CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) – When Charleston County students return to classrooms Tuesday morning, the school district will start the school year with a new funding model.

The district’s schools receive additional money to help students who are experiencing poverty, attend special education classes, or whose first language is not English.

Thanks to the weighted student funding formula, school leaders across the district will now receive a share of over $30 million in additional funding to provide resources, such as additional teachers in the classroom, to students who need them.

The additional resources range from more teachers in classrooms to intervention or even tutoring programs, depending on the needs of the students.

District officials expect to reach more than 24,000 students with this funding model. The number of students affected per school depends on the number of enrollments at each school.

Deputy Superintendent Dr. Luke Clamp says the funding model is not new across the country, but it is new in South Carolina.

Clamp says being able to be first in the state allows them to develop their own evaluation system to ensure funds reach the students they are intended for.

“We intend to create an evaluation system or a program evaluation system that is unique to Charleston County so that we can be sure that it will meet the needs based on the decisions we made with the Weighted Student Formula,” he says. “And something like that takes some time to develop. We have a tremendous accountability department that will help us with that, and we want to work with our school leaders to make sure we’re asking the right questions.”

The funding program plays a role in filling teaching positions in the district, as more than 200 positions have already been filled in advance of the school year.

The program represents a three-year investment by district leaders.

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