• The purpose of the Title I, Part A program is to provide federal dollars to supplement educational opportunities for students who attend schools with high numbers or percentages of children from low-income families and are most at risk of failing to meet the state's challenging academic achievement standards.  Title I, Part A funds are to be used to provide all students with a significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high-quality education, and to close educational achievement gaps.

    To utilize funds for expenditures, all the following must be met:

    • reasonable in scope and cost,
    • necessary to meet program requirements,
    • allocable to the benefit received, and
    • based on a comprehensive needs assessment.

    School-wide program model: Any school with at least 40 percent poverty, or a state-approved waiver, may operate a Title I school-wide program as long as the school conducts a comprehensive needs assessment and develops a school-wide plan for meeting those needs.  The school-wide plan and its implementation must be regularly monitored and revised as necessary based on student needs to ensure that all students are provided opportunities to meet the challenging state academic standards. The premise behind the school-wide model is that comprehensive improvement strategies - rather than separate, add-on services - are most effective in raising academic achievement for the lowest-achieving students in a school.  This is best accomplished by a school addressing the root causes of low performance.

    U.S. Department of Education