Title I History

Back to Title I

In the beginning

Palms first qualified for Title I funding in the 2005-2006 school year, with 47% of students shown to be eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The percentage has been over 40% since then, over 50% since the 2012-2013 school year, over 60% since the 2022-2023 school year, and over 70% since the 2024--2025 school year.

The October Surprise

In Fall 2011, not all qualified Palms families applied, yet the 49.4% of students from families who did submit applications easily exceeded the 40% threshold set by LAUSD. But LAUSD then raised the funding threshold to 50% after the application period had ended, leaving Palms and 22 other LAUSD schools unable to prove they qualified for funding. A partial one-time allocation made up for a portion of the lost funding but long-standing Palms programs, including tutoring and our after-school sports programs, still had to be cut that year.

Since then

The dotted line in this chart shows the LAUSD funding threshold and Palms percentages from 2004-2005 to 2025-2026, including the after-the-fact switch in 2011-2012. The year below each column is the start of the school year, e.g., 2011 for the 2011-2012 school year.

The threshold that matters is the top of the medium-gray bar.

Lesson learned

Based on the October Surprise, Palms has made a more extensive effort since Fall 2012 to let parents know about the importance of submitting applications. As a result, Palms has qualified with over 50% eligible families each year since. Getting the word out to parents is still of vital importance, and that's why you should submit a Meal Application whether or not you think your family qualifies for free or reduced-price meals.