The Impact Aid program, administered by the U.S. Department of Education (ED), is one of the oldest federal education programs, dating from 1950. Impact Aid compensates local educational agencies (LEAs) for a "substantial and continuing financial burden" resulting from federal activities. These activities include federal ownership of certain lands, as well as the enrollments in LEAs of children whose parents work or live on federal land and children living on Indian lands. The federal government provides compensation because LEAs are unable to collect property or other taxes from these individuals (e.g., members of the Armed Forces living on military bases) or their employers, even though the LEAs are obligated to provide free public education to their children. Thus Impact Aid is intended to compensate LEAs for the resulting loss of tax revenue The Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 ( P.L. 103-382 ), which reauthorized and substantially revised the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also reauthorized and revised the Impact Aid program, incorporating Impact Aid into Title VIII of the ESEA. Title XVIII (the Impact Aid Reauthorization Act of 2000) of P.L. 106-398 (Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001), signed into law in 2000, made changes to the Impact Aid program and reauthorized it through FY2003. On January 8, 2002, the President signed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB; P.L. 107-110 ), which reauthorized the ESEA. The act made certain technical amendments to the Impact Aid program, including extending its authorization of appropriations through FY2007. As Congress has not acted to reauthorize the Impact Aid program, appropriations for it are currently not explicitly authorized. However, because the Impact Aid program continues to receive annual appropriations, these appropriations are considered to be implicitly authorized. During the 114 th Congress, the House Education and the Workforce Committee reported the Student Success Act ( H.R. 5 ), which would provide for a comprehensive reauthorization of the ESEA. The bill was subsequently passed on the House floor on July 7, 2015. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee reported the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA; S. 1177 ), which would also provide for a comprehensive reauthorization of the ESEA. S. 1177 was subsequently passed on the Senate floor on July 16, 2015. Both H.R. 5 and S. 1177 would reauthorize the Impact Aid program. This report begins with a general overview of the various payments made under the Impact Aid program, followed by a detailed discussion of each section of Title VIII. This discussion is followed by information about recent appropriations for Impact Aid. The report concludes with an overview of programs administered by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) that are often referred to as the "DOD Impact Aid" programs. ESEA Title VIII authorizes several types of Impact Aid payments. These include payments under Section 8002, Section 8003, Section 8007, and Section 8008, which are discussed briefly below. Section 8002 compensates LEAs for the federal ownership of certain property. To qualify for compensation, the federal government must have acquired the property, in general, after 1938 and the assessed value of the land at the time it was acquired must have represented at least 10% of the assessed value of all an LEA's real property. About 216 LEAs receive Section 8002 payments annually. Payments are usually used by LEAs for general operating expenses (e.g., teacher salaries, books, supplies, and utilities). In FY2015, $66.8 million was appropriated for Section 8002 (5.2% of total Impact Aid appropriations) and payments are expected to range from $150 to $5.0 million. Section 8003 compensates LEAs for enrolling federally connected children. These are children who reside with a parent who is a member of the uniformed services living on or off federal property; with a parent who is an accredited foreign military officer living on or off federal property; on Indian lands; in low-rent public housing; or with a parent who is a civilian working or living on federal land. Two payments are made under Section 8003. Section 8003(b) authorizes "basic support payments" for federally connected children. In FY2015, 1,151 LEAs are eligible to receive payments under Section 8003(b). These LEAs serve over 900,000 federally connected students. In FY2015, $1.1 billion was appropriated for Section 8003(b) (89.3% of total Impact Aid appropriations) and payments are expected to range from $100 to $53 million. Section 8003(d) authorizes additional payments to LEAs based on the number of certain federally connected children with disabilities who are eligible to receive services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Payments are limited to federally connected IDEA-eligible children—those with a parent who is a member of the Armed Forces (residing on or off federal property), those with a parent who is an accredited foreign military officer (living on or off federal property), and those residing on Indian lands. In FY2015, $48.3 million was appropriated for Section 8003(d) (3.7% of total Impact Aid appropriations) and about 878 LEAs are expected to receive these payments, ranging from $515 to $1.2 million. Section 8007 provides funds for construction and facilities upgrading to certain LEAs serving high percentages of children living on Indian lands or children of military parents. These funds are used to make formula and competitive grants. In FY2015, $17.4 million was appropriated for Section 8007 (1.4% of total Impact Aid appropriations) and, per provisions included in the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 ( P.L. 113-235 ), grants will be awarded only by competition. It is estimated that 6 to 10 LEAs will receive competitive grants, ranging from $50,000 to $5.0 million. Section 8008 provides funds for emergency repairs and comprehensive capital improvements to schools that ED currently owns but LEAs operate and use to serve federally connected military dependent children. Statutory language requires that ED transfer ownership of these facilities to LEAs or other entities. In FY2015, $4.8 million was provided for Section 8008 (0.4% of total Impact Aid appropriations). This part of the report provides a section-by-section analysis of ESEA Title VIII. Sections are generally discussed in order. There is also a summary of the Title VIII sections that focus primarily on program administration and are not otherwise discussed in the section-by-section analysis, including Section 8005 and Section 8010 through 8014. Section 8001 includes the purpose of the Impact Aid program. This section clearly states that there are activities of the federal government that place a financial burden on LEAs and that the purpose of the program is to assist LEAs serving areas in which such activities take place, including assisting federally connected children in meeting challenging state academic standards. The federal government provides financial assistance to these LEAs in such a way as to promote control by LEAs with little or no federal or state involvement. More specifically, the purpose of the Impact Aid program is to provide financial assistance to LEAs that (1) "experience a substantial and continuing financial burden due to the acquisition of real property by the United States," (2) educate children residing on federal property whose parents also work on federal property, (3) educate children of parents who are in the military services and children residing in low-rent housing, (4) educate heavy concentrations of children whose parents are civilian employees of the federal government but do not live on federal property, or (5) need assistance with capital expenditures for construction due to the enrollment of substantial numbers of children who reside on federal land and have difficulty raising local revenue through bond referendums due to the inability to tax federal property. Section 8002 authorizes a program to compensate LEAs for the federal ownership of certain property. LEAs may receive a payment under this section if they can demonstrate, among other things, that the federal government has acquired property in the LEA since 1938 and the property had an assessed value at the time it was acquired of at least 10% or more of (1) all the real property in the LEA at the time the federal property was acquired, or (2) the greater of all real property as assessed in the first year preceding or succeeding the acquisition of the property, if the property was not assessed at the time it was acquired and state law requires an assessment of property acquired. About 216 LEAs receive Section 8002 payments annually. Payments are generally used by LEAs for general operating expenses (e.g., teacher salaries, books, supplies, and utilities). The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (NDAA; P.L. 112-239 ) amended the formula used to calculate Section 8002 payments for LEA applications received for FY2010 and subsequent fiscal years. These amendments, however, were required to be repealed on January 2, 2015 (two years following their enactment). The Carl Levin and Howard P. "Buck" McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 ( P.L. 113-291 ) subsequently changed the date of repeal of the amendments to January 2, 2018. As of January 3, 2018, barring further action by Congress, the amendments will be repealed and the formula used to calculate grants under current law prior to the enactment of the amendments will once again be in effect.