Details on how states could apply for federal disaster relief money for U.S. schools were due out over a week ago.
Earlier this year, Congress appropriated $2.7 billion, including money to help school districts pay for students that left Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.
“So as it is right now, we’re still waiting to get that information from the U.S. Department of Education about the process that we need to follow to access the funds,” said Charlene Russell-Tucker, the chief operating officer for Connecticut’s Department of Education.
Since September, Connecticut schools have welcomed about 2,000 new students from the island, which has been a financial strain, particularly on already cash-strapped urban districts.
Fran Rabinowitz, the executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, said her board has been advocating to the state on behalf of district superintendents to get help to support the new students.
“And they’ve assured us that as soon as the money arrives here, they will have the means to get it out to districts immediately,” Rabinowitz said.
She said there’s urgency to get these funds before the close of this fiscal year, as districts look ahead to next year’s budgets.
“They will have budget gaps because I know that significant amounts of dollars were put into play for these additional students who came with many needs,” Rabinowitz said.
The state said that schools that took in disabled students will get $10,000 for each of those children from the federal fund, $9,000 for those designated as “English learners” and $8,500 for anyone else.
Because many of the evacuee students will remain in the districts past this year, Rabinowitz suggested that they may need federal aid for next year too.
