In 2011, the Obama administration announced that it would offer states flexibility in their efforts to comply with the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in return for state commitments to implement certain reforms.
Amid the broad flexibility that would be granted in both program operation and the ability to shift federal funds from one use to another, the Administration also reaffirmed its commitment to high-quality expanded learning time (ELT) as a powerful reform to raise student achievement and close achievement gaps.
As of December 2014, waivers have been granted to 43 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the CORE districts of California (8 school districts that applied together; California chose not to seek a statewide waiver).
ESEA Flexibility Waivers and ELT
The ESEA Flexibility Waivers allow districts and schools to use federal funding to support expanded learning time. First, the waivers ended the requirement that districts with chronically under-performing schools set aside 20 percent of their Title I funds for Supplemental Educational Services (SES). This option was intended to give districts the flexibility to design whole-school reforms to help turn around struggling schools rather than force them to deplete their school funding and divert Title I funds into private tutoring services that have not proven to be an effective use of educational dollars.
Second, the waivers make high-quality expanded learning time an allowable use of 21st Century Community Learning Center (21CCLC) funds in states that wished to make the option available to communities that choose it. The majority of 21CCLC funds have always gone to school districts to operate school-based programs, however schools were previously restricted to operating programs that typically reached only a minority of the school’s students and providing those services during “non-school hours.” With the new flexibility provided by the waivers, a school would be allowed to redesign and significantly expand its hours for all students, typically integrating community partners throughout the school day, instead of having to restrict them to afterschool hours. The Department released guidance on using this waiver to help schools and their partners implement high-quality ELT. Currently, 26 states and Puerto Rico have the ELT flexibility waiver in place for their 21CCLC program.