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Keeping the Promise
In 1950, President Harry S Truman signed into law legislation that has come to form the very bedrock of federal education programs. That program, know as impact aid, directly reimburses over 1,500 school districts throughout the United States.

The Mission
Impact aid is the federal government’s attempt to compen- sate school districts for lost revenue, where federal owner- ship or federal activity ad- versely inter- feres with any or all of the basic revenue sources of which school districts avail themselves: residential taxes, property taxes from business and indus- try, sales taxes, income taxes and local licenses and fees. NAFIS is dedicated to ensuring its members get as much Impact Aid support as they are entitled to.

The Structure
Federally connected children are ones who impact a school district’s financial base because of particular federal in- stallations or federal activity. They adversely affect the local tax structure in a number of ways, because their parents may:

n Live on non-taxable federal property;
n Work on non-taxable federal property;
n Reside on Indian trust land;
n Shop at non-tax generating stores;
n Frequently pay no income tax; or
n Pay no vehicle licenses or fees.

The Rationale
Impact aid is based on the presumption that when any of the basic revenue sources are knocked out of balance, due to federal ownership, federal activity or other federal interference, there is an indisputable shift to the local property taxpayer -- be it residential or business to subsidize the basic education program for the federally connected student. In lieu of taxes, the federal government has a responsibility to provide the taxpayer with relief through Impact Aid. This was Truman's promise.

Membership Services
Association membership is an investment that provides many valuable benefits to you – all of which expand your influence over the well-being of your federally connected children. NAFIS is:

Your Voice on Capitol Hill
And your eyes and ears, as well. NAFIS maintains a professional staff head- quartered in Washington, D.C., just steps from the offices of your Members of Congress. Our location on Capi- tol Hill allows us to both monitor and influence national legislation, that ulti- mately affects impacted school districts like yours.

Our staff has developed both professional and personal relationships with key Members of Congress and their aides, so you have a direct line to your nation’s policymakers. And when things on "the Hill" need to get done – often at the last minute or after business hours – NAFIS is here to see they get done with your best possible interests in mind.

Your Agent at the Department of Education
The impact aid program is not without its share of red tape. The payment process can be confusing, and the regulations issued by the Department of Education complicated. NAFIS is here to help you deal with those in charge of administering your impact aid revenue, from the application process through to the receipt of your final impact aid payment. NAFIS works closely with these officials to save you both the time and expense of clearing up matters for yourself. As a valued member of the national association, what could be a costly venture in terms of travel to Washington can, in most instances, be taken care of with a simple call to the NAFIS office. But it doesn’t stop there; when your problem can only be resolved by meeting with Department officials, NAFIS brings them to you at our annual conference.

Your Advocate for Increased Student Funding
Given the special needs of impacted districts and the annual rise in the costs of education nationally, NAFIS is on the front lines of the fight to increase dollar amounts for impact aid, in particular, and education in general. The association serves as an information warehouse for Congress and the Administration, with an extensive database of school districts, statistics and a library of historical facts. Let’s say your Member of Congress needs to see a complete analysis of his or her district’s impacted schools so he or she can make the case for increased payments. NAFIS is the only association capable of providing that information.

Your Source for Impact Aid News
NAFIS provides a wealth of information, including many publications for members only, to keep you up to date on the issues that affect your federally connected children and your membership in the national association. The newsletter, IMPACT, arrives free every month to NAFIS members and provides the most comprehensive coverage of impact aid from Washington. News and feature articles complement one another to bring you a reliable and understandable source of information regarding your impact aid revenue. And members can also receive the newsletter electronically via email, making it convenient for you to immediately forward it to others in your district involved with impact aid. The IMPACT INSIDER, a supplement to its parent publication and distributed to members only, is a means of communicating information of vital importance – such as regulation and payment changes – overnight. The INSIDER makes sure you are never caught off guard. Members also enjoy our newest resource, NAFIS NEWS, a weekly electronic newsletter that updates you on the intricate movements of the association – from meetings with Members of Congress to the latest preparations for the next conference. NAFIS also publishes an annual Blue Book, the only impact aid resource manual of its kind. The Blue Book contains the updated laws, regulations and a history of the program, as well as congressional district breakdowns.

Your Grassroots Network
NAFIS members are its most valuable resource. By joining, you have direct access to hundreds of your peers – school district officials like yourself – at national, regional and local levels to discuss the unique problems associated with being an impacted district. You benefit, your students benefit, and the entire impact aid community benefits with the shared pool of knowledge and political influence only a true "grassroots" group like NAFIS can bring.

Your Resource for Student Scholarships and Teacher Grants
By becoming a member of NAFIS, you also have access to the Federally Impacted Schools Education Foundation (FISEF). Founded as a means to promote public awareness about, and to enhance the effectiveness of the federal Impact Aid Program, FISEF enriches the lives of the nearly 1.2 million federally connected students nationwide. The foundation seeks to enhance the skills of public school financial and administrative personnel in managing the Impact Aid Program by hosting school business official's certification workshops. To date, the foundation has certified nearly 70 school business officials who have demonstrated their ability to successfully complete the Impact Aid application, which translates directly into more funding for your schools. The foundation has also created an endowment, to award college scholarships to graduating seniors, and provides curriculum development grants to teachers in federally connected school districts.

Would you like to join the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools? Click here.

The National Association of Federally Impacted Schools (NAFIS) is a non-profit, non-partisan corporation of school districts from throughout the United States, organized primarily to educate the Congress on the importance of impact aid. Founded in 1973, the association works to ensure that the needs of federally connected children are met with adequate federal funds.

NAFIS is governed by a Board of Directors, elected from its membership. The association is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a full-time professional staff under the leadership of an executive director.