Title V, Part B of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as
amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA), is also known as the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP). REAP is designed to assist rural school districts that may often receive grant allocations in amounts that are too small to be effective in meeting their intended purposes.
Schools are designated as rural by the Secretary of Education. Rural schools are assigned locale codes which specify the number of people living in a particular area and the distance from a metropolitan area.
The two initiatives with REAP are: The Small Rural School Achievement (SRSA) Program and the Rural Low-Income Schools (RLIS) Program.
Small Rural School Achievement (SRSA) Program
The SRSA program’s purpose is to provide rural local educational
agencies (LEAs) with financial assistance to fund initiatives aimed at
improving student academic achievement. To qualify for SRSA, a school district
must meet the statutory requirements of being both small and rural [ESSA
5211(b)].
To be considered small, an LEA must have a total average daily attendance of less than 600 students or exclusively serve schools that are located in counties with a population density of fewer than 10 persons per square mile.
To be considered rural, all schools within the LEA must have a school locale code of 41, 42, or 43 (as assigned by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)) or be located in an area of the state defined as rural by a governmental agency of the state.
Rural Low-Income Schools (RLIS) Program
The RLIS program is a non-competitive grant with the purpose of providing
rural districts with financial assistance for initiatives aimed at improving
student achievement. Districts may use RLIS funds to pay for activities
authorized under Title I, Part A (including parent and family engagement); Title II, Part A; Title III; and Title IV, Part A.
To qualify for RLIS, a school district must meet the statutory requirements of
being both low-income and rural [ESSA 5211(b)(1)].
To be considered low-income, 20% or more of the children ages 5 to 17 years served by the LEA must be from families with incomes below the poverty line, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE).
To be considered rural, all schools comprising the LEA must have a school locale code of 32, 33, 41, 42, or 43 (assigned by NCES), or be located in an area of the state defined as rural by a governmental agency of the state.