What Is Impact Aid And How Does It Serve Our Students?
Since 1950, Congress has provided financial assistance to school districts throughout the nation
through the Impact Aid Program. The school division is dependent on local real estate taxes for
funding and federally owned property is not subject to real estate taxes. The Impact Aid Program
provides funding directly to school divisions to compensate for lost real estate revenues for
federal property based upon the number of federally connected students in total enrollment.
Federally connected children include those whose parents meet specific criteria:
● serve as active duty military, including foreign military;
● work as a civilian on federal property including ships;
● work on low-rent housing property (HUD);
● live on federal property (base housing);
● live on low-rent housing properties (HUD); and/or
● reside on Indian lands.
The Impact Aid Program benefits ALL students enrolled in the school division because the
funding is not earmarked for specific programs or populations. School divisions use Impact Aid
funds for a wide variety of expenses such as salaries of teachers, teacher assistants, and support
personnel, classroom materials and supplies, computers and other equipment, safety and
security needs of our students and staff, buses and/or heating and cooling.
The Impact Aid Program Survey is required to be conducted each fall to determine the number of
students who are federally connected. The survey card is informally referred to as the “federal
card.” Data from the survey is compiled in order to complete the Impact Aid application, to be
submitted to the U.S. Department of Education who administers the program. Chesapeake
Public Schools is estimated to receive approximately $3.5 million in Impact Aid in 2022 based on
the data collected from the annual Impact Aid Program Survey.
To learn more about Impact Aid, visit the U.S. Department of Education website:
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oese/impactaid/index.html
If you have any questions about the Impact Aid Program Survey, please contact Lisa Bamonte at
842-4093 or