The primary source of federal aid to K-12 education is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), particularly its Title I, Part A program of Education for the Disadvantaged. The ESEA was initially enacted in 1965 (P.L. 89-10), and was most recently amended and reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, P.L. 107-110 ). The NCLB authorized virtually all ESEA programs through FY2008. During the 112 th Congress, both the House and Senate considered legislation to reauthorize the ESEA. It is widely expected that the 113 th Congress will consider whether to amend and extend the ESEA. The NCLB initiated a major expansion of federal influence on several aspects of public K-12 education, primarily with the aim of increasing the accountability of public school systems and individual public schools for improving achievement outcomes of all students, especially the disadvantaged. Accountability requirements included in Title I-A of the ESEA require states to implement content and performance standards and assessments aligned with these standards for reading/language arts and mathematics for multiple grades. The results of these assessments are used to make complex annual adequate yearly progress (AYP) determinations for each public school and local educational agency (LEA). A series of increasingly substantial consequences must be applied to schools and LEAs that fail to meet the AYP standards for two consecutive years or more. Accountability requirements also extend to virtually all public school teachers and aides with respect to their qualifications. As discussed in a subsequent section of this report, the Administration has taken actions to alter many of these requirements. Beyond Title I-A, other major ESEA programs provide grants to support the education of migrant students; recruitment of and professional development for teachers; language instruction for limited English proficient (LEP) students; drug abuse prevention programs; after-school instruction and care; expansion of charter schools and other forms of public school choice; education services for Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native students; Impact Aid to compensate local educational agencies for taxes forgone due to certain federal activities; and a wide variety of innovative educational approaches or instruction to meet particular student needs. Annual appropriations for ESEA programs are provided through the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies (L-HHS-ED) Appropriations Act. Table A -1 provides FY2010, FY2011, FY2012, and FY2013 appropriations for programs authorized by the ESEA based on line-item amounts included in appropriations tables. This list of "programs" does not take into account the number of programs, projects, or activities that may be funded under a single line-item appropriation, so the actual number of ESEA programs, projects, or activities being supported through appropriations is not shown. This report provides a brief overview of major provisions of the ESEA. It is organized by title and part of the act. Other CRS reports provide much more detailed discussions and analyses of major ESEA provisions. Appendix B provides a list of selected acronyms used in the report. While Congress has not enacted legislation to reauthorize the ESEA, on September 23, 2011, President Obama and the Secretary announced the availability of an ESEA flexibility package for states and described the principles that states must meet to obtain the included waivers. The waivers apply to school years 2011-2012, 2012-2013, and 2013-2014. States have the option to apply for a one-year waiver extension for the 2014-2015 school year. The waivers exempt states from various academic accountability requirements, teacher qualification-related requirements, and funding flexibility requirements that were enacted through NCLB. State educational agencies (SEAs) may also apply for an optional waiver related to the 21 st Century Community Learning Centers program. However, in order to receive the waivers, SEAs must agree to meet four principles established by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) for "improving student academic achievement and increasing the quality of instruction." The four principles, as stated by ED, are as follows: (1) college- and career-ready expectations for all students; (2) state-developed differentiated recognition, accountability, and support; (3) supporting effective instruction and leadership; and (4) reducing duplication and unnecessary burden. Taken collectively, the waivers and principles included in the ESEA flexibility package amount to a fundamental redesign by the Administration of many of the accountability and teacher-related requirements included in current law. As of May 2013, ED had approved ESEA flexibility package applications for 37 states and the District of Columbia and was reviewing applications from several other states. If Congress continues to work on ESEA reauthorization during the 113 th Congress, it is possible that provisions included in any final bill may be similar to or override the waivers and principles established by the Administration. The remainder of this report focuses only on current law and does not discuss the details of the ESEA flexibility package or how it modifies current law. For more information about the ESEA flexibility package, see CRS Report R42328, Educational Accountability and Secretarial Waiver Authority Under Section 9401 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act . The introductory text for ESEA Title I includes the authorization of appropriations for FY2002-FY2007 for each Part of the Title, including school improvement grants (SIGs), and authority for states to reserve 1% of grants under parts A, C, and D, or $400,000 (whichever is greater), for state administration. Title I-A authorizes the appropriation of such sums as may be necessary for grants to states under Section 1003(g) for School Improvement Grants. States are eligible to apply for these grants, which are allocated in proportion to each state's share of funds received under ESEA Title I, Parts A, C (Migrant Education Program), and D (Neglected and Delinquent Children and Youth). States must use at least 95% of the funds received to make subgrants to LEAs. Subgrants made to LEAs must be between $50,000 and $500,000 for each school identified for improvement, corrective action, or restructuring that will be served through the grant, and must be renewable for up to two additional years if schools meet the goals of their school improvement plans. Subgrants must be used by LEAs to support school improvement. LEAs with the lowest-achieving schools and the greatest commitment to ensuring that such funds are used to provide "adequate resources" to enable the lowest-achieving schools to meet the goals under school and LEA improvement plans must be given priority in the awarding of subgrants. While the ESEA has not been reauthorized since the enactment of NCLB in 2002, several changes have been made to the SIG program through various appropriations acts. Through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 ( P.L. 111-117 ), the SIG program was amended to provide a maximum grant of $2 million annually to each school served using funds appropriated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA; P.L. 111-5 ) or FY2010 appropriations. In addition, provisions in P.L. 111-117 altered school eligibility criteria to receive SIG to include any school eligible to receive assistance under Title I-A that has not made adequate yearly progress (AYP) for at least two years or is in the state's lowest quintile of performance based on proficiency rates or, for secondary schools, includes any school with a graduation rate below 60%. The FY2011 ( P.L. 112-10 ) and FY2012 ( P.L. 112-74 ) appropriations acts included the same provisions relevant to the identification of schools for SIG funds and changes to the maximum amount that can be awarded to a school. Schools that are eligible for SIG as a result of the new criteria included in the appropriations acts are referred to as "newly eligible schools." In addition to the aforementioned provisions, the FY2012 appropriations act also included a provision permitting the Secretary of Education to reserve up to 5% of the funds appropriated for SIG to carry out activities to build SEA and LEA capacity to implement the SIG program. Title I, Part A, of the ESEA authorizes federal aid to local educational agencies (LEAs) for the education of disadvantaged children. Title I-A grants provide supplementary educational and related services to low-achieving and other students attending pre-kindergarten through grade 12 schools with relatively high concentrations of students from low-income families. It has also become a "vehicle" to which a number of requirements affecting broad aspects of public K-12 education for all students have been attached as a condition for receiving Title I-A grants. Title I-A funds are allocated by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to state educational agencies (SEAs), which then suballocate grants to LEAs. It is one of the few federal K-12 formula grant programs for which substate grants are, in most cases, calculated by ED. Portions of each annual appropriation for Title I-A are allocated under four different formulas—Basic, Concentration, Targeted, and Education Finance Incentive Grants—although funds allocated under all of these formulas are combined and used for the same purposes by recipient LEAs. Although the allocation formulas have several distinctive elements, the primary factors used in all four formulas are estimated numbers of children aged 5-17 in poor families plus a state expenditure factor based on average expenditures per pupil for public K-12 education. Other factors included in one or more formulas include weighting schemes designed to increase aid to LEAs with the highest concentrations of poverty, and a factor to increase grants to states with high levels of expenditure equity among their LEAs.