Federal Grant Opportunity of the Month
Name: Impact Aid
Administering Office:
Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
Program Description: This program
provides financial support to school districts affected by federal activities.
The presence of certain children living on federal property across the country
may place a financial burden on the school districts that educate them. The
property on which these children live is exempt from local property taxes, denying
districts access to the primary source of revenue used by most communities to
finance education. Impact Aid helps to replace the lost local revenue that would
otherwise be available to districts to pay for the education of these children.
Five different kinds of payments are supported.
Type of Projects:
- Basic Support Payments are provided to approximately 1,300 LEAs across
the country in FY 2003. Eligibility is determined on an annual basis through
applications submitted by school districts. Payments generally are deposited
in eligible LEAs' general fund accounts and are used for basic operating costs
within the LEA, including teacher salaries, utilities, books, and supplies.
Funding is not provided directly to private schools.
- For Payments for Children with Disabilities, any LEA that is eligible
to receive basic support payments on behalf of federally connected children
may also receive a payment for children with disabilities who are military dependents
or who live on Indian lands. Eligibility is determined on an annual basis through
applications submitted by school districts. Payments are used for the special
education costs incurred by the LEAs. Some funding flows indirectly to private
schools in those LEAs that pay tuition to private institutions for the education
of disabled students whose Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) require
such special services.
- Under Facilities Maintenance, funds are provided for emergency repairs
and comprehensive capital improvements to schools that the Department of Education
owns but that LEAs use to serve federally connected military dependent students
or for the transfer of these facilities to LEAs.
- Formula Construction payments must be used to pay for construction-related
expenses, such as developing drawings and plans for school buildings; building,
purchasing, renovating, or expanding school buildings; inspecting and supervising
the construction of school buildings; and paying the debt service for these
activities.
- The competitive Construction grants, which were new in FY 2002, fund
school repair and renovation projects for approximately 10 to 30 eligible school
districts.
- Under Payments for Federal Property, approximately 250 LEAs receive
Impact Aid payments for federal property annually. Payments generally are deposited
in eligible LEAs' general fund accounts and are used for general operating expenses
such as teacher salaries, utilities, administrative costs, books, and supplies.
Funding is not provided to private schools.
