Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, first enacted in 1965 and amended most recently by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, is the largest federal program in K-12 education.

Its primary objective is to provide supplemental instructional services to those students identified as most at risk of failing to reach state-defined academic achievement standards. The main Title I program, the program that generally is thought of as “Title I,” is Part A, which distributes funds to school districts based on census counts of children from low-income families.

Title I also includes several smaller programs, such as literacy grants, education for migrant children and neglected and delinquent youth, and initiatives for drop-out prevention.

To receive Title I funds, states and districts must comply with the law’s requirements to establish academic standards defining what children in elementary and secondary schools should know and be able to do, and administer a system of assessments measuring student progress toward those standards.