SED Home
Disclaimers and Notices
|
|
Back to EMSC Home SED Home Disclaimers and Notices |
The Hurricane Education Recovery Act, signed into law by President Bush, provides emergency impact aid for students displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita during the 2005-06 school year. Displaced students are students who:
on August 22, 2005, resided in, and were enrolled or were eligible to be enrolled in a school in, an area for which the Federal Government later declared a major disaster related to Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita; and
as a result of their displacement by the storm, are enrolled in different schools on a date on which an enrollment count is taken for the purpose of this program.
The U.S. Department of Education has announced that any districts serving this population that did not submit data by January 26, 2006 can now submit second, third and fourth quarter data for public and nonpublic students. See the USDOE web site at http://hurricanehelpforschools.gov/proginfo/index.html for information in Volume II Frequently Asked Questions that identifies the criteria needed to submit a new claim at this time.
For each quarter of attendance, the payments will be provided based on:
the number of displaced students who are not reported as children with disabilities determined by the State to be enrolled in public and nonpublic schools for that quarter, at the rate of $1,500 per quarter, plus
the number of displaced students who are reported as children with disabilities determined by the State to be enrolled in public and nonpublic schools for that quarter, at the rate of $1,875 per quarter.
A nonpublic school must notify parents their children have the right to attend a public or nonpublic school and the nonpublic school must waive tuition or reimburse tuition paid in order to receive funds under this program. The total amount of a payment on behalf of a displaced student enrolled in a nonpublic school may not exceed the lesser of:
$6,000 for a student who is not reported as a child with a disability;
$7,500 for a student who is reported as a child with a disability, or
The cost of tuition and fees (and transportation expenses, if any) at the nonpublic school for the 2005-2006 school year.
School districts who would like to make an initial application should do so by April 14, 2006. School districts that meet the April 14 timeline may make upward or downward revisions to their initial child counts if they collect more satisfactory data that were not available at the time of their initial application submission. Any application amendments must be submitted to the State Education Department no later than April 30, 2006.
If the amount of federal funding is not sufficient to make these payments in full, United States Department of Education will proportionately reduce the payments to fit within the amount available. Additional information about the program and application forms for school districts and nonpublic school students are available on the USDOE web site at: . All applicants must read the “Answers to Questions: Emergency Impact Aid for Displaced Students.”
All school district applications must include the following information and certifications:
The procedures that the LEA will use to receive applications for assistance from the parents or guardians of nonpublic school students;
The procedures that the LEA will use to make payments to accounts for nonpublic school students;
The procedures that the LEA will use to obtain:
Certifications of attendance from nonpublic schools for displaced students; and
Certifications from nonpublic schools that payments for displaced nonpublic school students will be used only for allowable purposes;
Numbers of students displaced by Hurricane Katrina or Rita, including separate counts of numbers of students without disabilities and numbers of students with disabilities, who are enrolled in public schools;
Numbers of students displaced by Hurricane Katrina or Rita, including separate counts of numbers of students without disabilities and numbers of students with disabilities, who are enrolled in nonpublic schools; and
An assurance that the LEA will make payments to all accounts established for displaced students enrolled in nonpublic schools within 14 days of receiving its allocation.
Parents or guardians of nonpublic school students must apply on behalf of the nonpublic school their child is attending. Payments will be made to the nonpublic school. Parents or guardians of nonpublic school students applying for aid must submit the following information to their local public school district:
Verification and evidence that the students on whose behalf they are applying meet the definition of displaced student; and
Evidence, such as a registration form, that they enrolled displaced students in an eligible, nonpublic school for the quarter(s) claimed and prior to December 30, 2005.
A charter school that enrolls one or more displaced students is eligible for funds under the program. A charter school that is considered a local educational authority will receive a payment directly from the State and a charter school within a local school district will receive funds from the payment to the local school district under which it is established).
All funds must be obligated by July 31, 2006.
Please fax or email your application to the Title I, School and Community Services Office at 518-486-1762 or emergencyimpactaid@mail.nysed.gov by April 14, 2006.
Thank you for your cooperation.
04/07/2006