By using these two factors and looking at the services or programs offered, GISD ensures equitable funding and programs at all campuses. TEA uses this same basic process to monitor districts on the use of state compensatory funds. TEA and the federal government provide specific guidelines for using schedule 5B to determine which services will be provided and the amount of funds for each school. TEA conducts a comprehensive audit every three years of each district receiving compensatory funding. The director of Compensatory Education for TEA said that GISD had never violated any funding requirements.
Federal funding is based upon the poverty level in the area in which the school district is located.
Title I, Part A funding is designed to help disadvantaged children at risk of failure to meet high standards. These programswere first authorized in 1965 as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which has been amended on several occasions and was last reauthorized in October 1994. Funds the district received in each of these programs are identified in Exhibit 2-61 . Title I, Part A programs are designated as either schoolwide assistance, which means the funds can be used throughout the school to upgrade the entire educational program as long as the money is spent to help meet the needs of the targeted students, or targeted assistance, which means that the funds are used for only a designated purpose, such as a computer lab that serves the targeted students only. All GISD schools, with the exception of Ball High School, are schoolwide assistance campuses.