KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Roughly $325 million in federal aid is coming for Missouri schools.
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven broke down the expected funding from the CARES Act on Thursday during Gov. Mike Parson’s daily press briefing.
She said the state will receive and distribute $117 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the more than 1.3 million meals schools already have served to Missouri children during the COVID-19 shutdown.
The state will receive another $208 million from the U.S. Department of Education, 90% of which will be distributed through Missouri’s Title I process.
That money will not replace existing funding through the state’s Title I but will supplement it and provide a “tremendous amount of flexibility” for the districts in determining spending priorities, Vandeven said.
Some districts have expressed a need for faculty training in the new virtual learning environment. Many others plan to use the money to bridge the digital divide, which was exposed and exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We need to make sure that all students across the state have the opportunity to succeed and access to those resources,” Vandeven said.
Distance learning may become more integrated into school curriculum throughout the state after the COVID-19 pandemic, but Vandeven doesn’t think it will completely replace in-person classes.
“I think we’re going to see some big shifts in the way education is provided,” Vandeven said.
But she also said the school closures have highlighted the value of importance of the work — academic, social and psychological — that takes place in a physical classroom.
While Parson praised the work of schools in “some of the most unusual circumstances,” he and Vandeven also stressed the need to celebrate this year’s graduating seniors somehow.
Missouri is working with districts on ways to conduct graduation ceremonies, including months-long delays or socially distanced events for smaller graduating classes.
“We have urged school leaders to think about creative ways to honor Missouri’s graduating seniors ... in a way that protects public health,” Vandeven said.
Vandeven also said the state board of education, which denied several school districts’ requests for an earlier start date next August, may revisit those requests at its May meeting.
Parson altered the school calendar, pushing back the first allowed day of school and eliminating the flexibility for individual school boards to alter that date, last July, but the state board has the authority to override the new law.
