A closer look into Federal Impact Aid:
Children of active duty members are worth more to your public school than the most local children. Why? It’s most likely your public school receives Federal Impact Aid (extra funding from the Department of Education) for all children of active duty members. Yet, the funding isn’t invested directly into your child or programs that support their unique needs, but instead used as unrestricted funds to be resourced wherever the schools deems necessary – and it doesn’t have be accounted for or reported. The school district receives it, and then spends wherever they want.
Per the Department of Education’s website,
“The mission of the Impact Aid Program is to disburse Impact Aid payments to local educational agencies that are financially burdened by federal activities and to provide technical assistance and support services to staff and other interested parties.”
Basic Support Payments (the type of funding most schools apply for) help local school districts that educate federally connected children. These may be the children of members of the uniformed services, children who reside on Indian lands, children who reside on Federal property or in federally subsidized low-rent housing, and children whose parents work on Federal Property. In general, to be eligible for assistance a local school district must educate at least 400 such children in average daily attendance, or the federally connected children must make up at least 3 percent of the school district’s total average daily attendance.”