Official Site of The State of New Jersey
Title III Part A of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides funds to help English learners, including immigrant children and youth, succeed in school by assisting them in becoming fluent in English and meeting challenging state academic content and student academic achievement standards.
Priorities
The priorities of Title III are to:
- Increase the English language proficiency of English learners (ELs) by providing effective language instruction educational programs that meet the needs of ELs and increase English language proficiency and student academic achievement
- Provide effective professional development designed to improve the instruction and assessment of ELs, to enhance the ability of teachers and school leaders to understand and implement curricula and assessment practices and measures, and to increase children's English language proficiency or substantially increase the subject matter knowledge, teaching knowledge, and teaching skills of teachers
- Provide and implement other effective activities and strategies that enhance or supplement language instruction educational programs for ELs which shall include parent, family, and community engagement activities
New Jersey Requirements
New Jersey Administrative Code (N.J.A.C.) 6A:15 Bilingual Education mandates Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. In compliance with the ESSA school districts must provide high-quality language instruction educational programs that enable students to meet state academic standards and develop English language proficiency.
The New Jersey Department of Education supports school districts and families through technical assistance, professional development, monitoring, guidance, and online resources.
If your school district offers an English as a Second Language (ESL) or Bilingual program, there is a good chance your district receives Title III English Language Learners (ELs) and/or Title III Immigrant funds. While there are allowable costs that may be funded by Title III and Title III Immigrant, this funding cannot be used for the core program that is mandated by the New Jersey Bilingual Education Code, or to supplant costs for which a district has in the past funded with local funds. For example, if a particular activity in the past year was paid with non-federal funds, the same activity the following year cannot be paid with federal funds.
More information and guidance on how school districts can serve MLs with federal funding is provided in this Title III Immigrant Federal Funding Resource.
Title III ELL Consortium
If a district’s Title III allocation is less than $10,000, it must either join a consortium or refuse the funds. Districts must develop a Memorandum of Agreement to enter into a Title III ELL consortium. The fiscal agent of the consortium is responsible for ensuring that consortium members fulfill their fiscal and programmatic responsibilities as subgrantees under Title III MLs.
Title III allocates services for MLs and immigrant students enrolled in Nonpublic School Services. These services are based on the number of MLs that have been identified for and are receiving English as a second language instruction under the Chapter 192 program (N.J.S.A. 18A:46-19.1 et seq. [(Chapter 192 Laws of 1977]). This number is reported by nonpublic schools in the Nonpublic School Enrollment Data Collection and is later verified by the school district.
Public schools must ensure that Title III funds expended for nonpublic school services are spent for purposes of and in accordance with the federal regulations. Districts may review the Auxiliary and Remedial Services for Nonpublic Schools (Chapter 192 and 193) for additional details.
