Colorado Schools to receive $120 million through Federal CARES Act

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- When it comes to funding, Colorado schools are about to receive some help, but it's still a drop in the bucket to what make up for what may be lost due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Thanks to the Federal Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act or better known as the Cares Act, nearly $121 million in emergency federal relief will be made available to Colorado School Districts.

The money being used for the districts can be used for a wide variety of expenses related to the coronavirus pandemic.  Allison Cortez, Communications Director with D20, says they will use $860,000 that they are receiving on expenses for the 2021 school year.

“Some of the things we are looking at is software programs to help our special needs program. We are looking at reimbursements for hot spots and pieces of technology to help our at-risk and homeless population. We are looking at getting reimbursed for plexiglass separators and face masks,” Cortez said.

But in the grand scheme of things, the $120 million barely scratches the surface. K-12 education in Colorado is a $6 billion industry. The money will help, but it won’t be a saving grace.

Cortez said, “Right now we have about $350 million in the general funds budget; 10 percent of that is about $16 million, and CARES Act might give us $860,000. So you can see where it doesn’t exactly offset all of the challenges schools are facing.”

With $860,000 only going to D20, how will the rest of the money be divided up? About 90% of the funding will be divided among school districts using the Title I Formula that allocates federal funding each fiscal year for low-income students.

But Cortez says they have to be careful in what they purchase because not everything can be reimbursed through the CARES Act.

Cortez said, "That’s where the risk comes in. They have given us some guidelines about what is reimbursable but we could submit things and they can say you know what that doesn’t meet the parameters and we aren’t going to reimburse you for that.”

Cortez says D20 is extremely grateful for any help they can get, but they will have to get creative when it comes to spending money moving forward.