Additional Optional Action (LEA level)

ESSA asks each state to describe what it will do about a district with a significant number or percentage of persistently identified schools. Ohio’s approved plan answered “Not applicable.” The April 2026 amendment strikes that and lists six actions. verified as a statement of what the amendment proposes Approval is not established. open

The unit is the district, which is what makes it a funding matter. Everything else in the federal ladder acts on a building. This acts on the LEA, and its last item is Department approval of the district’s expenditure plans for federal funds across Title I A, Title II, Title III, Title IV and IDEA — a broader list than the school-level equivalent, which names Title IA, IDEA and School Improvement funds. verified

Read beside the state’s own regime, the two are strikingly different in reach. An academic distress commission under R.C. 3302.10 hands a state-appointed chief executive the power to create the district’s budget outright. This gives the Department approval over the federal portion of it. One is Ohio law and takes fiscal control; the other is a federal plan provision and conditions a subset of the money. A reader who knows only the federal system would substantially understate what Ohio can do to a district. inference

What counts as “a significant number or percentage” is not defined in the amendment. open

  1  assign a case manager to the LEA
  2  require contracting with an approved vendor
  3  require Department-approved professional learning in ELA and mathematics
  4  require Department-approved screening assessments
  5  require Department-approved high-quality instructional materials
  6  require Department approval of expenditure plans for federal funds — Title I A,
     Title II, Title III, Title IV and IDEA