The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has committed an additional $38 million in funding for the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF), which provides funding for digital tools and services to support students.
“Starting the school year off strong is important, but a student’s continued success is dependent on access to broadband connections and digital tools. That’s why we’re pleased to announce another round of funding to help close the Homework Gap for students,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.
This funding will benefit approximately 100,000 students nationwide, including students in Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington. The funding will support approximately 220 schools and school districts, two library systems, and four consortia.
Money from the Emergency Connectivity Fund can be used to support off-campus learning, such as nightly homework, and summer online learning programs. The FCC said its goal is to ensure students across the country have the necessary support to keep up with their education.
As part of its funding process, the ECP had three application windows that schools and libraries could apply under. This latest round of funding will go towards applications from the third application window.
To date, ECP funding has provided support to more than 18 million students, 11,400 schools, 1,060 libraries, and 125 consortia, and provided nearly 13 million connected devices and over 8 million broadband connections.
