School officials in Happy, Tex., were unhappy when they had to complete some 50 pages of evaluation forms in order to receive $354 in federal assistance.
The district received the funds for a high-school home-economics class, but the money came with 35 pages of instructions and notes on the proper evaluation of the program.
After hours of assessment by two committees, which they said took up significant work and class time, school officials and staff members of the 240-student district sent the state department of education the required information.
The Texas town is not the only place where pages of expensive documentation are required, a new Stanford University study suggests.
Federal and state education agencies required a typical California school district with 30,000 students to file 153 reports in 1979-80, according to the study.