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2023–24 Title I, Part A School Student Counts

Consolidated Application and Reporting System (CARS) Winter Release data entry instructions for the 2023–24 Title I, Part A School Student Counts data collection form.
Data Collection Purpose

The purpose of the school student counts data collection form is to report the school ranking method, the low-income measurement to be used by the local educational agency (LEA) to allocate Title I funds, total student enrollment counts, and eligible low-income student counts for each school. The information entered will be used by the LEA to calculate eligibility and ranking for Title I, Part A school allocations.

Program Information

The data reported in this form will populate the Title I, Part A School Allocations data collection form and will be used by the LEA to calculate eligibility and ranking for Title I, Part A School Allocations.

To determine Title I, Part A School Allocations, the LEA may use:

  • prior fiscal year school-level student data; or
  • current fiscal year school-level student data.

Total student enrollment and eligible low-income students counts* have been pre-populated into this form with prior fiscal year (FY) data from the certified California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) Fall 1 submission.

*The eligible low-income student counts have been pre-populated with eligible low-income students ages 5-17 only. LEAs have the option to include all eligible low-income students when determining school allocations depending on the low-income measure selected.

Please review the information in the following “Important Update” section regarding updating pre-populated school-level student data.

Measure of Poverty (Low-income Measure)

According to ESSA Section 1113(a)(5)(A), the LEA shall use the same measure of poverty, which measure of poverty shall be one of the following:

  • The number of children eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Meals (FRPM) under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 United States Code (U.S.C.) 1751 et seq.);
  • The number of children in families receiving assistance under the State program funded under Part A of Title IV of the Social Security Act (SSI);
  • The number of children eligible to receive medical assistance under the Medicaid Program;
  • The number of children aged five through seventeen in poverty counted in the most recent census data approved by the Secretary; or
  • A composite of such indicators.
Important Update

If the LEA selects a Low-income Measure of “FRPM”, please review the following instructions regarding how to obtain school-level student data for “student enrollment” counts and “eligible low-income student” counts for prior and current FY.

To obtain prior FY school-level student data:

  1. LEAs may obtain prior fiscal year data from the "Unduplicated Student Poverty – FRPM Data" file available on the California Department of Education (CDE) Free or Reduced-Price Meal (Student Poverty) Data web page:
    1. The Enrollment (K-12) data, in Column R, contains the total student enrollment for each school, and:
      1. Populates the data in the column titled “Student Enrollment” of this data collection form.
    2. The total Eligible Low-income Students counts data appears in:
      1. Column U, titled: FRPM Count (K─12); or
      2. Column Z, titled: FRPM Count (Ages 5-17).
      3. The LEA may manually enter the "FRPM Count (K-12)" data (from Column U) or the "FRPM Count (Ages 5-17)" data (from Column Z) into the "Eligible Low-income Students" field of the School Student Counts data collection form to include eligible low-income students for each school within the LEA

To obtain current FY school-level student data:

  1. LEAs may obtain current fiscal year data by running the CALPADS Snapshot Report 1.1:
    1. Open the report set filter as follows:
      1. Age Eligibility: ALL (K-12, UE, US) to obtain the count of all eligible low-income students; or
      2. Age Eligibility: Title I (5-17 year olds only) to obtain the count of eligible low-income students ages 5-17 only.
    2. In the CALPADS Snapshot Report 1.1:
      1. The “Student Enrollment” count data appears in the column titled: "Enrollments" (third column from the left) of CALPADS 1.1.
      2. The "Eligible Low-income Students" count data appears in the column titled: "FRPM Eligible" (last column on the right) of CALPADS 1.1.

Note:“Enrollment” count data is entered into the “Student Enrollment” field of this form for each school; the FRPM Eligible count data is entered into the “Eligible Low Income Students” field in this form.

If the LEA selects one of the following low-income measures (SSI, Medicaid, Census, or Composite), LEA staff should contact Rina DeRose via email at rderose@cde.ca.gov for additional information and instructions.

Important:Records must be maintained to verify any revisions made to pre-populated data.

School student enrollment should include the total number of children enrolled in each school listed.

If the grade levels of a school have changed, then the LEA County-District-School (CDS) coordinator must submit the update on the CDE Online Public Update for Schools (OPUS-CDS) web-based application. For additional OPUS-CDS instructions, please follow the link.

For more information, please refer to the CDE Title I, Part A School Student Counts web page.

CDE Program Staff Contact

Rina DeRose
Education Programs Consultant
Title I Policy, Program, and Support Office
rderose@cde.ca.gov
916-323-0472

Procedures - Ranking and Funding Options
Step Action Program Instructions
1 Select a School Ranking Option.

Required field. Select the highest to lowest school ranking method:
-within the LEA; or
-within each grade span group.
Note: This selection impacts the order in which schools are displayed in the Title I, Part A School Allocations form.

2 Select a Low Income Measure from the drop down list. Required field.
3 Enter a Comment, if composite is the low-income measure selected, to provide an explanation detailing how the student count is derived.

If the LEA selects a low-income measure of composite, then this comment field will display and will be required.

Displayed Data

School name, School code, Low grade offered, and High grade offered: Source data from the CDE CDS database, as reflected in the California School Directory web-based application.

Pre-populated Data

Student enrollment and Eligible low income students: These fields will be pre-populated with PRIOR year certified data from the CALPADS Fall 1 submission report. The pre-populated data in the column titled “Eligible Low-income Students,” includes students ages 5─17 only.

The LEA may manually enter current FY school-level student data in place of prior year data in this form.

LEAs may manually update the data to include all students depending on the low-income measure selected to determine school allocations.

The pre-populated data can be edited in this data collection form. Please review the instructions in the “Important Update” section above for additional instructions. Once this data collection form is saved as a draft, the system will not pre-populate data again.

Procedures – Student Counts
Step Action Program Instructions
4 Verify the Grade Span Group.

Required for all schools. Allowable values are 1, 2, or 3. LEA may accept or overwrite the pre-populated value. For additional information, please refer to the School Grade Span Group Assignment Guidance web page.

5 Verify the Student Enrollment count. Required field. LEA may accept or overwrite a pre-populated count.
6 Verify the Eligible Low Income Students count.

Required field. LEA may accept or overwrite a pre-populated count.

Optional Function

Download schools template: Select this option to download school data from the data collection form into an Excel (.xls) spreadsheet.

Upload schools file: Select this option to upload school data from an Excel (.xls) spreadsheet into the data collection form.

Error Messages
Field Name Error Message Resolution
Grade Span Group School: [School Name] must have a grade span group assigned. Required field. Enter an allowable value.
Composite Comment A low income measure of composite was selected. A comment must be entered providing an explanation how the LEA is determining its low income student count. If low income measure of composite is selected, then a description comment is required.
Student Enrollment Count School: [School Name] enrollment is equal to zero, this may be reviewed by CDE program staff to determine reasonableness. Warning only. Enter a number equal to or greater than zero.
Eligible Low Income Students Count School: [School Name] the eligible low income students count cannot be greater than the student enrollment count. Ensure that the data entered is correct.
Not field name specific School: [School Name] is missing. A school level record is missing for this data collection, if this error message displays verify the school record exists then reload the school file. A school level record is missing for this data collection form. This is most likely caused by an update to the CDS database. Open the form and resave it.

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Questions:   ConApp Support Desk | conappsupport@cde.ca.gov | 916-319-0297
Last Reviewed: Wednesday, November 29, 2023
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