Parents: Didn't get your $335 check? Here's your second chance

The Extra Credit Grant program was enacted by state lawmakers this fall. Every family in North Carolina with a child under 17 in the household is eligible for a $335 check from the state to help cover some of the additional costs associated with online learning.

The checks were sent out automatically this fall to taxpayers who claimed a qualifying dependent child on their 2019 tax return. But families who didn't make enough to need to file taxes did not automatically receive a check. They had to go to the state Department of Revenue website and fill out an application by Oct. 15.

Attorney Adam Doerr says these are families making less than $20,000 a year – in some cases, as little as $10,000. Most didn't even know about the program.

"Only about 15,000 eligible low-income families learned about this program and applied to receive one of these $335 checks from the state," Doerr said Monday. "The rest – what we estimate to be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of low-income families – were set to receive nothing, even though those are the families most in need of this kind of help."

"Higher-income folks have already gotten checks for $335 dollars, but when it comes to a family needing to buy a laptop for their kids to attend remote school or pay the internet bill, these are the folks who really, really need it," Doerr said.

"We can help them, but only if they learn about the program," he added. "This is all federal coronavirus relief money, and we really hope it gets out to the people in need."