Military Parents Can Help Their Children’s School Increase Funding Through Impact Aid Survey
Schools near military installations receive less local funding, and military parents can do something about it—and it takes less than five minutes!
Most public schools receive about 90% percent of their funding from state and local governments. More than 80% of the local funding schools receive comes from local property taxes. Schools in communities with tribal or federal land, like a military installation, receive less local funding because property owned by the federal government is tax-exempt. These schools simultaneously see an increase in enrollment of federal and military-connected students, further straining resources.
In 1950, Congress created the Impact Aid Program, which provides annual grants to help recoup some of the tax revenue lost and to support schools with federal or military-connected children. Every year in late October or early November, schools send out the Federal Impact Aid Survey, which military-connected Families must complete and return to their children’s school. The Impact Aid Survey allows the school to count the number of federal and military-connected students who attend their school. This count is required to be able to apply for Impact Aid grants. The school may send a hard copy of the survey home with students, Pre-K to Grade 12, or parents may be asked to fill out the survey online through the school’s parent portal. The more military-connected students a school can count, the more money they receive from the U.S. Department of Education Impact Aid Program.
It only takes a few minutes, and all the information is confidentially processed by the school. Army Families PCS every day, so the count changes from year to year. It is mission critical for your child’s school to have the highest count each year to increase their access to Impact Aid Program funds.
Impact Aid is a critical source of funding for schools near military installations, especially those with a significant number of military-connected students. The funding is deposited into the general fund and its use is unrestricted. This means your local schools can use the money on everything from academic programs, to supplies, to hiring teachers. Help your military child get the best possible education, find your school’s Federal Impact Aid Survey and fill it out today!
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