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January 13, 2006
Federal hurricane relief funds availableImportant news from the U.S. Department of Education this week: the long-awaited relief funds for school districts that enrolled students displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are now available. This is part of the $1.6 billion school relief package Congress passed in the waning days of 2005.
Congress appropriated $645 million for school districts (and private schools) that enrolled displaced students. The Department of Education has notified state departments of education, and provided guidance for how school districts, private schools and private school parents, and state departments are to apply for the funds. Go here for details. The DOE site also includes links to the Federal Register notice, sample applications that the states may wish to utilize for local school districts, and more.
School districts should note that their deadline to submit enrollment figures to their state departments is January 26th, and the states' deadline to submit applications to the U.S. Department of Education is February 2nd. Federal relief funds will be distributed quarterly for this school year. Noting the very tight deadlines, the Department of Education has indicated that enrollment counts submitted by the local districts and states for the first two quarters of the year (suggested as an October 1 and December 1 count date) may amend their initial figures later if they collect "satisfactory data" not available when they submit their initial application.
Posted January 13, 2006 11:58 AM | Hurricane Relief Efforts
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