State Rep. Gary W. Day, R-187th, announced Jan. 15 new federal funding has been made available to school districts from the federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act.

“Making sure our schools and our children are taken care of, especially during these trying times, is extremely important,” Day said. “In June, we passed a budget in which we were able to fully fund schools.

“This additional funding, provided by the federal government, makes it so that our school districts won’t have to worry about additional expense that were incurred due to COVID-19.”

School districts to receive funding include:

·Parkland School District, $5.54 million.

·Kutztown Area School District, $923,784.

·Northwestern Lehigh School District, $659,845.

As part of the federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, Congress and the Trump Administration established and appropriated a total of $54.3 billion for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund.

Funding is distributed to states based on each state’s proportionate share of Title I, Part A (Title I-A) funding.

ESSER funds are intended to support COVID-19 response efforts and may be spent on a wide range of allowable activities.

Pennsylvania’s share of this funding is approximately $2.22 billion, which will be distributed to the state’s school districts and charter schools based on the Title I-A formula.

This funding is on top of the $471 million that was distributed to school districts last year through the CARES Act.