Using Your CARES Act Funds 2021 Update

Nancy and Anthony welcome back AVI-SPL's Jay Bosch. Jay shares how to tell if your school has remaining CARES Act Funds. Learn how schools can use these funds for technology that improves distance learning and mental health programs, and helps students who are falling behind. The team also reviews possible 2021 federal funding allocations.

Here's the link Jay refers to when discussing checking your school's CARES Act allocation.
https://covid-relief-data.ed.gov/
You can also check with your state or territory department of education website.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:09

Welcome to the collaboration space. Pull up a chair in our virtual conference room as we share ideas on how you can create an engaging and productive digital workplace. Join AVI SPL hosts Nancy Lucier and Anthony Salvedgie, along with expert guests, as we chat about fostering collaboration in the office and online through video conferencing. Well, greetings, everyone, and welcome back to the collaboration space. It is the end of January 2021. The year is starting to fly by already. And today we're going to discuss the state of education. We've seen schools go back and forth between having students on campus and then sending them home or having a hybrid situation where they give them the option to do either, whichever their parents feel comfortable with. And the good news about this is that there is still some funds left from the CARES Act from 2020, where schools can use those funds to upgrade their technology and video conferencing and virtual classes technology. And more good news on the way is that there is an additional round of funding coming soon for both higher education and K-12. So I'm going to pass it on over to my co-host, Anthony Salvedji, who's got a special guest who is returning to our podcast who can help us out with some of the details on these funding options. Anthony, who do we have with us today?

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Thank you, Nancy, and welcome to our listeners. We have Jay Bosch with us today, and Jay is ABISPL's Director of Business Development for State and Local Government and Education. Welcome, Jay. Well, thank you, Anthony. Jay, I want to kick off the conversation by talking about CARES Act funding, as Nancy alluded to. These funds were allocated in response to COVID-19, and they covered state, local, and tribal governments, correct?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

So how can schools find out if they have any remaining CARES Act funds?

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Well, that's a great question. And it's not as easy as going to just one website, unfortunately, but and it also has a lot of considerations. Think about this. If you're looking for this CARES Act funding, it depends on what type of institution you are. Considerations would include if it's an institution of higher education or K-12, if they are public or private, or if they qualify for special funding considerations through, like, for example, the Bureau of Indian Education. So the Initial CARES Act released in March of 2020 divided the funding into various categories of institutions. And for the funds that were released in late 2020, the government released the funding in the same manner. So to get started, I would recommend looking at two locations for our listeners to learn more. The first one is go to COVID-relief hyphen data.ed.gov. And this location allows you to drill down by state the funding by program. And this includes the ESSER, the GREAER, and the what's called the HEER funds. Secondly, I would recommend that you check with your state or territory department of education website. This will give you information about the upcoming grants and reallocations within the 2020 Funding for CARES Act.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

So for our listeners listening in, I know Jay just mentioned a very long website and some acronyms. So no worries. Just check for that website in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

So, Jay, let's say they do find the money. How can it be spent to improve hybrid learning so that teachers can teach those attending class in person and also those studying from home?

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Definitely. So distance learning is a top priority for the education stabilization fund. But let's unpack that just a bit. The funding can be used to help students in many ways. For example, to help students with disabilities or racial or ethnic minorities, or students experiencing homelessness or foster care challenges. Additionally, technology can be used to support remote learning, and that includes in-person, hybrid, or 100% online. Additionally, mental health services over video in efforts to address learning loss. That also includes lecture capture. And by the way, lecture capture has really improved over the last few years. If you're not familiar with it, it allows for indexing of keywords, translation, and captioning. So it's a really great solution that AVISPL brings to the table.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

As Nancy said, we're recording this toward the end of January of 2021. What is the deadline to request the remaining 2020 CARES Act funds?

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Certainly. Well, it varies by funding mechanisms. So Congress extended the deadline for many schools that had not spent their allocations yet. However, it was so close to the recommended deadline that there was a lot of schools that were scrambling to try to get funds spent. So here's what I recommend. If you're a K-12 school, check with your superintendent's office or the district office to find out if what the priorities are and how your school could potentially benefit. If you're a university, check with the office of the president to see how the allocations are going to be handled. In many cases, the allocations are going to grants offices or to a committee that includes IT facilities and other stakeholders to find out specifically if there's been an extension that has been granted on the 2020 CARES Act money. And if not, certainly there is some possibility to utilize the most recent allocation that was announced at the end of December.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

So, Jay, let's move on to talking about this year and the funding that's available. What's new with CARES Act 2021?

