20 U.S.C. § 7713 — Definitions

For this subchapter: (1) “Armed Forces” means the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. (2) “Average per-pupil expenditure” means all current spending by local educational agencies in a State divided by the total number of children in average daily attendance^* who received free public education from those agencies. (3) “Construction” means (A) preparing school-facility drawings and specifications; (B) erecting, building, acquiring, changing, remodeling, repairing, or extending facilities; (C) inspecting and supervising construction; and (D) debt service for those activities. (4) “Current expenditures” means free-public-education spending for administration, instruction, attendance and health services, pupil transportation, plant operation and maintenance, fixed charges, and net spending to cover food-service and student-body-activity deficits. It excludes community services, capital outlay, debt service, and spending from part A of subchapter I. State generally accepted accounting principles decide whether replacing equipment is current spending or capital outlay. (5) “Federal property” generally means real property exempt from State and local taxation because of Federal agreement, law, or policy, that is (A)(i) owned or leased by the United States; (ii) held in trust for Indians or tribes, held by Indians or tribes with Federal alienation restrictions, conveyed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to a Native individual, group, village, or regional corporation (including later-sold or leased single-family property, with the stated rules that untaxed property is federally tax-exempt and property in a Regional Educational Attendance Area without taxing power qualifies), public land designated solely for Indians or tribes, or low-rent housing on such land or land that qualified immediately before housing use; (iii) part of a low-rent project under the United States Housing Act of 1937, housing homeless children at closed military installations under 42 U.S.C. § 11411, or affordable housing under the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996; or (iv) owned by a foreign government or international organization. (B) It also includes, as long as it is not subject to taxation by any State or political subdivision of a State, and whether or not the tax exemption is due to Federal agreement, law, or policy, a school providing flight training to members of the Air Force under contract with the Air Force at an airport owned by a State or political subdivision of a State. (C) It includes, whether taxable or not, a non-Federal easement, lease, license, permit, or similar interest in qualifying Federal property (but not non-Federal fee-simple ownership), improvements on it, and property that qualified immediately before sale or transfer to a non-Federal party, for one year after the end of that fiscal year. (D) It excludes Postal Service real property used mainly for postal services and pipelines and utility lines. (E) It excludes property where children live if State or local tax revenues cannot be spent on their free public education, or State tax revenues are not allocated or available for it. (F) It includes Oklahoma real property owned by an Indian housing authority and used for low-income housing, including housing under or authorized by the 1996 Act, if it was ever treaty-designated tribal land or met the cited 1950 Act definition as it existed the day before October 20, 1994. (6) “Free public education” means education provided at public expense, under public supervision and direction, without tuition, and as elementary or secondary education under State law. Despite State law, it includes preschool and excludes education beyond grade 12. (7) “Indian lands” means Federal property described in (5)(A)(ii) or (5)(F). (8) “Local contribution percentage” means the percentage of State current expenditures from local and intermediate sources reported to and verified by the National Center for Education Statistics. For Hawaii and the District of Columbia, it is the average for the 50 States and the District of Columbia. (9) “Local educational agency” generally means a legally constituted school board or local school authority controlling and directing free public education in a county, township, independent district, or other district, and includes a State agency directly operating and maintaining free-public-education facilities. It excludes an agency the Secretary decides case by case was created or re-created mainly to receive or increase this assistance or lacks legitimate educational purposes. (10) “Low-rent housing” means housing on property described in (5)(A)(iii). (11) “Modernization” means repair, renovation, alteration, or construction, including installing equipment at the same time and replacing all or part of a facility only when replacement is less expensive and more cost-effective than repair, renovation, or alteration. (12) “Revenue derived from local sources” means revenue produced within an agency’s boundaries and available for its use, or money collected by another government and returned to the agency in the same proportion as collected locally. (13) “School facilities” includes classrooms and related facilities, and equipment, machinery, and utilities needed or suitable for school purposes. This section does not define the quoted “Armed Forces,” “average per-pupil expenditure,” “construction,” “current expenditures,” “Federal property,” “free public education,” “Indian lands,” “local contribution percentage,” “local educational agency,” “low-rent housing,” “modernization,” “revenue derived from local sources,” or “school facilities” terms beyond these provisions.