by Dan Rossmiller | Jul 6, 2021 | Federal Issue, Legislative Update Blog, State Issue
The U.S. Department of Education today (July 6) announced availability of $600 million in additional funding under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for children and youth who are experiencing homelessness.
State educational agencies (SEAs–such as the DPI) and local educational agencies (LEAs–such as school districts) must use these funds (known as ARP-HCY funds) to identify homeless children and youth, to provide homeless children and youth with wrap-around services to address the challenges of COVID-19, and to enable homeless children and youth to attend school and fully participate in school activities.
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by Chris Kulow | Jul 1, 2021 | Federal Issue, Legislative Update Blog
From the U.S. Dept. of Education:
“The U.S. Department of Education today released more than $3 billion in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to states to support infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities. The new funding will help aid more than 7.9 million infants, toddlers, and students served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and adds to the ARP Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief allocation of $122 billion in state funding for K-12 schools, which the department announced in March. (more…)
by Dan Rossmiller | Jul 1, 2021 | Legislative Update Blog, State Budget, State Issue
As required by state law, the DPI released its July 1 estimate of the general school aids each public school district will receive for the 2021-22 school year. Today’s estimates are based in part on the K-12 funding package approved by the Legislature’s budget-writing Joint Finance Committee (JFC) on June 17. K-12 funding was not changed by either house of the Legislature and along with other budget provisions now heads to the governor for his signature or veto.
General school aids are the largest source of state support for Wisconsin public schools. Under the JFC package, general school aids for 2021-22 will total an estimated $5.0 billion, representing a $109.9 million (2.2 percent) increase over last year.
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by Chris Kulow | Jul 1, 2021 | Legislative Update Blog, State Budget
The state Senate passed the 2021-23 state budget bill on a bipartisan vote of 23-9 with three Senate Democrats joining all Republicans in voting for the plan. The Senate made no changes to the bill passed by the Assembly and thus there were no changes to the K-12 provisions as approved by the Joint Finance Committee.
Like their counterparts in the Assembly, Senate Democrats proposed amendments to increase funding to schools in line with what the governor had originally proposed but they were also rejected on party-line votes. (more…)