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Certainly. Well, first of all, the CARES Act funding is kind of going by a different name. And so it's CARES Act that was actually allocated at the end of 2020, but that can be used for 2021. So for example, in K-12, allocations have really increased for Title I schools. And in fact, allocations could be up to four times what they were in the first allocation. Now, much of the funding can be used to address learning loss. This is a critical consideration for lecture capture solutions such as Panopto, and they do a really good job. So if your school is going to be doing any after-school or summer programs to address learning loss, I recommend requesting a demo. Now, also something new for this allocation is addressing mental health as a crucial component. And the pandemic has not been easy on many families and many students. And so a lot of schools are doing school-based health centers in collaboration with hospitals and clinics to allow counselors and professionals to see students in school. This has really been a great thing for students, as if they're struggling with a lot of the things that these are topics that are things that are not easy for students to have to deal with, sickness or potentially loss of a family member. It gets in the way of being able to learn. And so that's why schools have really been doing some things around mental health to make sure that the students have the best frame of mind in order to make sure that they can also learn while they're there. Additionally, we have HIPAA compliant solutions that specifically are built around these scenarios and through many of our partnerships.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Jay, let me stop you for a second. I'm hearing that there was a late allocation in 2020 for the CARES Act with funds that could be used in 2021. Where I'm confused is is there also another round of funding in 2021 that is new?

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Okay. So there is funding that was made available right at the end of 2020 in December. And that is in that funding, there is an appropriation specifically for allocation that is referred to as the education stabilization fund.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Do we have a new round of funding for 2021?

SPEAKER_01 8:27

And that's a good question. So the new administration is working on pending legislation that will likely provide additional funding in 2021 as part of additional stimulus dollars.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Jay, can you tell me which sections of the CARES Act cover education technology?

SPEAKER_01 8:46

So there's three main sections in both allocations that address solutions for schools. And I'm not a fan of initializations or acronyms, so I'm going to spell it out for you. So what's commonly known as the ESSER funds is elementary and secondary school emergency relief funds, the GREAR funds, which is the governor's emergency education relief funds, and then the HEAR funds, which is the higher education emergency relief funds. Each one of those has a information about those allocations specifically on the website that we've referenced. This tells a little bit more about this allocation of the education stabilization fund. And again, that link will be available in today's podcast.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Great. When will 2021 funds be available? And how could schools find out when that is and if they have new funds?

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Sure. So 2021 funds are still being negotiated in Congress. Since we have a new administration that is in place now after the election, is that they are working on how the next round of funding is going to look, how much it's going to be, and what the priorities will be within that. But the moral of the story is that there is funding that from the initial CARES Act funding from March that are still in play. There's funding that was made available at the end of December that are just really hitting the streets now. And then additionally in 2021, there will be additional dollars that will be made available to schools for additional priority use. And we're hoping that that will go into school year 2022 as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

So, in light of all this funding that's going to be made available, let's talk about how we apply that to the technology that will solve some of the challenges schools are having, teachers are having, and their students are having. How can AVISPL help a school improve its hybrid and online learning in 2021 and beyond?

SPEAKER_01 10:54

So that's a very important question. And I'd like to answer this using some of the best practices that I've seen other schools use. So, number one, it's important to look at this in a big picture lens. So never in the history of education has this much federal funding been made available for schools. So the most important piece of this is to make sure that you're making the most of your investment and the tax dollars that are being used towards this. Secondly, consider the experience of both your teachers and your students. So ADI SPL offers professional solutions that are much better than the consumer grade solutions that many schools have used to kind of just get be able to get by in the earlier days of the pandemic. With that, the forced adoption of distance learning in 2020 forced our suppliers to create some amazing solutions that make the experience the best it can possibly be, not only for teachers, but most importantly for the students. So what's going to be great about this is that everyone is kind of used to being able to have distance learning as part of their curriculum now. But the downside of this is that there's likely not going to be any more snow days.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

That is true, Jay. That is true. I think children are heartbroken everywhere over that. So one more question I have, Jay. Whether or not I have CARES Act funding available to my school, this is can be a big expense. Does AVISPL have some kind of financing options if schools need to spread this cost out?

SPEAKER_01 12:27

So that's a great point. So many schools are using CARES Act money to as basically as a down payment to fund the technology upgrades and their classroom refreshes. They're using the money in a lot of different ways. So think of it this way: as if you are doing a subscription for a unified communication or for a software solution, you can utilize those CARES Act funding for multiple years, to where it's not just going to be used for the calendar year, but also for multiple years. So that will allow schools to kind of catch up just a little bit. And hopefully in a few years, these dollars will provide a bridge for them until the tax revenues maybe catch up from a general revenue perspective.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

Well, thanks, Jay. That's a lot of great information about what CARESAC funds are available, what funds are on their way, hopefully, in 2021, and what you can use those funds for. So thanks to everyone for listening today. Please look for the website Jay mentioned in the show notes. And on behalf of myself, Anthony and Jay, have a wonderful day. Take care, Anthony and Jay. Thanks again for joining me.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Thank you for listening to our latest episode. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app. We'll see you next time in the collaboration space. Until we meet again, you can connect with us online. Our Twitter handle is at ABISPL Info, and you'll also find us on LinkedIn and ABISPL.com.