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School districts across the country could soon lose out on more than $300 million meant to help students who don't have stable housing. Those federal funds will go back to the U.S. Treasury at the end of the month if districts don't use them. The Midwest Newsroom's Kavahn Mansouri reports.
KAVAHN MANSOURI, BYLINE: Earlier this year, Santino Bono, an intern for a Missouri state representative, spent most of his day calling school districts in the state. His job was to make sure they didn't miss out on millions of federal rescue plan funds aimed to help homeless students. Some district officials didn't even know the funding existed.
SANTINO BONO: I contacted one, and he basically said, I have $12,000? We have an extra $12,000 that we can just use for virtually whatever we want as long as it pertains to benefiting our homeless students? And when I told him, yeah, he was just kind of in shock.
MANSOURI: And that, says Bono, wasn't all that unusual.
BONO: I don't want to say that a majority of schools had no idea that the funding existed or didn't know how to spend the funding, but I would say a significant number didn't.
MANSOURI: It was money that was allocated in March 2021 when the federal government made $800 million available to state education departments across the country as part of the American Rescue Plan Act. Missouri received nearly $13 million. Tera Bock is Missouri's homeless education director. She said the money has indeed made a difference for students in districts who are using the funds.
TERA BOCK: It can help a family in crisis to stay in a motel for a short time - like, a maximum of a week. With these funds, they can provide food, car repairs, some kind of - some of those direct assistance to families that are situational.
MANSOURI: Even so, a good portion of Missouri's money remains unspent. State Representative Deb Lavender says that's alarming. She's been monitoring the fund since it was first allocated.
DEB LAVENDER: And if we have money, it should be spent. It's money that has been earmarked for homeless students. We certainly have enough need for that in our state.
MANSOURI: Missouri isn't the only state where money hasn't been used. More than $344 million is left to be spent nationwide, according to federal data. As of mid-August, 13 states had used less than 50% of the funds available to their state and a handful less than 30%. Any funds uncommitted to school districts by September 30 will go back to the U.S. Treasury, barring extensions in limited cases.
BARBARA DUFFIELD: It's essentially an incredible loss for families and for youth who really need this help at this time to get support to go to school, which is ultimately their best shot out of homelessness in the long term.
MANSOURI: That's Barbara Duffield, executive director of SchoolHouse Connection, a group that advocates for students experiencing homelessness. She says a lack of information organization has led to money going unspent. In a recent report, SchoolHouse Connection noted school districts reported positive impacts from the rescue plan funds. Duffield says she's worried about what the loss of any of those funds will mean for unhoused students.
DUFFIELD: If you don't have the actual support for the things in your life outside of school, the chances of getting an education are, you know, diminished significantly.
MANSOURI: U.S. senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona unsuccessfully pushed to extend the spending deadline for the rescue plan funding for one year. In a letter, the senators argued educators lacked proper guidance on the flexible use of the funds to aid homeless students for the first two years it was available.
Now, with roughly a month to go before funds return to the Treasury, Duffield says states and school districts need to act. She adds if any of the funding boost for homeless kids goes back to the Treasury, it's unlikely schools will see that kind of appropriation again.
For NPR News, I'm Kavahn Mansouri, in St. Louis.
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