Coronavirus Stimulus Package Includes $30 Billion in Emergency Education Funding

On Friday night, President Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act into law. This is the third bill providing emergency response funding for states due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is the largest to date. The CARES Act includes funding for the healthcare sector, certain business industries, help for small business and non-profit organizations, unemployment protections, and individual checks to every eligible household.

The $2 trillion relief package includes $30 billion in education funding, in the form of an Education Stabilization Fund. The funding is flexible and will be made quickly available. It is designed to go directly to states, local school districts, and institutions of higher education to help schools, students, teachers, and families with immediate needs related to coronavirus.

The breakdown of these funds is as follows:

Elementary and Secondary Education: $13.5 billion through the existing Title I formula, to go directly to states. The flexible funding can be used to:

• Help schools respond to coronavirus and related school closures
• Meet the immediate needs of students and teachers
• Improve the use of education technology and support distance education
• Plan and implement activities related to summer learning and supplemental after-school programs, including providing classroom instruction or online learning during the summer months
• Address the needs of low-income students, students with disabilities, English learners, migrant students, students experiencing homelessness, and children in foster care
• Provide mental health services and support
• Purchase technology
• Other activities necessary to maintain the operation of and continuity of services and continuing to employ existing staff of the local educational agency

All schools, including charter schools will receive any allocation of funds through their normal Title I allocation method. Non-public schools, including their students and teachers, per the Elementary and Secondary Education Act’s existing requirements, receive equitable services as determined in consultation with representatives of non-public schools. Although funds can be used to serve students with exceptionalities, there is no funding specifically dedicated to doing so.

Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund: $3 billion in flexible formula funding to be allocated by states based on the needs of a state’s elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education. The funds are to be used for emergency support for LEAs or institutions of higher education most impacted by coronavirus.

Institutions of higher education: $14.250 billion in flexible funding to defray lost revenue, technology costs associated with a transition to distance education and grants to students for food, housing, course materials, technology, healthcare, and childcare. 

Loan Forgiveness: The bill includes a number of provisions to relax or clarify current regulations on for student borrowers.

• Pell Grant recipients are not required to repay the federal government if they had to leave school because it closed due to the crisis and disrupted academic terms do not count toward the lifetime limit on receiving Pell. Canceled classes also do not count against a student’s satisfactory academic progress calculation.
• Direct Loan program recipients are provided with a six-month moratorium on payments, interest accrual, and collection action.
• Teacher Loan Forgiveness requirements would be waived for the duration of interrupted services during the emergency if borrowers resume their teaching service and complete 5 years of consecutive qualifying teaching service.

Report for Additional Waiver Authority Required: The Secretary of Education is directed to report to Congress in 30 days with any recommendations on additional waiver authority for ‘limited flexibility’ determined to be necessary under IDEA, the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504), ESEA, and the Carl D. Perkins Act.

While the ink has yet to fully dry on the CARES Act, Congress is already discussing a potential fourth COVID-19 bill. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has stated that the next response bill must include funding to support human services and infrastructure, including broadband. That bill could be negotiated in the coming weeks.

To view the CARES Act, go here.