High-Need District (LEA) Eligibility: Optional Table and Instructions(Applicants may 

use this table to identify partner LEAs and include it as an Attachment)

Data Confirming High-Need LEA Eligibility

 Name of the LEA No. of Children Poverty Rate Percent of teachers

LEA A1 # A2 % AND B1 % B2 %

Data Source for B1:

(identify separately for each LEA)

Data Source for B2:

Applicants may complete this table or use another format that includes the required data. 

Note that for component B1 or B2, applicants must provide the data source. 

In addition, where applicants identify poverty rates or data (Component A1 or A2) that do 

not come from the most currently available Census Bureau data, applicants will need to 

identify the source AND explain how these data meet the definition of high-need LEA. 

See further information available in the Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards.

Instructions: High-need District (LEA) Eligibility

Component A

A1: Provide data that demonstrate that each LEA serves not fewer than 10,000 children from families with 

incomes below the poverty line; OR

A2: Provide data that demonstrate that each LEA is one for which not less than 20 percent of the children 

served by the LEA are from families with incomes below the poverty line.

Data Source for A1 or A2:

The Department is not aware of any consistent available LEA data – other than data periodically gathered by 

the U.S. Census Bureau – that would show that an LEA serves the required number or percentage of 

children (individuals ages 5 through 17) from families below the poverty line (as defined in section 9101 (33) 

of the ESEA.) Therefore, absent a showing of alternative LEA data that reliably show the number of children 

from families with incomes below the poverty line that are served by the LEA, the Department would expect 

that the eligibility of an LEA as a “high-need LEA” under component A1 or A2 would be determined on the 

basis of the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data. U.S. Census Bureau data are available for all school 

districts with geographic boundaries that existed when the U.S. Census Bureau collected its information. 

Note: Data on the number or percentage of children receiving free and reduced lunch subsidies is 

NOT permissible since the number or percentage of these children does not reflect children from 

“families with incomes below the poverty line” as defined in section 9101 (33) of the ESEA. Any LEA 

that uses data that is not generated by the Census Bureau, such as charter schools and newly created 

LEAs, will therefore also need to explain how the source of data used meets the statutory requirement. The 

link to the census data is: 

Census Bureau Data: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/saipe/district.html 

The Department also makes these data available at its web site at: 

http://www.ed.gov/programs/lsl/eligibility.html. Although the Department posted this listing 

specifically for the Improving Literacy through School Libraries program, these same data apply to the 

definition of “high-need LEA” used for purposes of eligibility under the School Leadership program.
Component B

Provide data that demonstrate that each participating LEA has a “high percentage” of

teachers--

B1: Teaching out of field; OR

B2: With emergency, provisional, or temporary certification or licensing. 

Data Source for B1 or B2:

B1: With regard to component B1 of the definition of “high-need LEA,” the Department interprets the phrase 

“a high percentage of teachers not teaching in the academic subjects or grade levels that the teachers were 

trained to teach” as being equivalent to “a high percentage of teachers teaching out of field.” The 

Department expects that LEAs that rely on component B1 of the definition will demonstrate that they have a 

high percentage of teachers teaching out of field. The Department is not aware of any specific data or 

percentage that would demonstrate a “high percentage” of teachers teaching out of field. Accordingly, the 

Department will review this aspect of an LEA’s proposed eligibility on a case-by-case basis. 

B2: For component B2 of the definition of “high-need LEA,” the data that LEAs likely will find most readily 

available on the percentage of teachers with emergency, provisional, or temporary certification or licensing 

are the data they provide to their States for inclusion in the reports on the quality of teacher preparation that 

the States provide to the Department in October of each year as required by section 207 of the Higher 

Education Act of 1965, as amended, (HEA). In these reports, States provide the percentage of teachers in 

their LEAs teaching on waivers of State certification, both on a statewide basis and in high poverty LEAs. 

As reflected in the State reports the Department most recently received in October 2007, the national 

average percentage of teachers on waivers in high poverty LEAs is 1.5 percent. Consistent with the 

methodology the Department used in the FY 2007 competition under the Transition to Teaching program, in 

which participating LEAs were similarly required to be “high-need LEAs” (as defined in section 2103 (3) of 

the ESEA), the Department would expect that an LEA with over 1.5 percent of its teachers having 

emergency, provisional, or temporary certification or licensing (i.e., teachers on waivers) has a “high 

percentage” of its teachers in this category. We expect that an LEA that is not relying on the data it provides 

to the State for the purposes of reporting required by section 207 of HEA will provide other evidence that 

demonstrates that it meets the eligibility requirement under component B2 of the statutory definition of “highneed LEA.”