400 MARYLAND AVE. SW, WASHINGTON, DC 20202

www.ed.gov

The Department of Education’s mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering 

educational excellence and ensuring equal access

January 13, 2017

Dear Colleague:

I want to begin by thanking you for the substantial work you have done—and that you continue to do—

to enable a successful transition to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which reauthorized the 

Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). The ESSA provides a significant 

opportunity for States and school districts to develop and implement new plans to help secure 

educational equity for all children, close achievement gaps, and continue making progress in supporting 

educators, students, and their families. 

In November 2016, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) released final regulations regarding 

statewide accountability systems and data reporting under Title I of the ESEA and the preparation of

State plans, including consolidated State plans for ESEA State formula grant programs. In those 

regulations, in response to overwhelming requests from States and other stakeholders as well as 

Members of Congress, the Department clarified that a State may delay identification of schools for 

comprehensive support and improvement, as well as schools with low-performing subgroups for 

targeted support and improvement, until the beginning of the 2018–2019 school year and may delay 

identification of schools with consistently underperforming subgroups for targeted support and 

improvement until the beginning of the 2019–2020 school year. In the November 29, 2016, Dear 

Colleague Letter on ESSA State Plans, the Department revised the deadlines for State plan submissions 

to include application windows in April 2017 and September 2017. Consequently, we anticipate that 

many States will not have their State plans, including their methodologies for identifying schools for 

comprehensive or targeted support and improvement, approved prior to the start of the 2017–2018 

school year and, therefore, will not be ready to fully implement their new accountability systems by the 

beginning of the 2017–2018 school year. The purpose of this letter is to address some key questions 

arising from this delayed implementation timeline. 

Supporting Low-Performing Schools

Consistent with the provisions of the ESSA that authorize the Department to ensure an orderly transition 

to the new law, each State must continue to provide supports and interventions in the State’s lowperforming schools in the 2017–2018 school year in the same manner in which it supported and 

intervened in those schools in the 2016–2017 school year. 

To identify its low-performing schools in the 2017–2018 school year:

 A State that operated under ESEA flexibility prior to the termination of that flexibility on August 

1, 2016, may either: (1) continue to serve its existing priority and focus schools, except that the 

State may remove from the list of priority and focus schools any school that has met the State’s 

exit criteria; or (2) refresh its list using its existing methodology in place prior to the start of the 

2017–2018 school year.

 

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

OFFICE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
 A State that did not operate under ESEA flexibility prior to August 1, 2016, must continue to 

support and intervene in schools or local educational agencies (LEAs) that were identified in the 

2016–2017 school year by the State as in need of improvement, corrective action, or 

restructuring under the ESEA, as reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 

(NCLB), except that the State may remove from the list any school that has met State-determined 

criteria to no longer be identified for improvement, corrective action, or restructuring. 

If a State receives approval of its new State plan under the ESSA in time to identify schools for 

comprehensive or targeted support and improvement during the 2017–2018 school year, it may choose 

to begin implementation of improvement plans in any newly identified schools, rather than wait until the

beginning of the 2018–2019 school year. The Department will work with such a State to ensure that 

schools identified for comprehensive or targeted support and improvement and their LEAs begin 

developing school improvement plans in a timely manner consistent with the requirements of the ESEA, 

as amended by the ESSA.

School Improvement Resources

The ESEA, as amended by the ESSA, also requires each State to reserve funds for LEAs to support 

schools that are identified by the State for comprehensive or targeted support and improvement under its

new accountability system. More specifically, under section 1003(a) of the ESEA, as amended by the 

ESSA, each State must reserve from its annual Title I, Part A allocation the greater of (1) seven percent 

of that allocation, or (2) the sum of the amount reserved for fiscal year 2016 under section 1003(a) of the 

ESEA, as amended by NCLB, and the amount received for fiscal year 2016 for School Improvement 

Grants (SIG) under section 1003(g) of the ESEA, as amended by NCLB. 

In fiscal year 2017 (i.e., for use in the 2017–2018 school year), each State must allocate funds under 

section 1003(a) of the ESEA, as amended by the ESSA, by competition or by formula to LEAs with 

low-performing schools (identified consistent with the “Supporting Low-Performing Schools” section 

above). In addition, a State may choose to use the funds that it reserves in fiscal year 2017 to support 

full implementation of SIG awards initially made with prior-year funds, as described in the 

Department’s letter to SIG Directors from March 2016.

Finally, we remind you that, consistent with section 421(b) of the General Education Provisions Act, a 

State that does not need all of the school improvement funds it reserves in fiscal year 2017 to serve 

identified schools in the 2017–2018 school year may carry over any remaining funds for use in the 

2018–2019 school year, once it has an approved State plan and identified schools for comprehensive and 

targeted support and improvement. In particular, we encourage a State choosing to exit schools from 

improvement status in the 2017–2018 school year—without refreshing its lists of low-performing 

schools—to consider carrying over a portion of its fiscal year 2017 funds under section 1003(a) of the 

ESEA, as amended by the ESSA, for use in the 2018–2019 school year in order to support its first cohort 

of schools identified under the ESSA, when LEAs and schools will require additional support from the 

State to implement the new school improvement provisions, including evidenced-based interventions, 

required by the ESSA. We also note that LEAs may use their fiscal 2017 funds under section 1003(a) on 

district-level activities intended to support schools that receive school improvement funds, which an 

LEA may determine is advisable given the new cohort of schools in the 2018-2019 school year. For 

example, an LEA may hire a district-level turnaround specialist to establish an “early warning system” 
designed to identify students in identified schools who may be at risk of failing to achieve high 

standards or graduate, or to support implementation of evidence-based interventions in such schools. 

All of the Department’s guidance related to the transition to the ESSA can be found at 

http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/essa/index.html. If you have any questions or need additional 

information, I encourage you to reach out to your Office of State Support contact at 

OSS.[State]@ed.gov (e.g., OSS.Nebraska@ed.gov). Additionally, I encourage you to sign up to receive 

updates on ESSA guidance, including transition guidance, by clicking here. 

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to improving educational outcomes for all students. 

Sincerely,

/s/

Ann Whalen

Senior Advisor to the Secretary

Delegated the duties of Assistant Secretary for 

Elementary and Secondary Education

cc: State Title I Directors

State SIG Directors