Federal money to help impoverished students will be diverted from 23 Los Angeles Unified schools, including nine in the San Fernando Valley, to campuses with higher numbers of low-income students under new guidelines adopted Tuesday by the school board.

Valley board member Tamar Galatzan led a spirited debate as she fought the proposal to raise the threshold for receiving Title I money, which helps pay for things like dropout specialists, counselors and after-school programs.

Under the new rules, half of a school's enrollment must be considered low income, up from the previous 40 percent. That means that schools like the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, where 49.07 percent of the students are impoverished, will no longer be eligible for the supplemental funding of about $450 a year per student. Instead, the money will be given to Title I schools where at least three-quarters of students are