Differentiated Accountability Flexibility

Supplemental Educational Services and Public School Choice REVERSE Information

Supplemental Educational Services (SES) are extra academic services, usually in the form of tutoring, offered outside of regular instruction hours free of cost to eligible students.  Services are designed to increase the academic achievement of low-income students, particularly in the areas of reading/language arts and mathematics.  Service providers are approved by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) but paid through contracts with individual districts.

The REVERSE option will allow districts to reverse the order of the required actions applied to schools in Title I School Improvement status.  Participating districts will be allowed to offer SES to eligible students in the first year a school is in Title I School Improvement status instead of the current requirement of public school choice.

Participation Requirements:

To be eligible to participate, districts must submit a REVERSE Application Cover Sheet to ISBE prior to September 30, in the school year for which the request is made.  This cover sheet includes the assurances the districts must agree to in order to be considered for participation.  The two most critical assurances are:

1. The district must support to the greatest extent practicable maximum SES participation for eligible students.  A participating district must offer continuous enrollment in SES or multiple SES enrollment periods.
2. As part of any flexibility granted by the State and/or the Federal Government, there are typically additional reporting requirements.  The district must agree to provide additional information to ISBE as may be required either for ISBE’s needs or to meet reporting requirements of the U.S. Department of Education.    See below for more information on possible reporting requirements.

ISBE will notify each district if they satisfy the participation requirements and will provide notice and information to the public about each district participating in the SES/Choice REVERSE flexibility.

Please contact Ev Deimel with Grants & Programs at 217-524-4832 or via email at EDEIMEL@isbe.net with questions related specifically to the REVERSE request.

Additional Reporting Agreement:

ISBE does not yet know what the reporting requirements may be, but some of the likely information ISBE will request from participating districts includes, but is not limited to, the following:

1. Student eligibility and participation: for the previous and current school year, how many students were eligible district-wide to participate in SES and in public school choice, and how many actually participated in each option?
2. Access to providers: How does the district encourage multiple providers are available to serve students within the district?
3. Parent notification.  How does the district ensure that timely information is provided to parents on school performance and student eligibility for, and enrollment in, public school choice and SES?  How does the district ensure that SES is provided shortly after parent notification?
4. Treatment of providers: How, if applicable, does the district ensure that providers are treated in a fair and equitable manner, such as equal access to school facilities at a reasonable price and/or dividing space among providers in a fair manner?
5. Marketing: How does the district work with community and business partners to reach out to parents and provide them with information on their SES and/or PSC options?
6. Enrollment and spending:  How much does each participating district spend on choice-related transportation and SES?  If the district does not spend an amount equal to 20 percent of its Title I, A allocation on choice-related transportation and SES to ensure all eligible students are served, why not?  
7. Involvement of schools in SES: How does the district ensure that schools support SES for eligible students?
8. Improving the quality of instruction: How do the district and schools work with providers to ensure that the providers’ programs support the instruction happening during the school day, and that teachers and providers communicate with each other regarding students’ progress?

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