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Roadmap of Federal COVID-19 Relief Funds Kathy Dunn, Federal Programs Consultant, CCOSA When schools were reeling with the reality of the perils brought into the schoolhouse by the COVID-19 pandemic, there was early promise of some financial relief intended to mitigate the perilous effects of: impending sickness, emotional illness, and possible death among school families; inevitable learning loss brought by time away from classrooms; the lack of sustainable nutrition and learning supplies in homes; the daunting task of delivering distance learning with limited technology; and the lack of internet connectivity.
Federal Programs
Schools began to create their seemingly endless lists of critical needs which could be addressed when the funding arrived including: • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for essential workers providing child nutrition services, homeless education services, and delivery of essential learning tools such as technology, hotspots, learning packets in the spring; PPE for all students, teachers, and all staff when school reopens in the fall • Take-home technology for high-quality distance learning • Digital platforms to manage content and record-keeping in remote learning • School Nurses • School Counselors • Bandwidth; Infrastructure across the state • Internet connectivity in the homes of students • Food security plans, supplies, and personnel • Cleaning and sanitizing products and equipment • Financial instability caused by economic downturn and reduced funding CARES Act – Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Funds On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the $150 billion dollar funding package known as the CARES Act. Within the CARES Act was the $13 billion Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund which was distributed to states with a shelf-life of 27-months through June 30, 2022. Oklahoma’s portion of the ESSER fund was distributed to the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) according to the Title I funding formula, or the number of students qualified for the federal Free and Reduced Lunch program. The CARES Act for K-12 funding came as displayed below.
Oklahoma’s CARES Act ESSER Allocation through the OSDE Oklahoma’s Total ESSER OSDE Set-Aside for Local Districts’ ESSER Allocations to be Allocation through OSDE Statewide Initiatives Distributed by the Title I Formula to Districts who had Title I Allocations in FY20 $160,950,476.00 $16,095,048 $144,855,428.00 OSDE Set-Aside for Statewide Initiatives $16,095,048.00
Governor’s Education Emergency
OSDE ESSER Set-Aside for Statewide Initiatives Hotspot Grant to Districts by Exact Path Reading and Math Application Adaptive Online Programs $3,000,000 for 50,000 $3,000,000 for all hotspots awarded to districts in K-12 students, personalized a competitive grant process. instruction and targeted For use by low-income intervention in reading and students only; and district pays math. the reduced monthly fee
Incentive Grants for Schools $8,000,000 for competitive grants awarded to public schools (paired with $8,000,000 from the Governor’s GEER K-12 fund)
CARES Act - Governor’s Education Emergency Relief (GEER) Stay in School Funds to Incentive Grants Bridge the Gap Learn Anywhere Private School Lowfor Public Schools Digital Wallet Oklahoma (allocations Income Families to allow with Equitable (by application ranging from $5,000-
