Federal Grant Programs

Census Estimates used to Determine Title I Funding for SY2025-26 (Fiscal year 2026)

The federal Census Bureau has released preliminary 2023 poverty and population data for Massachusetts school districts that, once finalized later this year, will be used to calculate school year 2025-26 (fiscal year 2026) Title I, Part A district allocations. We are providing you these preliminary estimates because they give an early indication of possible changes to your district's Title I allocation amounts and could be helpful for planning and budgeting purposes. (It is also worth noting that, as of this writing, the federal government is not funded beyond March 14, 2025, and therefore the incoming Congress and Presidential administration will determine FY26 appropriation amounts.)

Preliminary estimates do not include counts of all eligible children, such as foster and neglected children, and the federal Census Bureau does not provide data for charter school, virtual school, or regional vocational school districts. We will publish final 2023 Census numbers, including data for charter schools, virtual schools, and regional vocational schools, when we release final SY2025-26 Title I allocations this summer.

These preliminary data provide an early sense of your eligibility for each of the four funding streams that comprise the Title I, Part A allocation. Most importantly, we include warning flags to alert you if your district is hovering around an eligibility threshold and could potentially lose eligibility when the final numbers are released later this year. Warning flags in normal font indicate that a district is projected to be above, but within one percentage point of an eligibility threshold, whereas warning flags in red font indicate that a district is projected to be at or below the eligibility threshold. As a reminder, eligibility thresholds for each of the four Title I funding streams are as follows:

• Basic Grant: 10 or more students in poverty, representing 2 percent or higher of age 5–17 population
• Targeted Grant: 10 or more students in poverty, representing 5 percent or higher of age 5–17 population
• Education Finance Incentive Grant (EFIG): same as Targeted Grant
• Concentration Grant: 6,500 students or more in poverty or a poverty percentage of 15 percent or higher for age 5–17 population

Importantly, Census poverty estimates differ, oftentimes significantly, from Massachusetts' low- income metric. Census poverty is usually much lower because it counts using 100% of the federal poverty level, whereas MA's low-income measure is defined as 185% of the federal poverty level. Should your district believe there is a discrepancy in the preliminary Census figures themselves (light blue shaded columns), please contact the federal government's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) Branch of the Census Bureau at (301)763-3193 or sehsd.saipe@census.gov before March 17, 2025. When sending an email, please include your name, mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address, and district name. More information and guidance on the census estimates and challenge procedures is available at Challenge Procedures for Estimates.

As always, please feel free to contact our office for questions or further clarification: federalgrantprograms@mass.gov .