1. Statewide Title III Consortium:
The Basics
Cori Alston
Program Manager, Title III
July 27, 2017
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2. What the Statewide Title III Consortium is How it works
Who can be a member
The benefits of membership
Title III requirements of members
6. Title III Accountability and Reporting elements
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3. The Consortium Defined
The Statewide Title III Consortium was a concept developed in 2007 by the Georgia DOE to provide federally-funded English Learner support (Title III) to LEAs that wouldn’t otherwise qualify for it, to guide LEAs in compliant expenditures and to combine LEAs for AMAO reporting purposes. In order to join the Consortium, LEAs must first have a fully-functioning, OCR-compliant, basic ESOL program already in place.
In Fall 2017, membership will be offered to any LEA that reported ELs in the previous year’s student record but does not serve enough ELs to qualify for its own Title III grant.
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4. Why Don’t We Get Our Own Funds??
Federal Title III law only allows the state to distribute grants of $10,000 or more. LEAs receive Title III grants based on the number of English Learners (ELs) recorded in the previous year’s Student Record.
This year, LEAs need to have reported in the Student Record at least 77 EL-Ys to receive the $10,000 minimum grant award.
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5. How does this work?
The Consortium is, essentially, one big LEA composed – this year - of 98 individual LEAs, each of which contributes an amount to the total allocation. (See Title III website for individual LEA amounts)
Consortium members do not receive funds directly. The funds are awarded as a single grant to Southwest Georgia RESA, who has contracted with the GaDOE to be the Consortium’s fiscal agent.
LEAs may request EL-related supplemental supplies, materials and professional learning travel from the Consortium grant by submitting a special Consortium purchase request form to the Mid-Region Specialist, Ms. Dely Roberts.*
*Details on this process are sent to members via every September
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6. Ok - so, will we be offered membership?
If your district reported at least 1 English Learner at close of last year’s Student Record and your LEA ‘earns’ less than the $10,000 minimum then, YES, you will be extended an offer to join the Statewide Title III Consortium for
(If you received this PowerPoint directly from the Title III office, we anticipate that you will likely be offered membership this year.)
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7. Are we required to accept?
NO. Your district is under NO OBLIGATION to join the Statewide Title III Consortium. Carefully consider with your Superintendent both the benefits of membership as well as the responsibilities before signing the Consortium Assurances.
Once the Assurances are signed, your LEA will be a Title III Consortium member until Sept 30 of next year.
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8. What are the benefits*?
Opportunity to be reimbursed for the purchase of language teaching supplies and materials and EL parent outreach to supplement those required in your basic, state-mandated ESOL program
Fully-subsidized online ESOL endorsement courses (80 seats this year)
Reimbursement of ESOL teacher’s fees for professional organization membership (TESOL)
Reimbursement of travel for attendance at ESOL-related trainings and conferences
*All reimbursement requests are reviewed for allowability. In addition, a determination must be made as to whether the limited Consortium funds would be able to support such an expenditure across the membership.
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9. and what are the requirements of Consortium members?
The LEA must ensure that its ESOL program is functional and state-compliant before it is eligible to receive federal Title III funds.
The LEA will be Cross-Functionally Monitored by Title III (the GaDOE or USED), for compliance with Title III instructional, professional learning and parent outreach requirements. Monitoring is performed on the Title I monitoring schedule. (NEW for )
The LEA Title III Coordinator must attend the Title III sessions at the Federal Programs conference held in the summer.
The LEA must comply with Title I parent notification and translation requirements, and may not use Consortium funds for these translations (NEW UNDER ESSA)
The LEA must annually fulfill Title III reporting requirements (NEW UNDER ESSA)
The LEA must agree to the Title III Assurances and Title III Consortium Assurances.
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10. NEW in
Under the ESSA, Title I law requires LEAs that offer federally-funded language support to adequately notify the parents of students who will be offered this support. Since Consortium LEAs self-select the materials and programs that they offer their ELs, the text of the parent letter will differ based on each Consortium member’s offerings. Thus, each district in the Consortium must generate a district-specific letter advising parents of Title III-served students of the district’s supplemental language offerings.
This letter must be translated into the language of the parents and, because this is a Title I requirement - even though the language support is funded by Title III, Title III funds may not be used for the translation of this Title I letter for parents of EL students participating in supplemental language support (Title III) at Title I schools.
The template for the Title I letter can be found on the Title I Family-School Partnerships page at:
The section that must be completed and translated by districts is in
yellow.
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11. NEW in 2017-2018 Annual Reporting Requirements (Spring)
Describe how the T3 activities supplemented the state/local funded ESOL program
# and % of ELs making progress in ELP
For All ELs, and disaggregated by ELsWD
# and % of ELs meeting proficiency
# and % of ELs who exit ESOL
# and % meeting Milestones goals for each of 4 years after exit (disaggregated by ELsWD)
# and % of ELs not exiting after 5 yrs as EL-Y
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12. Decisions, Decisions
The State Board will meet in August to approve the annual Title III allocations, which include the Consortium grant and list of eligible LEAs.
Subsequent to the Board’s approval, the “Consortium Assurances and Evaluation” document is ed to all Consortium-eligible LEAs.
If a district superintendent elects to join the Title III Consortium, both the superintendent and the Title III Director must sign the Assurances form then return it by U.S. mail to our offices. (Please inform Kim Lacewell at if your district chooses NOT to join the Statewide consortium this year so we will know not to look for your Assurances.)
Upon receipt of the hard-copy Assurances form, our office will provide the LEA Title III Director with the purchase request form and detailed reimbursement instructions for Consortium purchase requests.
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13. Any questions? Please contact: Cori Alston Program Manager, Title III
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