sOuth Carolina will receive $ 940 million in new federal aid funds COVID-19 for K-12 education, the US Department of Education has announced.
The funds will be administered by the South Carolina Department of Education to measure student success, identify students left behind and provide resources and interventions to overcome the pandemic-related learning loss.
The $ 940 million in new financing is in addition to the $ 472 million granted to South Carolina last year under the Coronavirus Aid, Aid and Economic Security Act. The new funds are to be used after the first round of relief from the K-12 pandemic.
In a letter to state education commissioners, US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos urged states to use the funds immediately to reopen schools.
“I urge you to use ESSER and ESSER II funding to safely reopen all primary and secondary schools as quickly as possible, to restore and maintain high-quality learning environments and to take comprehensive measures to mitigate the unprecedented learning loss that many of our most vulnerable students resisted, ”wrote DeVos.
A total of $ 54 billion for K-12 school relief was allocated by Congress last month in the Coronavirus Response and Supplementary Relief Appropriations Act – more than four times the amount allocated for K-12 education through the CARES Act.