$76.7M For Aurora Schools From $1.9T Coronavirus Relief Package

AURORA, IL — Aurora’s two main school districts are set to share more than $76 million from the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion economic relief package signed into law last month by President Joe Biden.

East Aurora District 131 will get just under $52.9 million, while West Aurora District 129 stands to get about $23.9 million, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

The district-level federal funding allocations come from the third portion of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief program, dubbed ESSER III.

The two districts have received a total of nearly $120 million across the three disbursements from the ESSER program. East Aurora District 131 has received just under $82.5 million, while West Aurora District 129 has been given $37.3 million, according to the state board of education.

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It includes nearly $122 billion in funding to states and school districts. About $4.5 billion has been set aside for Illinois elementary and high school districts over the next three years, along with $1.3 billion for the state's postsecondary institutions.

The money is meant to help schools safely reopen and remain open, and to address the impact of the pandemic on students, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said last month in a letter to state school leaders.

"It is particularly important that ARP ESSER funding will enable State and local educational agencies, as well as schools, to support students who have been most severely impacted by the pandemic, which has even further exacerbated the inequities in our education system," Cardona said.

Combined with money included in the first two rounds of the ESSER program — allocated in last year's Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act and January's Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act — Illinois' education system has so far awarded $7.8 billion in federal pandemic relief.

Nearly 90 percent of that money has gone directly to school districts.

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State Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala said Illinois' educational institutions have an unprecedented chance to transform the quality of educational opportunities for all its students.

"We have an opportunity with this influx of funding to alter the educational trajectory of our most vulnerable students," Ayala told educators. "As much as possible, I encourage you to use this funding to increase in-person instructional time for students, especially those at risk of not being prepared for the next grade level. That could mean expanded summer school, before- or afterschool programs, high-impact tutoring, and an early start to the school year."

Some Illinois administrators mentioned how they have used the extra money to close the digital divide, expand summer school, add activities or hire an additional school nurse to help with contact tracing and working with the local health department.

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"One important stipulation of the grant is that [local education agencies] must reserve at least 20 percent of the direct allocation to address learning loss through the implementation of evidence-based interventions and to ensure that those interventions respond to students' social, emotional, and academic needs and address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on underrepresented student groups," Ayala said.

Applications for grants from the third round of funding open July 1, so projects funded through the program will start in the 2022 fiscal year, Ayala said. Districts may use money from all three rounds of coronavirus relief for costs going back to March 13, 2020. They have until the end of September 2024 to spend the latest allocation.

State education officials this week released the 180-page Learning Renewal Resource Guide to school districts. It contains input from more than 300 stakeholders about ideas for how to spend the unprecedented influx of new federal funding.

"This guide provides a roadmap for how our education system can emerge from the pandemic stronger, with even greater capacity to close gaps and achieve equity," Ayala said in a statement announcing the guide. "That journey begins with getting students back into the classroom as soon and as much as possible."

— Jonah Meadows, Patch Staff, contributed to this reporting.