Repository of Pandemic Stimulus Funding Options for Students

New England

New England Low Vision and Blindness is pleased to provide the following resources of grants and funding options available for students who have been impacted by COVID-19.

(If you know of other stimulus funding resources that are not included, please send us an email at info@nelowvision.com.)

Federal Grant Programs: (Remember to word search on “technology”, “disabilities”, etc. to quickly bring you to the right section)

• CARES Act: Education Stabilization Fund
• Massachusetts – Emergency Relief Fund Information
• Rhode Island – Emergency Relief Fund Information
• Maine – Emergency Relief Fund Information 
• New Hampshire – Emergency Relief Fund Information
• Vermont – Emergency Relief Fund Information 

Other Stimulus Resources: (Remember to word search on “technology”, “disabilities”, etc. to quickly bring you to the right section)

• USA – State Allocation Table — Emergency Relief Funds
• USA – What Funding Means for K-12 Schools
• U.S. Department of Education – COVID-19 Resources for Schools, Students, and Families
• Office of Elementary and Secondary Education – Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
• National Conference of State Legislatures – Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund Tracker
• FutureEd article “What congressional Covid funding means for K-12 schools” @ https://www.future-ed.org/what-congressional-covid-funding-means-for-k-12-schools/
• Hunt Institute – A great resource to learn what the governor of each state is doing with their GEER funds.
• Massachusetts – State and Federal Entitlement And Allocation Grants by Fund Code
• Connecticut – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
• Connecticut – Governor Announces Relief Aid
• Connecticut – Story on how much money school districts will get
• Rhode Island – Allocation of Aid to The University of Rhode Island
• Rhode Island – Announcement of Funding by Senator Jack Reed
• Maine – Announcement of 3 funds to support Maine schools
• New Hampshire – Funding allocation by District
• Vermont – Funding Certification and Agreement
• Boston Globe Online: Parents feel remote learning due to coronavirus leaves their disabled students behind
• Stimulus Package Becomes Law – Here’s What It Means for People with Disabilities
• Money for technology, cleaning, summer learning: What the coronavirus stimulus means for schools

Education Stabilization Fund (ESF) https://covid-relief-data.ed.gov/

The U.S. Department of Education is committed to providing the public with a transparent view into how Education Stabilization Fund (ESF) funds are spent. The ESF Transparency Portal provides that view by tracking, collecting, and disseminating ESF data.

The ESF is an investment of over $263 billion into state and institutional COVID-19 recovery and rebuilding efforts, managed by the U.S. Department of Education to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus impacts on education for our nation’s students. The ESF was established by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) in March 2020, with subsequent allocations to the Fund codified through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSA Act), signed into law in December 2020, and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP Act), signed into law in March 2021.

The ESF is composed of four primary emergency relief funds: (1) the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund, (2) the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Fund, (3) the Emergency Assistance to non-Public Schools (EANS) Fund, and (4) the Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) Fund.

Here are some additional links that can be viewed:

• State and district allocations: https://www.budgetchallenge.com/ESSERFunding.aspx
• Closing The Gap: Stimulus funding to support students with disabilities https://www.closingthegap.com/funding/
• Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates: The American Rescue Plan: Advocating for Students with Disabilities https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.copaa.org/resource/resmgr/docs/2021_docs/advocates_guide_t o_arp_esser.pdf
• American Enterprise Institute The $200 Billion Question: How Much of Federal COVID-19 Relief Funding for Schools will go to COVID-19 Relief? https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/The-200-Billion-Question.pdf?x91208
• AASA Survey: School District Spending of American Rescue Plan Funding: A Snapshot, September 2021 https://aasa.org/uploadedFiles/ARP-Survey-Findings-090121.pdf
• The Advocacy Institute: Revisiting Assistive Technology Advocacy: article and podcast by Dave Edyburn, October 2021  https://www.advocacyinstitute.org/advocacyinaction/AT_Advocacy_Update.shtml

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

The available monies will likely be assigned by September.  Submit your information for these grants as soon as you can and remember New England Low Vision and Blindness is available for your technology and training needs – including but not limited to remote learning.

American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)

In response to the pandemic, additional federal funding has been created to help the education sector address student learning loss, close achievement gaps, and assist with distance learning.  An unprecedented amount of funding is being provided to schools by the federal government, and school districts are currently using and planning how to use these funds. The decentralized nature of the school system makes it difficult to understand how schools might spend these funds.