LEA Title I Plans

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), a local educational agency (LEA) may receive a Title I subgrant if it has submitted a district plan (hereafter referred to as the LEA Title I Plan) to the State educational agency (SEA) for approval by the SEA. The LEA Title I plan must be developed with timely and meaningful consultation with teachers, principals, other school leaders, paraprofessionals, specialized instructional support personnel, charter school leaders (in a local educational agency that has charter schools), administrators, other appropriate school personnel, and parents. As appropriate, the plan should include a description of how the LEA Title I Plan is coordinated with other programs under this Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, the Head Start Act, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, and other Acts as appropriate. In addition, the LEA Title I Plan may be submitted to the SEA as part of a consolidated application.

Beginning with the 2017-18 school year, the requirements for LEA Title I Plans under the ESSA will be addressed through the web-based grants management system, the Comprehensive Continuous Improvement Plan (CCIP). Some requirements will be addressed in the Planning Tool and others will be addressed in the Funding Application for Title I, Part A. Remember, one goal of utilizing CCIP is to consolidate the planning and application process in order to reduce duplication of information across the state.

• Betsy DeVos ESSA Letter 
• ESSA LEA Plan Requirements
• LEA Plans FAQs (March 2017)
• LEA Plans Webinar (March 2017)
• Title I - Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged — USED (Dec. 8, 2016)

Early Learning and the Every Student Succeeds Act in North Carolina
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), signed into law in December 2015, bolsters federal support for early learning and provides opportunity to strengthen the birth-through-third grade continuum - a critical strategy to improve third-grade reading proficiency. In September 2017, North Carolina submitted its state plan to comply with the federal law. Now, North Carolina Local Education Agencies (LEAs) are preparing their district ESSA plans for the 2018-19 academic year.

As LEAs build their district ESSA plans, they will be required to engage early learning stakeholders. Stakeholders may include, but are not limited to, Head Start, Title 1, Smart Start, elementary school principals and teachers, childcare administrators and teachers, Child Care Resource and Referral, Exceptional Children, McKinney Vento, NC Pre-K Committee, family engagement professionals, community college system, community organizations supporting dual language learners, health care providers, existing early childhood collaboratives (e.g., Campaign for Grade-Level Reading), higher education and others.

The North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation (NCECF) is partnering with the Office of Early Learning and the NC Head Start Collaborative Office at the Department of Public Instruction to support LEAs and early childhood community leaders in collaborating to develop the early learning components of the LEA's ESSA district plans.

For additional information and/or contact:

• Jody Koon, Title I Preschool Consultant, Office of Early Learning, NC Department of Public Instruction