Cheltenham HS Gets $70K From 'Historically Underserved' Grant

CHELTENHAM, PA — The state has allocated $17 million to help school districts with historically underserved student populations.

That includes Cheltenham School District, which received a total of $70,495 through the program, Pennsylvania officials announced this week.

School districts were made eligible for the funding if they were identified as containing underserved students under the federal Every Student Succeeds (ESSA) Act, according to Gov. Wolf's office.

“While all schools have been impacted this year by the COVID-19 pandemic, the schools that have been identified under ESSA as needing extra support are facing additional challenges,” Gov. Wolf said in a statement. “This funding will help these high-need schools as they put systems in place to help students while we work to control the spread of this virus.”

States in turn designate specific school districts with these populations, based on performance of student groups in various areas including academic achievement, graduation rate, English learner process, chronic absentee rate, and more.

Underserved groups include those identified by race, economic background, physical disability, and English language knowledge.

Officials said that coronavirus closures "likely exacerbated" the education gaps already existing for underserved students, as school districts in these areas lack the resources to implement improvement strategies.