NC bill would give school stimulus funds to low- and middle-income families

The bill, which passed the House 74-34 and now head the Senate for a final vote, calls for using $10 million in federal pandemic relief aid to provide grants to low- to middle-income households for educational expenses. The grants would be worth $1,000 for each eligible child in school. That means as many as 10,000 families could get a grant.

Even if the bill is signed into law, the state must receive permission from the U.S. Department of Education to use federal stimulus money for schools on the grant program.

Under the bill, the grant money would have to be used by September 2023 on educational expenses, including tutoring services, textbooks or other instructional materials, therapy for students with special needs, additional educational programs that cost money and test fees.

“The idea that they're getting some money and they can go by a car, that's not going to happen with how this is structured,” said Rep. Jeffrey Elmore, R-Wilkes. The grant is “so they can get their school supplies or tutoring services, et cetera, so it keeps it very focused on educational expenses for the child.”

The North Carolina Education Assistance Authority, which also operates the Opportunity Scholarship voucher program, would be in charge of administering the grants. People can apply for the grants through the authority’s website, once it's set up.

Eligible students are those who can enroll in North Carolina public schools, haven't fully enrolled in a post-secondary institution and whose family or household meets certain income criteria.

The income limit is 150% of the federal free and reduced-price lunch criteria.

Under this year’s criteria, that would be $72,705 for a household of four people, or $2,797.50 every two weeks. Criteria vary based on the size of the household.

Under the bill, households below the free and reduced-price lunch threshold would be immediately eligible. After two months, households at that income level would be eligible, and after four months, households earning up to 150% of that level would be eligible.

Households must apply for the funds; unlike federal stimulus payments people may have received, the funds won’t be automatically distributed to anyone eligible. Most people eligible won’t be able to receive one, because only 10,000 students can receive the grants.

The grant could be a good thing for some families, said John Welch, vice president of the Boys and Girls Club of Wake County.

“I also think it’s a scratch on the surface,” Welch said.

Families are struggling with more than school supplies, he said. They’re hungry.

“A student was offered a meal through the club, and he was a young kid, and he didn’t put it together, so he said, ‘But it’s not my day to eat,’” Welch said.

The substitute bill, which appears likely to pass, also would limit enrollment in virtual academies to 10% of district students, set structural requirements for them and require school districts to submit their virtual academy plans to the North Carolina State Board of Education for approval.

At least some school districts have already structured their virtual academy plans and asked families to sign up. In Wake County, more than 14,000 students enrolled — less than 9% of this year’s enrollment — in the virtual academy that will be run by most of the district’s nearly 200 individual schools. The bill would limit the number of virtual academies a district can have, based on the overall enrollment. For Wake County, it would be five.

But Wake County Public School System spokeswoman Lisa Luten told WRAL News on Wednesday that the district has only one virtual academy, even though each school runs its own, largely in isolation from other schools. If legislation required the district to change the way it operates the virtual academy, Luten said, the district would do so.

The new virtual academy provision could complicate things for schools that have already planned their virtual academies, said Katherine Joyce, executive director the North Carolina Association of School Administrators. It may catch some schools off-guard and force late changes to their programs, especially at year-round schools that open in July, such as those in Wake County, she said.

“Also, districts that had not obtained State Board of Education authorization for a separate virtual academy by May 1 might not get that approval in place ahead of opening the 2021-22 school year,” Joyce said.

Other changes in the substitute bill include the following:

The North Carolina Association of School Administrators has been asking to delay class size requirements amid an ongoing shortage of teachers. The delay will also especially help this next year, Joyce said, because of the higher-than-usual number of kindergartners expected to enroll.

Educational experts believe kindergarten enrollment was abnormally low this year because parents decided to wait to send their child to school during a year disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.