The state Department of Education expects to receive about $4.9 million in additional federal funding this year to help pay the educational costs of students who are dependents of military personnel or other federal employees.

The money is in addition to $43.3 million that the DOE expects to receive from the federal government for military impact aid.

Impact aid reimburses school districts for a portion of the educational costs of federally affiliated students, such as military dependents or children of federal employees living in Hawai'i, said state Rep. K. Mark Takai.

Takai, D-34th (Newtown, Waiau, Pearl City), who helped secure the additional federal money, said the aid is meant to help school districts serving large military installations. Families connected to federal installations generally do not pay local property taxes or state taxes, he said.

The impact aid program, which became law in the 1950s, is one of the ways the federal government "pays its portion of the local taxes," Takai said.

Over the past five years, state officials have secured an additional $27.8 million in federal funding, including the money received for this year, through a provision in the federal law that provides an increase in aid for military families displaced because of on-base housing renovations.

Through information gathered from the military, officials were able to identify about 1,436 students living off base because of repairs or renovations to their on-base homes. That resulted in about $4.9 million in additional federal funding.

"This truly is money that was going unclaimed," said Greg Knudsen, spokesman for the state Department of Education.

The federal government provides significantly more money for students from military families living on base as opposed to military families living off base. For instance, in the DOE's Central District, impact aid for an on-base student is about $5,000, compared with $734 for an off-base child.

Last school year, the state counted more than 29,000 federally affiliated students and received nearly $46.7 million in impact aid, or an average of $1,587 per student.

That's about 15.5 percent of the state's average per-pupil expenditure of $10,252, according to the DOE.

"It's a partial reimbursement of the state's overall costs," Knudsen said.

Impact aid money goes directly to the state DOE for operational expenses, textbooks, computers, utilities and salaries. Knudsen said some schools with large military-dependent populations, including those in the Leilehua, Radford and Moanalua complexes, also get a portion of the impact aid.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.