupil-teacher or salary ratio of a Title I school in which the total difference between the compared ratios is caused by less than one full-time equivalent (FTE) in the instructional staff of the Title I school;

2.	Unpredictable changes in student enrollment or necessary personnel assignments that occurred after the school year began;

3.	The amount of non-federal funds spent to provide supplemental instructional programs designed to meet the special needs of educationally deprived children;

4.	A flaw in the assignment of resources policies not foreseen by the LEA or SEA during the application review and approval process;

5.	There is a size differential between the enrollment of the failing Title I school and the average enrollment of the comparison group of schools of two to one or greater.