Sponsors (2)
The bill shifts Title I weighting toward high‑percentage, high‑poverty counts and creates a single, predictable calculation after a phased transition — improving fairness and budgeting for some small, high‑poverty districts while redistributing funds away from some larger districts and risking service cuts and local budget shortfalls for those affected.
School districts and LEAs will have a single, predictable Title I calculation beginning in FY2026, simplifying grant calculations and improving multi-year budgeting and planning for districts.
Students in high‑poverty, high‑percentage (often small) LEAs are more likely to receive higher per‑student Title I funding if the bill emphasizes percentage weighting in the formula.
The bill phases in changes through FY2025 and allows affected LEAs to use the larger weighted child counts through FY2025, giving districts and the Department of Education time to adjust to the new method.
Large LEAs that currently benefit from number‑based weighting are likely to see reduced Title I/EFIG allocations as the formula shifts toward percentage weighting, redistributing funds away from those districts.
Reduced federal grant amounts for affected LEAs (especially starting FY2026 if the single method yields lower counts) could force cuts to services for low‑income students, staff, or programs, or require local budget offsets.
State and local governments (and ultimately taxpayers) could face budget shortfalls if reduced federal allocations are not offset locally, potentially forcing cuts in other areas or tax increases.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Phases out the dual "number-and-percentage" weighted child count for Title I grants and, starting FY2026, uses a single calculation that reduces number-weighting and favors high-percentage LEAs.
Introduced March 18, 2026 by Glenn Thompson · Last progress March 18, 2026
Changes how federal Title I grant formulas calculate the "weighted child count" so that school districts with high percentages of low-income students but small student counts are less likely to be disadvantaged. The bill preserves the current transitional method through fiscal year 2025, then moves to a single calculation method beginning in fiscal year 2026 that reduces the influence of raw student-count weighting and emphasizes percentage-based weighting. The change applies to both the Basic Grant Formula and Education Finance Incentive Grants and is designed to direct a larger share of targeted funds to agencies with high concentrations of economically disadvantaged students rather than favoring very large districts solely because of their size.