Report to the Governor and General Assembly on the Costs of the Federal No Child Left Behind Act to the Virginia Department of Education  

The Virginia Department of Education (DOE) undertook to study the state agency and local school division costs of the 2001 "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLB) in response to actions taken by the 2004 and 2005 General Assembly. Concurrently, the DOE joined a consortium of state departments of education, sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to develop a coordinated approach for analyzing the costs of NCLB for multiple states. The CCSSO contracted with Augenblick, Palaich and Associates (APA) to develop the model framework for states and local divisions to use to determine the activities and costs to implement NCLB. The CCSSO initiative takes a two-part approach: first, states identify the costs of NCLB to the State Education Agency or SEA (in Virginia, the Department of Education) and, secondly, the Local Education Agencies or LEAs (in Virginia, local school divisions) determine their costs of implementing NCLB. This report, presented to and approved by the Board of Education, contains the findings on NCLB costs to the Virginia Department of Education. A separate, second report, issued concurrently, sets out the NCLB costs to Virginia's LEAs. Working with APA, the states participating in the CCSSO cost consortium broke the requirements of NCLB into seven major components for purposes of determining costs to both the SEAs and LEAs. All states participating in the NCLB cost consortium agreed to use the following major components:

1. Standards and Assessments;
   
2. Accountability;
   
3. Technical Assistance; 
   
4. School Choice and Supplemental Services;
   
5. High-Quality Educators;
   
6. NCLB Data Management; and
   
7. Administration of NCLB and Title Programs

 The figures presented in this report present estimates only, not precise expenditures or revenues. The cost study found that total estimated SEA costs for NCLB are covered by total projected federal revenues for the measurement period of the study. The major cost components were:

• Standards and Assessments, as a result of the new testing requirements under NCLB;
  
• Administration of NCLB and Title Programs, which includes the Reading First program, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, and English Language Proficiency;
  
• High Quality Educators, including data management activities and continuation of initiatives to develop and support high quality teachers and principals; and
  
• Technical Assistance for LEAs and Schools, including the development of strategies to help schools avoid falling into "in improvement status" and to assist LEAs with schools "in improvement status"