South Brunswick School District Sees $5.3M In Federal COVID Aid

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — The South Brunswick School District received $5,388,255 in federal aid to help offset the costs of coping with the coronavirus pandemic, according to a recent analysis from The Associated Press.

That comes out to about $633.76 per student in the district of about 8,502 students.

The funds are part of about $4 billion that has been pumped into the state school system since the pandemic began in 2020. Altogether, the federal government has poured around $190 billion into the nation's schools since March 2020, more than four times what the U.S. Education Department spends on K-12 in a typical year.

The AP tallied how much money was granted to nearly every school district in the state and country, based on data published or provided by states and the federal government. Some districts are expected to receive funds amounting to 50 percent or more of the cost to run their schools for a year.

The aid averages nearly $2,800 per student nationwide, but it varies widely by district and state, according to the AP's analysis.

The AP did not provide state-by-state per-pupil figures, except to note that districts in Louisiana and the District of Columbia averaged more than $2,100 per student, while those in Utah received a little more than $400 each.

Nationwide, high-poverty areas received much more under the funding formula.

Not all states have allocated all their funding. In some areas, charter schools and/or private schools funds flow through public school districts.

Here's how the funding broke down for South Brunswick schools:

• ESSER I: The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, which included $13.2 billion from the March 2020 CARES Act. Distributed under federal Title I education aid formula. SBSD received $416,934.
• GEER I: The Governor's Education Emergency Relief Fund. Governors had discretion on how money was spent. South Brunswick received no GEER I funding.
• ESSER II: $54.3 billion from December 2020 congressional relief package. Distributed under federal Title I education aid formula. SBSD got $1,628,811 in ESSER II funds.
• CRF: Coronavirus Relief Fund, only some states used money from this fund for school purposes. South Brunswick received no CRF funding.
• ESSER III: March 2021 congressional relief bill that provided about $122 billion to states, most of which was distributed to local education agencies. South Brunswick got $3,342,510 in ESSER III funds.

See the full list of schools compiled by the AP.

Editor's note: This post was generated using data from the Associated Press. Rich Scinto, Patch Staff, contributed to this report.

(An earlier version mentioned 7.8M as the final figure, instead of 5.3M. It has now been corrected. The error is regretted.)

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