Schools Receive COVID Allocation of $156 million

CONCORD: The New Hampshire Department of Education released today school allocations from the $156 million in federal education funds from the U.S. Department of Education.

New Hampshire was awarded an additional $156,065,807 in ESSER II funds through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021, Public Law 116-260, which provides an additional $54.3 billion for an ESSER II Fund. This new funding, in addition to the first award of $37.8 million received in the spring of 2020, is intended to help public schools in their continuing response to COVID, including safely reopening schools, assessing student learning, and other actions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on students and families. Since March, public schools in New Hampshire have received an additional $219 million in federal funding to assist in their response to COVID.

"COVID-19 has been the most disruptive event in the history of New Hampshire education, forcing us to adopt new methods of instruction and work even harder to meet the needs of our most vulnerable students," said New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut. "These funds will provide additional resources to close the gaps that this pandemic has widened."

The ESSER II funds provide broader flexibility to schools for the use of the funds, including:

• Addressing learning loss among students, including low-income students, children with disabilities, English learners, racial and ethnic minorities, students experiencing homelessness, and children and youth in foster care, of the local educational agency;
• School facility repairs and improvements to enable operation of schools to reduce risk of virus transmission and exposure to environmental health hazards, and to support student health needs;
• Other activities that are necessary to maintain the operation of and continuity of services in local educational agencies and continuing to employ existing staff of the local educational agency.

A complete list of school allocations is attached.