School District Poverty Indicators

The Office of Public Instruction uses United States Census Bureau poverty indicators of 5 to 17-year-olds as a factor for determining school district grant eligibility for a number of federal grant programs.  Grant programs that directly use Census poverty indicator information include:  Titles I, IIA, V, VIB (Rural Low Income) and Special Education.   Additionally, Titles IID and IV include Title I allocation information as an allocation factor, so the Census poverty indicators are indirectly a factor in these allocations too. 

For consistency, most of the federal grant programs administered through the Office of Public Instruction use the Census 5-17 year-old school district poverty information submitted to OPI from the US Department of Education's prior year Title I allocations.  If a district has officially annexed or attached to another district, the Office of Public Instruction adds the poverty and population counts from the old district to the new district's totals.

To calculate the district's poverty rate percentage, OPI divides a district's 'Relevant' age 5 to 17 in families in poverty count by the district's total 'Relevant' age 5 to 17 population. 

Link to the Census Bureau web page on School District Poverty which is updated on a regular basis:

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/saipe/