Federal Programs

Title I- Education for the Disadvantaged

Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides financial assistance to local educational agencies (LEA's) and schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards. Growth in academic achievement is measured using Annual Measurable Objectives (AMO's). In 2015, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was reauthorized as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

As the parent of a student at a Title I school, you have the right to know the professional qualifications of the classroom teachers or paraprofessionals who instruct your child. Jackson County Public Schools makes hiring highly qualified teachers a priority. If your child receives instruction in their classroom by someone who is not highly qualified for more than 4 weeks, you will be notified. You may ask about the qualifications of your child’s teacher via written request to the school principal.

Jackson County Title I Schools

• Blue Ridge School
• Cullowhee Valley
• Fairview School
• Scotts Creek School
• Smokey Mountain Elementary

Title I Parent & Family Engagement Board Policy

For more information, contact:
Laura Dills
(828) 586-2311 ext. 1950

Title II- Improving Teacher Quality

Title II is part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The purpose of Title II, Part A is to increase the academic achievement of all students by helping schools and districts improve teacher and principal quality and ensure that all teachers are highly qualified. Title II funding supports professional development opportunities for teachers and principals and assists with recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers and principals.

For more information, contact:
Angie Dills
(828) 586-2311 ext. 1954

Title III- Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient and Immigrant Students

Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is intended to help ensure that children who have limited English proficiency, including immigrant children and youth, attain English proficiency, develop high levels of academic achievement in English, and meet the same challenging state academic content and student academic standards that all children are expected to meet.

Students whose home language is a language other than English will be screened using the WIDA screening tool upon enrollment to school unless previously identified in another US school. If a student’s screening score places them in the English as a Second Language (ESL) program, they will receive differentiated support based on age and rate of language acquisition based on the English Language Development Standards. Specialized ESL staff and JCPS classroom teachers will also support ESL students using the WIDA Can Do Descriptors. 

Each spring students in the ESL program will take the ACCESS for ELLs assessment. Students’ growth on this assessment will be measured to determine if the child is making adequate yearly progress.  Schools will be monitored on goals for EL progress. Members of the ESL staff and classroom staff at each school with work with parents and families of ESL students to make plans to best meet their learning needs.

For more information, contact:
Laura Dills
(828) 586-2311 ext. 1950

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El Título III de la Ley de Educación Primaria y Secundaria (ESEA) está destinado a ayudar a garantizar que los niños que tienen un dominio limitado del inglés, incluidos los niños y jóvenes inmigrantes, logren el dominio del inglés, desarrollen altos niveles de rendimiento académico en inglés y cumplan con el mismo desafío estatal. contenido académico y estándares académicos de los estudiantes que se espera que cumplan todos los niños. 

Los estudiantes cuyo idioma materno sea un idioma diferente al inglés serán evaluados utilizando la herramienta de evaluación WIDA al inscribirse en la escuela, a menos que se hayan identificado previamente en otra escuela de EE. UU. Si el puntaje de evaluación de un estudiante lo ubica en el programa de inglés como segundo idioma (ESL), recibirá apoyo diferenciado según la edad y el índice de adquisición del idioma según los Estándares de desarrollo del idioma inglés. El personal especializado de ESL y los maestros de las aulas de JCPS también apoyarán a los estudiantes de ESL utilizando los Descriptores de WIDA Can Do.  

Cada primavera, los estudiantes del programa de ESL tomarán la evaluación ACCESS para los estudiantes que aprenden inglés (ELLs). Se medirá el crecimiento de los estudiantes en esta evaluación para determinar si el niño está haciendo un progreso anual adecuado. Las escuelas serán monitoreadas sobre las metas para el progreso de EL. Los miembros del personal de ESL y el personal del salón de clases en cada escuela trabajan con los padres y las familias de los estudiantes de ESL para hacer planes para satisfacer mejor sus necesidades de aprendizaje.

Homeless Program

Congress reauthorized the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act in January of 2002. This federal law includes the Education of Homeless Children and Youth Program that entitles children who are homeless to a free, appropriate public education and requires schools to remove barriers to their enrollment, attendance, and success in school. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Act protects all students who do not have a fixed, regular, and adequate residence.

Children and youth experiencing homelessness have the right to:

• Receive a free, appropriate public education.
• Enroll in school immediately, even if lacking documents normally required for enrollment.
• Enroll in school and attend classes while the school gathers needed documents.
• Enroll in the local attendance area school or continue attending their school of origin (the school they attended when permanently housed or the school in which they were last enrolled), if that is the parent's, guardian's, or unaccompanied youth's preference is feasible. If the school district believes the school selected is not in the student's best interest, then the district must provide the parent, guardian, or unaccompanied youth with a written explanation of its position and inform him/her of the right to appeal its decision.
• Receive transportation to and from the school of origin, if requested by the parent, guardian, or unaccompanied youth.
• Receive educational services comparable to those provided to other students, according to the student's need.

