Maintenance of Equity Requirement
Section 2004 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP Act) includes new maintenance of equity (MOEquity) provisions that are a condition for the state educational agency (SEA) and local educational agency (LEA) to receive funds under the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund. These provisions are central in ensuring that essential resources are meeting the needs of students who have been subject to longstanding opportunity gaps in our educational system. These student groups have also experienced the greatest impact from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maintenance of equity helps ensure that vital resources are available to mitigate the impact that the pandemic has had, and continues to have, on underserved students, including addressing students’ social, emotional, mental health, and academic needs. As a condition of receiving ARP ESSER funds, the Alabama State Department of Education and local educational agencies must meet the following maintenance of equity measures.
In Fiscal Year 2022 and Fiscal Year 2023, the Alabama State Department of Education may not:
- reduce state funding, as calculated on a per-pupil basis, for any high-need LEA by an amount that exceeds the overall per-pupil reduction in state funds across all LEAs; or
- reduce state funding, as calculated on a per-pupil basis, for any highest poverty LEA below the level of funding, as calculated on a per-pupil basis, provided to each LEA in fiscal year 2019.
In Fiscal Year 2022 and Fiscal Year 2023, LEAs may not reduce per-pupil spending or per-pupil staffing for high-poverty schools at a greater rate than the reductions (if any) that are applied to all schools in the LEA.
More information regarding MOEquity can be found HERE
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LEA-Level MOEquity Reporting
In accordance with the United States Department of Education (USDE) LEA-Level maintenance of equity reporting requirements, the ALSDE has developed the following documents:
- FY22 LEA-Level MOEquity Compliance Description: This document outlines ALSDE’s approach for ensuring that local educational agencies (LEAs) that receive funding authorized by section 2004 of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act comply with the LEA-level maintenance of equity (MOEquity) compliance requirement.
- FY22 LEA-Level MOEquity data
- FY23 LEA-Level MOEquity data
IDENTIFICATION OF AUTOMATICALLY EXCEPTED LEAs:
The first step in ALSDE’s compliance process is to analyze data submitted by LEAs to identify those that are automatically excepted from the LEA-level MOEquity requirement because they meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Have a total enrollment of less than 1,000 students
- Operate a single school
- Serve all students within each grade span with a single school
ALSDE analyzed comparability reports submitted by LEAs in the 2021-2022 eGAP Consolidated grant application and identified fifty-three (53) LEAs that were automatically excepted.
IDENTIFICATION OF LEAs NOT AUTOMATICALLY EXCEPTED:
The ALSDE identified 93 LEAs that were not automatically excepted from the MOEquity requirement. Office hours were provided in February through June 2022, and LEAs were instructed to select one of the three methods for meeting the MOEquity requirement and to submit their response to .
Three Methods for Meeting the MOEquity Requirement
Method #1: LEA Self-Certification of Exception—LEAs certified to the ALSDE that it did not have an aggregate reduction in state and local per-pupil funding. The LEA must be able to demonstrate, upon request, how it complied with Appendix B and that they received as much total aggregate state and local revenue per-pupil in FY22 as they received in FY21. Potential supporting documentation to upload includes:
- Appendix B and confirmation e-mail response
- State and local expenditure data for FY22 and FY21
Method #2: Exception Request to USDE—LEAs that are unable to certify that there is no aggregate reduction can submit a letter to the US Department of Education citing “exceptional or uncontrollable circumstances.” LEAs were instructed to send an e-mail to and copy by July 8, 2022. The LEA must be able to demonstrate, upon request, the communication from the US Department of Education granting the exception and/or approving the waiver.
Method #3: MOEquity Toolkit—LEAs that selected this method were provided individualized technical assistance for demonstrating their compliance with the MOEquity requirement by calculating their equity. Technical assistance included instructions on how to use the ALSDE’s MOEquity Toolkit—an auto-calculating Excel template that can perform the allowable compliance tests. LEAs were given the toolkit and provided descriptions of the financial, enrollment, and low-income percentage data.
COMPLIANCE PATHWAYS:
By identifying these LEAs in a timely manner, the ALSDE grants LEAs the opportunity to make necessary budget adjustments and thus ensures that high-poverty schools are protected from funding reductions.
If noncompliant, LEAs can make the necessary budget adjustments and thus ensure that high-poverty campuses are protected from funding reductions. If budget adjustments are not possible, the ALSDE will provide targeted technical assistance to ensure that high-poverty schools are protected from any reduction of per-pupil funding by an amount that exceeds the overall per-pupil reduction in the LEA. Targeted technical assistance can include, but not limited to, the following:
- Collaboration with LEAs in their corrective action plan to describe the funding and FTE staffing adjustments LEAs will make to be compliant in MOEquity before the start of the next school year
- Extension of ALSDE’s determination date of compliance to February 21st.
- By May 1st, non-compliant LEAs will inform the ALSDE about the adjustment(s) made to be in compliance prior to the start of the next school year.