Across the country, school districts are currently facing an unprecedented level of challenges. 

Academic recovery remains a critical priority, with fewer elementary and middle school students scoring on grade level in math than before the pandemic, according to the National Assessment Governing Board. At the same time, expenses are growing faster than revenue in many districts, and looming cuts to federal programs—including Medicaid and Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits—only add to the fiscal uncertainty. 

This level of volatility demands bold leadership and strategic decision-making to align limited resources to student needs. District leaders need to rally their communities around a shared vision for their schools; take an ROI approach to identify what to continue, stop, and scale; and dismantle legacy cost structures that no longer serve students. 

But these leaders can’t do this work alone. If they’re going to weather this storm of compounding financial challenges—or, better yet, come out more fiscally stable than when they went in—districts will need the support of their state education agencies (SEAs).

The State’s Role in Championing District-Level Change

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7 Actions SEAs Can Take to Support Districts

Fortunately, SEAs are uniquely positioned to support districts through this challenging moment. With a statewide lens, these organizations can identify common challenges, surface best practices, and guide districts in making difficult but necessary changes. 

But fulfilling this critical role requires SEAs to embrace two roles: 

• The traditional role of holding local education agencies (LEAs) accountable to state and federal mandates, and  

• The less common role of providing support and assistance to districts in their state.  

Recent changes at the Department of Education have shifted the education landscape even further. Funding reductions, the downsizing of technical assistance centers, and a retreat from national education leadership have created a new paradigm in which SEAs now have greater autonomy and greater responsibility for public education in their states. Students need them to step up to the challenge. 

Here are seven actions SEAs can take to support LEAs in their states today. 

1. Promote Data Transparency and Accountability

SEAs can use statewide data to develop a deeper understanding of how revenue shifts and fiscal uncertainty are impacting and will continue to impact districts. Clearly communicating this information helps state budget leaders make more informed decisions about allocating resources and funding. 

Many states conducted this kind of case-making and communication during and after the pandemic to analyze ESSER impacts and help leaders allocate resources accordingly. Now, SEAs can take a similar approach by using data to understand how changes in Medicaid, SNAP, federal/state tax policy, population/enrollment patterns, and other rising costs will impact revenue.

2. Set and Disseminate Statewide Priorities

Now more than ever, as student needs continue to intensify, districts need to be laser-focused on the education priorities that are most critical for improving student outcomes. SEAs should review their statewide education priorities to ensure they’ve clearly defined the LEA- and school-level actions needed to implement those priorities. 

Say a state has designated high-quality instruction as a key priority, for example. The SEA should clearly outline the district- and school-level resource shifts that this priority requires, including adopting high-quality instructional materials, retaining effective teachers, and providing professional learning opportunities. 

The SEA should also define what role they’ll play in supporting districts in making these resource shifts. They can establish a statewide clearinghouse of high-quality instructional materials, for example. Or create statewide teacher retention reports to help districts see trends and opportunities for retaining teachers.   

3. Assess and Enact Policies That Support Priorities

Districts will likely need to adjust their staffing and scheduling models in response to current fiscal pressures and increasing student needs. SEAs can help with this process by assessing whether existing policies support these moves: 

• Do teacher-of-record policies allow for cross-campus hybrid courses? 

• Do class-size policies allow for multi-age classrooms? 

Importantly, SEAs should also internally review their communication strategies to ensure they’re clearly conveying policy flexibilities to districts in their states. 

4. Audit Resources for Districts

Given everything they’re grappling with right now as they make staffing, funding, and scheduling decisions, districts need implementation support. 

SEAs can provide the assistance districts need by auditing SEA policies, frameworks, requirements, and guidance documents related to resource use to ensure alignment and coordination. The process also enables SEAs to find opportunities to streamline the communications, applications, and processes districts are required to follow. 

5. Incentivize and Support District Implementation

The current moment offers SEAs an opportunity to redirect technical assistance, grant programs, financial incentives, and resources to the districts that need the most support. For example, they can redirect discretionary grant funding to the districts with the highest need, the highest percentage of federal funding reliance, and the lowest percentage of local contribution. 

SEAs can also support the most critical priorities across districts by, for example, targeting all state-funded technical assistance to the top 2–3 statewide priority areas. 

6. Evaluate District Implementation Success

States have access to a wealth of data that they can use to help districts make strategic resource use decisions—which is critical for navigating through these current challenges. 

By reviewing statewide accountability and data-reporting systems, SEAs can find opportunities to shift measures and gain a more holistic understanding of district needs and implementation progress. This is especially important when it comes to addressing increasing student needs and shifting demographics. SEAs can track overall special education spending as a percentage of district expenditures, for example, or the enrollment of students with disabilities compared to other populations over time.  

Making this data available to districts enables them to make more informed, higher-ROI resource use decisions.

7. Scale District Implementation Successes

Navigating this moment of great revenue uncertainty will require many districts to dismantle legacy cost structures and explore new models. 

SEAs can assist with this process by providing technical assistance or start-up fund for districts piloting new models. These supports can help districts find ways to solve challenges within their unique contexts. Smaller districts exploring co-location or regionalization opportunities, for example, will likely need funding for planning and implementing new models. 

A Call to Action for SEAs Across the Country 

Without deliberately shifting their approach, districts risk delaying the hard decisions that can ultimately lead to long-term sustainability. 

SEAs must rise to the occasion and meet this moment by providing direct support to schools and districts in their state. That doesn’t mean dictating what districts need to do. Rather, it means having clear educational priorities and strategies for organizing limited district-level resources to best meet student needs. 

Setting those priorities is just the first step, though. SEAs have the opportunity—and, in this volatile landscape, the responsibility—to align state-level resources to help districts implement those priorities.  

These state-level actions have never been more imperative than they are now. They’re essential to helping districts reimagine how they can use resources to improve student outcomes and secure long-term financial sustainability. 

Ready to take action? We can help.

We partner with state leaders across the country to help them set, implement, support, and monitor key educational priorities. Contact us today to learn more.