Every October, Chesapeake Public Schools sends home a Federal Impact Aid Program Survey Card with your student. On Tuesday, October 15, all students will receive their Federal Impact Aid card. Please complete the card and return it to your school as soon as possible. The Impact Aid Program Survey is required each fall to determine the number of students who are federally connected. The survey card is informally referred to as the “federal card.”
Since 1950, Congress has provided financial assistance to school districts across the country through the Impact Aid Program. Our school district is dependent on local real estate taxes for funding and federally owned property is not subject to those taxes.
How does the Impact Aid Program work?
The Impact Aid Program provides funding directly to school divisions to compensate for lost real estate revenues for federal property based on 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.
How is survey data used?
Data from the survey is compiled in order to complete the Impact Aid application that is submitted to the U.S. Department of Education which administers the program. Chesapeake Public Schools received approximately $3.5 million in Impact Aid in 2023 based on the data collected from the annual Impact Aid Program Survey.
How is Impact Aid money used?
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.
Additional Resources:
To learn more about Impact Aid, visit the U.S. Department of Education website.
Print-friendly copies of the Federal Impact Aid card will be available here on Oct. 15, 2024.
If you have any questions about the Impact Aid Program Survey in Chesapeake Public Schools, please call Lisa Bamonte at 757-842-4093 or email lisa.bamonte@cpschools.com.