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 | Jun 29, 2021 | Federal Issue, Legislative Update Blog, National Issue, State Issue
Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened the initial filing window for the Emergency Connectivity Fund, a $7.17 billion federal program that will help schools and libraries provide the technology tools and services their students and communities need for remote learning during the COVID-19 emergency period.
From June 29, 2021 to August 13, 2021 eligible schools and libraries can apply for financial support to purchase connected devices like laptops and tablets, Wi-Fi hotspots, modems, routers, and broadband connectivity for off-campus use by students, school staff, and library patrons.
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by Dan Rossmiller | Jun 16, 2021 | Federal Issue, Legislative Update Blog, National Issue
As we reported in an earlier post, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) enacted by Congress in March 2021 provides $7.1 billion for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to create an Emergency Connectivity Fund Program to help schools and libraries purchase eligible laptop and tablet computers, Wi-Fi hotspots, modems, routers and broadband connectivity for students, school staff, and library patrons who would otherwise lack connected devices and/or broadband connections sufficient to fully engage in remote learning. (more…)
by Chris Kulow | Jun 10, 2021 | Federal Issue, Legislative Update Blog, State Budget
The legislature’s budget committee’s state funding plan for K-12 education puts $2.3 billion in federal COVID relief funding for schools at risk according to a memo by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
The memo states that Wisconsin is expected to meet the requirements in the first round of federal relief funding (CARES Act/ESSER I/GEERS I) but also confirms that further investment will be necessary to meet the requirements to capture approx. $2.3 billion in relief funding included in the second and third relief packages (ESSER II & ESSER III, respectively). (more…)
by Dan Rossmiller | Jun 9, 2021 | Federal Issue, Legislative Update Blog, State Issue
The term “maintenance of effort” has been in the news lately amid concerns that the level of K-12 public school funding approved by the Legislature’s budget writing committee is not sufficient to allow our state to secure approx. $2.3 billion in one-time federal emergency COVID relief funding for K-12 education.
Another term school leaders are likely to be hearing about is “maintenance of equity.” (more…)
