Impact Aid Infrastructure Partnership Act

A significant percentage of federally impacted local educational agencies serve schools with facilities that fall far short of meeting basic life-safety standards that ensure a safe learning environment for students and staff alike.

The American Society of Civil Engineers rated school facilities nationally a D+. Many school buildings of schools served by federally impacted local educational agencies were built more than 65 years ago.

A 2009 study by the Government Accountability Office found that better school facilities were associated with positive student outcomes in academic achievement, attendance, and higher graduation rates. A second Government Accountability Office study conducted in 2020, concluded that many school facilities of schools served by federally impacted local educational agencies are in need of repair, modernization, renovation, or replacement.

Data compiled through surveys of federally impacted local educational agencies by both the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools and the National Indian Impacted Schools Association revealed the following:

Local educational agencies with some bonding capacity or that have access to other sources of funding are still in need of assistance to improve their buildings to ensure a safe learning environment.

Federally impacted local educational agencies located in rural settings have generally higher labor costs and transportation costs for workers and materials that have to be brought to a school construction site than local educational agencies located in an urban setting with school construction costs. Such costs are normally built in by the contractor effecting the total cost of the project.

Teacher recruitment and retention is a major challenge for local educational agencies serving students residing on Indian Treaty and Federal trust land as well as land conveyed pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.). Because there is no private housing or rental units available to non-Tribal members, the local educational agency must build and maintain rental units. Without local educational agency owned housing, the daily commute can be as much as 90 miles or more each way. One Arizona local educational agency estimated that the cost to rebuild antiquated teacher housing to be $100,000,000.

It is common practice that State educational agencies compile infrastructure needs in the local educational agencies located in the State. As example, the Hawaii Department of Education has identified more than $2,000,000,000 in needed repair, renovation, and construction projects to address—

provide grants in full to federally impacted local educational agencies that have no capacity to issue bonds because of the presence of large parcels of non-taxable Federal property;

provide partnership grants requiring a local match to local educational agencies that have a limited capacity to provide facility funding;

base local matching dollars on the learning opportunity threshold total percentage, as described in subparagraph (B)(i) of section 7003(b)(3) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7703(b)(3)); and

provide grants under section 7007(a) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7707(a)) to address local educational agency needs to modernize and provide basic building improvements.

that have a facility—

in the case of local educational agencies eligible for payments under section 7003(a)(1)(C) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7703(a)(1)(C)), that have teacher housing that is in need of repair or new construction to meet the needs of school personnel residing in such housing.

have a facility that—

in the case of local educational agencies eligible for payments under section 7003(a)(1)(C) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7703(a)(1)(C)), have an identified need for teacher housing to ensure a safe living environment for teachers and their families or a need for repair of existing housing or new construction to meet the basic needs of school personnel residing in such housing.

when calculating the total number of weighted student units as described in paragraph (3)(A)(i)(II) of section 7007(a) of the Elementary and Secondary Education of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7707(a)), the Secretary of Education shall include the total number of weighted student units of children described in subparagraphs (B) and (D)(i) of section 7003(a)(1) of such Act for the preceding year for all local educational agencies not meeting the requirements as described in section 7007(a)(2)(B) of such Act but that meet the requirements of section 572(a)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 (20 U.S.C. 7703b(a)(2)); and

when calculating the total number of weighted student units as described in section 7003(a)(1)(C) of the Elementary and Secondary Education of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7703(a)(1)(C)), the Secretary of Education shall include the number of children determined under section 7003(a)(1)(C) of such Act for the preceding school year that constituted at least 20 percent of the total student enrollment in the schools of the agency during the preceding school year.

have a total assessed value of real property that may be taxed for school purposes of less than $100,000,000; or

have an assessed value of real property that may be taxed for school purposes per student that is less than the average of the assessed value of real property that may be taxed for school purposes per student in the State in which the local educational agency is located; and

the number and percentages of children described in subparagraphs (A), (B), (C), and (D) of section 7003(a)(1) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7703(a)(1)) enrolled in the school facility to be supported with grant funds;

the learning opportunity threshold total percentage as described in subparagraph (B)(i) of section 7003(b)(3) of such Act (20 U.S.C. 7703(b)(3));

with respect to local educational agencies eligible for payments under section 7002 of such Act (20 U.S.C. 7702), the percentage of land in the local educational agency that is Federal property;

the potential use for community programs and events in the school facility to be supported with grant funds;

the feasibility of project completion within 24 months from the grant award; and

the availability of other resources for the proposed project including the use of in-kind contributions.

Make payment as required in full for those local educational agencies described in section 4(1) with no capacity to issue bonds.

Require those local educational agencies not described in paragraph (1) to pay a percentage of the total cost of the project supported with grant funds as follows:

Make payment as required in full for those local educational agencies described in paragraph (1) or (2) of section 4, whose payment is $5,000,000 or less for the year in which they are to receive the grant.

Make payment to those local educational agencies described in paragraph (1) or (2) of section 4, whose payment is more than $5,000,000 for the year in which they are to receive the grant, after final drawings and specifications have been approved by the Secretary of Education and the construction contract has been entered into, in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary and at such times and in such installments as may be reasonable.