Each year, the school district ranks its public schools in order of poverty and then selects the schools to be served. The poverty level is determined by the number of enrolled students who fill out a free and/or reduced price lunch application and meet the requirements for that program. The District must serve all schools above 75% poverty in rank order. After funding those schools, the District may serve schools ranked lower than 75%.
Why are Title I funds allocated exclusively to high poverty schools?
Research studies done over the past 30 years show conclusively that schools with high concentrations of economically disadvantaged students generally demonstrate lower levels of achievement than do schools with lower concentrations of economically disadvantaged students. Since the School District of Indian River County operates only school-wide programs, all children attending Title I schools participate in the Title I program.