State’s schools to get $477M in latest federal relief funding

Nevada schools are set to receive around $477 million in federal relief funds from the COVID-19 aid package signed in December — more than four times the amount provided by the earlier CARES Act.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said in a letter to state education agencies this week that the money is intended to “help states and school districts safely reopen schools, measure and effectively address significant learning loss, and take other actions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the students and families who depend on our K-12 school.”

A total of $54 billion is going to education agencies nationwide.

Nevada previously received around $117 million in federal funds from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund in the CARES Act, which provided $13.2 billion to the country’s

K-12 schools. Each allocation was calculated based on the amount each state received in funding for students from low-income backgrounds.

The Clark County School District, the largest school district in Nevada and fifth-largest in the nation, received the bulk of the state’s first allocation, or approximately $84 million. The district used around half of the funding to pay for utilities, but shifted the remainder to the general fund to free up money to save programs cut during the special session of the Legislature, Chief Financial Officer Jason Goudie said in December.

This week’s letter from Devos says the first round of ESSER funds should be used before agencies make use of the second.

Devos urged schools to use both funding sources to re-open schools “as soon as possible,” citing the learning loss that students have experienced during distance learning.