Town-By-Town CT School Coronavirus Funds: What Did Yours Get?

CONNECTICUT — The $266 million going to school districts to help pay for the unbudgeted costs of safely reopening schools is one of the largest PK-12 state funding plans per-student in the region and country, Gov. Ned Lamont said.

The funding comes from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) is the main federal funding stream dedicated to supporting the state’s PK-12 system during the COVID-19 crisis. As previously announced, Connecticut received $111 million in ESSER of which $11 million is being reserved for state level activities that address the following priorities: internet connectivity; online academic content; and social/emotional supports.

The balance of funds – $99 million – is being distributed to local districts who have significant flexibility in how they spend the grant so that existing education funds can be repurposed to areas of highest need, mitigate fiscal impacts, and immediately address educational disruptions.

The state has reserved 12 percent, or $160 million of its portion of funding from the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF), to also help districts cover unbudgeted costs associated with the coronavirus pandemic. To determine the CRF allocation amounts for districts, the state Department of Education conducted a survey of districts asking for the reopening model they selected and the estimated costs they anticipated incurring above their appropriated budget for the 2020-21 school year. Districts were notified that their survey responses on cost estimates would be used to directly inform Lamont and the state Office of Policy and Management in their decision-making about the allocation of funds.

Funding also was supplied by the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund.

Giveth and taketh away

According to the Lamont administration, the information provided by districts led to a "commitment of significant CRF funding by the governor for the reimbursement of expenditures related to building cleaning, health, and PPE; transportation; academic; and student support."

Notably, last week there was a chart released with allocations. Then, this week, the education department told districts there'd be adjustments in the school bus transportation-related personnel and non-personnel categories. The change meant that some districts saw an increase in their allocation and others saw a "correction that brings their allocation back to the amount they originally requested in response to the CSDE survey."

As was reported by the CT Mirror, the adjustments reflected "whether school districts are offering in-person instruction," as it was reasoned that school district doing remote-only learning would not need student transportation funding or building-related costs since kids weren't going to be in school. Like the New Haven school district, the Mirror pointed out, which lost $200,000 in funding since it opted to go all-distance learning.

Closing the gap on the digital divide

It was noted by Lamont's office in a statement that more than half of Connecticut’s receipt of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, or about $15 million, will go towards closing the PK-12 digital divide to ensure disadvantaged students and their teachers will have equal access to technology and connectivity to support remote learning opportunities.

And, as part of the Lamont administration’s launch of the Everybody Learns initiative, a $43.5 million investment combining ESSER, CRF, and GEER will be made to purchase 50,000 laptops for students, provide 12 months of access to at-home internet for 60,000 students, create public hotspots free to the public at 200 community sites across the state, and offer social emotional learning content to school districts statewide.

What did your school district receive?

See the chart below and use the search bar in the upper left-hand corner to look for your school district, scrolling to the right to see full disbursement or use page function at upper right-hand corner to see all the districts and their Coronavirus Relief Fund allocation.

Patch editor Rich Kirby contributed to this report.