Schools and families receive funding for COVID-19 disruptions

Federal CARES Act funded schools and families to weather the disruption caused by COVID-19 by providing funds to help those in need.

According to Idaho Public Records, Boundary County School District received Idaho State Gov. Brad Little allocated $456,851 and an additional $145,080 for distance blended learning.

Elementary Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds were also given to BCSD, totaling $339,788 and $18,487 for blended learning.

The $50 million Strong Families, Strong Students grant helped parents with families’ financial burdens with economic costs for setting up a distance education.

Idaho received over 26,000 applications, but the state awarded just over 18,000 applications to receive families’ funds. The average adjusted gross income for families receiving the grant is $35,738.

The grant would total $1,500 per student or $3,500 per family; the state will release funds in phases.

Phase 1: Families (with an adjusted gross income of $50,000 or less): 13,750 families, $34.7 million in grant awards.

Phase 2: Families (with an adjusted gross income of $75,000 or less): 4,735 families, $12.7 million in grant awards.

The vendor handling the grants is ClassWallet and will be notifying families on how to set up and collect the grant funds for their online learning expenses; the funds must be released no later than Dec. 30, but families will have to June 2021 to use the funds.