Maintenance of Equity Data

Statement of Maintenance of Equity

Requirement: By July 8, 2022 for FY 2022, which is the 2021-2022 school year, and by November 1, 2022 for FY 2023, which is the 2022-2023 school year, each SEA must publish on its website a description of how the SEA will ensure that each LEA that is not excepted from LEA-level maintenance of equity requirements is ensuring that its high-poverty schools are protected from any reduction of per-pupil funding by an amount that exceeds the overall per-pupil reduction in the LEA, if any, such that the LEA can make any necessary adjustments in a timely manner including information on when the SEA will determine LEAs are not compliant and the date that the SEA will require non-compliant LEAs to describe what adjustments the LEA will make to be in compliance prior to the start of the next school year. 

Description: The Maine Department of Education created an interdepartmental team which includes team members from the Office of School Finance, Office of Data and Reporting, and Office of Federal Emergency Relief Programs to identify non-excepted school administrative units (SAUs). This team validates student enrollments, school structures, and economically disadvantage percentages to identify high poverty schools within non-excepted SAUs. The list of non-excepted SAUs is below. The Office of Federal Emergency Relief will provide one-on-one technical assistance to SAUs that are not excepted from the LEA-level maintenance of equity requirements. The technical assistance will provide detailed information about the maintenance of equity requirements, support for using a tool developed by the interdepartmental team to calculate maintenance of equity, and support to identify accurate data sources. If an SAU can certify it has not and will not implement an aggregate reduction in combined State and local per pupil funding for fiscal year 2023, appendix B must be submitted to the Maine Department of Education by June 30, 2023 for the fiscal year 2023. Documentation illustrating that there was not a disproportionate reduction might include: 

A. Building expenditure spreadsheet for high-poverty schools 

B. Staffing spreadsheet per building focused on high-poverty schools 

C. History of passing Maintenance of Effort 

D. Other applicable documents 

 The Maine Department of Education will maintain this documentation. 

List of non-excepted SAUs fiscal year 2023:

SAU and Maine Data fiscal year 2023  (revised February 2, 2024)

The list of non-excepted SAUs for fiscal year 2022 can be found here:  SAU and Maine School Data FY 2021-2022  (updated December 7, 2022)

In order to meet the Maintenance of Equity (MoEquity) requirements, set forth in the American Rescue Plan (ARP) IFR, the Maine Department of Education is required to publish the following information for each non-excepted SAU:  

• High-poverty schools within the SAU  

• Per-pupil amount of funding for each high-poverty school in FYs 2021 and 2022   

• Per-pupil amount of funding in the aggregate for all schools in FYs 2021 and 2022   

• Per-pupil number of FTE staff for each high-poverty school in FYs 2021 and 2022   

• Per-pupil number of FTE staff in the aggregate for all schools in FYs 2021 and 2022  

• Whether the SAU did not maintain equity for any high-poverty school in FY 2022 

The above information can be found at: Maine Department of Education, School Administrative Units, Maintenance of Equity FY'22 Report (revised 9-1-2023)

The Maine Department of Education fulfilled fiscal year 2022 and 2023 state level maintenance of equity requirements by adjusting the June 2022 and January 2023 payments to the very few SAUs that needed adjustment to maintain state-level equity.   

For more information, contact the Office of Federal Emergency Relief Programs (OFERP), Maine Department of Education. A list of Program Coordinators and Office Director are listed on the OFERP webpage.