Federal money available for Five Towns schools

Money for education is flowing once more from the federal government: The latest Covid stimulus package, the American Rescue Plan, totaling $1.9 trillion, includes $126 billion for public primary and secondary schools, $42 billion for higher education and $2.75 billion for private schools nationwide.

Much of the latest funding is being directed to schools and districts with concentrated poverty, and to an effort to help schools reopen.

Districts will be required to spend at least 20 percent of the money they receive on getting students caught up on learning lost during the coronavirus pandemic, and on planning to return to in-person schooling safely. The focus of private-school funding will be disadvantaged students and schools most severely impacted by the virus.

“You have to document how you’ll spend the money, but it’s not like if you make a mistake you won’t get it,” said Lawrence School District Superintendent Dr. Ann Pedersen, adding that the majority of the aid the district has received has and will continue to pay for personal protective equipment — desk barriers, hand sanitizer and masks — and technology upgrades. “Every school has had to do the same thing,” Pedersen said.

Richard Hagler, executive director of the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, said that the school was applying for funding again. “There are different rules, depending on the number of employees, and we have to decide which program is best,” Hagler said. “… You have to do it properly. The last time it was super-duper helpful.”

HALB consists of a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school in Woodmere; the Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School for Boys, also in Woodmere; and the Lev Chana Early Childhood Center and the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls, both in Hewlett Bay Park.

In the first round of federal funding, last March’s CARES Act, there was expected to be money for private schools, but there were problems, according to Daniel Mitzner, the director of state political affairs for Teach NYS, part of the Orthodox Union’s Teach Coalition, which advocates for nonpublic schools.

“There was a number of issues and challenges brought about by the first round,” Mitzner said, including a lawsuit that opposed the federal Department of Education’s distributing money to private schools based on “equitable services” for all of their students.

Typically, equitable services is a category of expenditures reserved for low-income students in private schools, defined as services provided to children with disabilities attending those schools.

“This funding is going to be a little bit different,” Mitzner said of the most recent money. “The difference is that a significant amount is going to low-income students and reimbursements for Covid-related expenses.”

Schools and districts have to navigate an alphabet soup of programs, such as Emergency Assistance for Nonpublic Schools (EANS), Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER), the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR).

There are still a lot of open questions,” said Mitzner. “The money will have a tremendous impact, as this funding is needed as schools are suffering. They easily shelled out a lot of money to have a safe environment, and made all sorts of adjustments. They worked tirelessly to follow state and federal guidelines.”

The Brandeis School, in Lawrence, is also applying for funding, according to Administrative Director Reuben Maron. “Hopefully it is money we can use to open the school safely in September,” he said, referring to the expenses the school incurred to meet the required state safety mandates.

Rabbi Zev Friedman, the dean at Rambam Mesvita High School, also in Lawrence, noted that students took part Teach NYS’s virtual lobbying of the State Legislature on March 16 to increase funding to private schools.

“We hope that the state increases allocations to all private schools,” Friedman said. “Once that happens, we will appreciate whatever share we are fortunate to receive. The money is designed to be spent on addition and expansion of our STEM program and help with ever-increasing security needs as well.”

Public schools have yet to receive guidelines on how to apply for funding from the second Covid stimulus package, last December’s Consolidated Appropriations Act, and the more recent American Rescue Plan, Pedersen said.

Private schools have submitted letters of intent to take part in the funding for the second relief plan, but guidelines for the latest package have yet to be unveiled, Mitzner said.

Have an opinion on how federal money should be spent for schools? Send a letter to jbessen@liherald.com.