Will there be any delay to formula funds, such as Title I, special education, and career and technical education? For the most part, no. Employees will be on hand to ensure that roughly $22 billion in formula funds to states and districts makes it out the door, as scheduled, in October.

So looks like we have until October until we would see any big impact from the shutdown in our schools. And as Board Member Woods noted last night in a tweet, no government shutdown has lasted longer than 21 days.  So lets hope we have nothing to fear.

The Big Three

Here’s a brief Summary table of the estimated federal impact on our budget and the number of positions they fund (only the top 3 are included here):

Source: http://www.scsk12.org/uf/board/uploads/myfile/FY2013-14%20PROPOSED%20BUDGET_WEB1.pdf

Second, here’s a brief description with as much breakdown as possible for each of these categories in Shelby County.  I’m going to continue researching this and I’ll add additional information as I find it, but I wanted to get it up as quick as I could due to the relevance of this issue.

IDEA Part B

This piece of the budget funds important pieces of our special education services here in Shelby County. I was able to find more information about this component than the other two so there is more detail about specifically who works in each area:

• Special Education Services – IDEA Part B from the federal government provides assistance to students with disabilities.  If we look at the governor’s request forms for Shelby County 2012 and Memphis in 2011, we see that we pay for 721 Full Time Equivalency (FTE) positions across both districts for educational assistants.  According to the documents, these assistants work with students ages 3-21, so students across all ages.
• Medical Personnel: According to the same information, we pay for 67 FTE positions between the county and Memphis city for medical personnel through IDEA Part B.  These FTEs are full time nurses at school and on buses.
• Psychological personnel: 27 FTE positions get paid for out of IDEA Part B.  The city also received funding for 8 FTE social workers in 2011.  These psychologists work with students ages 3-21.

Here are the combined numbers from both districts as to the funding that goes to each category.  They don’t match perfectly with the 2013-2014 numbers because they use different years, but they are similar enough to make them a reliable estimate of the levels of funding that we receive for special services here in Shelby County:

Who’s Impacted: According to the documents, in 2012, 9,121 Shelby county students benefited from these services.  In 2011, 17,834 of Memphis City Students benefited from these services.

First to the Top

Of the first to the top funding cited earlier, around $8.5 million goes to salaries for staff.  These staff perform the following functions:

• Drive district-wide planning
• Evaluate academic programs and student achievement
• Manage the districts overall portfolio of schools
• Assist with staffing
• Enforce accountability and control measures

Who’s Impacted: district staff that assist the district with recruiting, training and evaluating teachers.

Title I, Part A

This is the big one, with over $55 million allocated to these services.  $23 million of that goes to salaries.  This grant benefits approximately 120,000 students as well as non-public students, teachers and parents who are eligible.  This funding goes towards helping our students and schools obtain a high quality education.  Specific services that are provided in Tennessee:

•  School wide programs – these programs must meet criteria for long-term improvement, serve all students with a highly qualified teacher, use research based practices.  Schools conduct a needs assessment, form a plan and document these plans when seeking to meet these challenges
• Parental involvement – 1 % of funding must go to this category
• Services for children in facilities for neglect
• School improvement activities
• Professional development for Districts – 10% of a districts Title I must go to this category

Who’s impacted: Pretty much every school in the old MCS district and many of the schools in the old Shelby County qualify for title 1 funds.

Possible Impact Of A Shutdown in Shelby County:

It does not appear that we would receive an immediate impact by the shutdown here in Shelby County through our employees as the money for the near future has already been approved by congress.  That said, the federal government does plan to furlough many of its workers, which could cause disruptions to services if the shutdown lasts for more than a week.  From the Department of Ed’s website:

A protracted delay in Department obligations and payments beyond one week would severely curtail the cash flow to school districts, colleges and universities, and vocational rehabilitation agencies that depend on the Department’s funds to support their services.  For example, many school districts receive more than 20 percent of their funds from Department-funded programs.

I’m not sure how this would impact IDEA Part B and First to the Top funding, but the department’s website also states that they would continue to provide as much Title I funding as possible for as long as possible in the event of a shutdown (remember, that’s $55 million we get):

Particularly in light of recent Federal and state funding reductions, the Department considers the October obligation of advance appropriations for formula grants to States under Titles I and II of ESEA, IDEA Part B State Grants, and Career and Technical Education as a necessary exception requiring a limited number of employees to work in the absence of an appropriation of separate administrative funds.

In summary: short term, little impact, but there is the possibility of a noticeable impact if the shutdown goes on for more than a week, specifically on Title I.  Special educaiton and First to the Top is less clear.  Lets keep our fingers crossed the sanity returns to our elected officials sooner rather than later

UPDATE at 7:45: looks like we’re heading for a shutdown according to politico.

UPDATE at 9:40 PM: a tweet from Board Member Kevin Woods indicates that we would likely feel little pain at least at first.  I did check the link and didn’t see much about the impact on education except for school lunches: