The following items represent changes in the estimation procedures used for school district, county, and state poverty estimates for 2016 relative to the estimation procedures used for 2015. These changes reduce the comparability of the estimates between years and should be considered when making such comparisons. See General Cautions about Comparisons of Estimates and Guidance for Making Year-to-Year Comparisons.

The definition and inventory of county-level entities change on an irregular basis, based on the decisions of state and local governments. SAIPE provides estimates for all county-level entities (excluding Kalawao, Hawaii) that have been in effect for a full calendar year of American Community Survey sample. For the 2016 period, no substantial changes occurred.

There were no changes in the list of state-level entities or methodology in 2016 relative to 2015 estimates.

The SAIPE school district estimates incorporate the latest available boundary updates from the School District Review Program (SDRP), which are updated every two years. For the 2016 estimates, boundaries were utilized from the 2015-2016 SDRP, which collected boundaries as they existed on January 1, 2016.  These are the same boundaries used in the 2015 estimates.