Application for Emergency Impact Aid for Displaced Students and Homeless Children and Youths

Dear Chief State School Officers:

I am pleased to announce that applications are available for two of the hurricane and disaster relief programs authorized by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018: the Temporary Emergency Impact Aid for Displaced Students (Emergency Impact Aid) program and the Assistance for Homeless Children and Youth program. The Emergency Impact Aid program will provide assistance to local educational agencies (LEAs) and non-public schools that have enrolled students displaced during the 2017-18 school year by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma or Maria or the 2017 California wildfires (“a covered disaster or emergency”). The Assistance for Homeless Children and Youth program will provide assistance to LEAs to support the needs of homeless students displaced by a covered disaster or emergency. This letter and the enclosed materials provide the information necessary for State educational agencies (SEAs) to apply for funding under these programs, and SEAs will make awards to LEAs under both programs.

Emergency Impact Aid

Under the Emergency Impact Aid program, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) will award grants to eligible SEAs on the basis of quarterly counts of displaced students. SEAs will then provide payments to eligible LEAs to assist with the cost of educating students who were displaced by a covered disaster or emergency during the 2017-18 school year and who were enrolled in public schools, including charter schools, and non-public schools. States apply for grants based on data that they collect from LEAs and Bureau of Indian Education funded schools that have provided educational services for displaced students. The LEAs and BIE schools must submit applications to SEAs. The parents of non-public school displaced students are to submit applications to the LEAs. We have created sample templates that SEAs may adapt for applications from LEAs, BIA schools, and non-public school parents, as well as a model certification from non-public schools to attest to the enrollment of the students whose parents submitted applications to the LEAs.

In their initial Emergency Impact Aid applications, SEAs will submit enrollment data for all four quarters of the 2017-18 school year, which may include estimated data for the fourth quarter. The Department has identified in the Federal Register Notice of Availability of Funds (Notice) four suggested quarterly count dates for identifying numbers of eligible displaced students: October 1, 2017; December 1, 2017; February 1, 2018; and April 1, 2018. States may use these dates or select count dates that fall within a 21-day range for each of the quarters (i.e., within 10 calendar days before or after these dates). SEAs will subsequently provide any updated enrollment data and any unreported fourth quarter data for the 2017-18 school year by June 29, 2018.

We will use the enrollment data that are included in the initial and final SEA applications to make payments under the Emergency Impact Aid program. The statute specifies that the annual per pupil amounts shall be the sum of $9,000 for each displaced student who is an English learner, as that term is defined in section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965; $10,000 for each displaced student who is a child with a disability; and $8,500 for each student who is not reported as a child with a disability or an English learner. Payments may be ratably reduced if there are not enough funds to pay the full amounts. In addition, the total amount of a payment on behalf of a displaced student enrolled in a non-public school may not exceed the lesser of the above per pupil amounts or the cost of tuition and fees (and transportation expenses, if any) at the nonpublic school for the 2017-18 school year.

If parents have submitted applications on behalf of displaced children who are attending eligible non-public schools, LEAs will make payments to accounts at the non-public schools on behalf of those students. The remainder of the funds LEAs receive will be used to provide educational services for displaced students attending their public schools. Payments received must be used for expenses for the 2017-18 school year only.

Assistance for Homeless Children and Youth

Under the Assistance for Homeless Children and Youth program, Congress appropriated $25 million for LEAs to address the needs of homeless students displaced by a covered disaster or emergency. The Department will award funds to SEAs, which will then award subgrants to LEAs, on the basis of demonstrated need and the number of homeless children and youth enrolled as a result of displacement by a covered disaster or emergency. LEAs will use the funds awarded under this program to support activities that are allowable under section 723 of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.

In the Assistance for Homeless Children and Youth SEA application, SEAs will submit data on: (1) the total number of displaced students enrolled in public school who are also homeless, as defined in section 725(2) of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, and (2) additional information on demonstrated need for funding, including data on the total number of homeless children and youth, as defined in section 725(2) of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, who were enrolled in public schools in the State during the 2017-18 school year, whose primary nighttime residence changed as a result of the covered disaster or emergency, and who do not meet the definition of displaced student. We will use the data included in the SEA application to determine funding amounts.

Additional Information

Additional information, including the Notice and application materials for each program, are available online at https://www.ed.gov/disasterrelief. These documents contain important information and should be reviewed carefully. The Notice describes the purpose and background of each program, and provides the program authorities and applicable regulations, as well as estimated available funding. Please note that the Notice includes information on how to submit an application with a reference and weblink to the instructions published in the Federal Register on February 12, 2018 (83 FR 6003). Because of the strict statutory obligation deadlines for the Emergency Impact Aid program, the Notice also establishes XXX as the deadline for LEAs to submit applications to SEAs under that program. There is no statutory deadline for LEA applications under the Assistance for Homeless Children and Youth program; each SEA that receives funding will set a reasonable deadline for the submission of LEA applications. The applications describe the specific data and other information that applicants must submit to the Department in order to receive an award. In addition, FAQs for each program will be available in the near future.

The deadline for transmittal of SEA applications under both programs is XXX.

We know you may have additional questions after reviewing all these materials. For additional information on the Emergency Impact Aid program, please contact

Francisco Ramirez by telephone at (202) 260-1541 or by email at [email protected]. For additional information on the Assistance for Homeless Children and Youth program, please contact Peter Eldridge by telephone at (202) 260- 2514 or by email at Hurricane[email protected].

Sincerely,

David Esquith, Director

Office of Safe and Healthy Students