These rights are established under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. This act is the primary piece of federal legislation dealing with the education of children and youth experiencing homelessness in U.S. public schools. It was reauthorized as Title X, Part C, of the No Child Left Behind Act in January 2002. To qualify for these rights, children and youth must be considered homeless according to the McKinney-Vento definition of homeless.

Eligibility Under McKinney-Vento:

• Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason
• Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accomodations
• Living in emergency or transitional shelters
• Living in a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings
• Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings
• Migratory children living in the above circumstances
• Unaccompanied youth living in the above circumstances

Guide for Parents, Guardians, & Caregivers

Guía para padres y cuidadoras

Jackson County Public Schools Homeless Data

2022-2023: 98 students
2021-2022:  101 students
2020-2021:  110 students
2019-2020:  94 students
2018-2019:  110 students
2017-2018: 108 students
2016-2017: 103 students
2015-2016: 77 students
2014-2015: 127 students

For more information, contact:
Laura Dills, Homeless Education Liaison
(828) 586-2311 ext. 1950

Or, contact your child’s guidance counselor, nurse, social worker, or principal.

State Homeless Coordinator:
Lisa Phillips
(336) 315-7491

North Carolina Homeless Education Program

 

Title VII- Indian, Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native Education

The purpose of Title VII, part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), is to support the efforts of local educational agencies (LEA's), Indian tribes and organizations, post-secondary institutions, and other entities to meet the unique educational and culturally-related academic needs of American Indian and Alaskan Native students so that such students can meet the same challenging state student academic achievement standards that all other students are expected to meet.

Indian Education Title VII Grant Application, 2018Indian Policies and Procedures, 2018
NC American Indian Education (NCDPI)NC State Advisory Council on Indian Education

For more information, contact:
Angie Dills
(828) 586-2311 ext. 1954

Title VIII- Impact Aid Program

 

Title VIII (Impact Aid) is intended to fulfill the federal responsibility to assist with the provision of educational services to federally-connected children in a manner that promotes control by local educational agencies (LEA's) with little or no federal or state involvement. The basis for the program is that certain activities of the Federal Government, such as activities to fulfill federal responsibilities with respect to Indian tribes and activities under Section 514 of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act of 1940 (50 U.S.C. App. 574) place a financial burden on local educational agencies serving areas where such activities are carried out and to help such children meet challenging state standards. It is the purpose of this program to provide financial assistance to local educational agencies.

For more information, contact:
Angie Dills
(828) 586-2311 ext. 1954

Rural, Low-Income Schools (RLIS) Program

 

The Rural and Low-Income Schools (RLIS) Program provides grant funds to rural school districts that serve concentrations of children from low-income families. RLIS funding supports a range of authorized activities in order to assist school districts in meeting the state's definition of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and/or meet Annual Measurable Objectives under the ESEA flexibility.

Awards are issued annually to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction which makes sub-grants to the state's LEA's and charter schools that meet the applicable requirements. Jackson County Public Schools currently qualifies as part of the RLIS program.

For more information, contact:
Laura Dills
(828) 586-2311 ext. 1950

Career and Technical Education

Career and Technical Education (CTE) is a state and federally-funded program that provides students in grades 7-12 academic and technical skills as well as the training necessary to be successful in many different career fields. The signature trait of Career and Technical Education is providing hands-on opportunities and application of career-oriented content in the classroom as well as through authentic experiences such as internships, clinical training, lab work, industrial certifications, and personal training. Career and Technical Education content offered in Jackson County includes agriculture, business, marketing, health sciences, early childhood education, culinary arts, carpentry, technology, engineering, and computer science.

For more information, contact:
Angie Dills
(828) 586-2311 ext. 1954

The intention of Section 504 is to ensure that "No otherwise qualified individual with a disability shall solely by reason of her or his disability be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended, is a civil rights statute which prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities. This statute is enforced by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). OCR enforces, also, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) reauthorized as the ADAAA of 2008 which extends this prohibition against discrimination to the full range of state and local government services (including public schools), programs, or activities regardless of whether they receive federal funding or not. Therefore, Section 504 is now part of the ADAAA and enforced as such.

Contact:
Janet Roberts
Director of Student Support Services
(828) 586-2311 ext. 1928

Policies, Procedures, and Implementation Handbook