WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission ahs announced it is committing nearly $54 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Program, which provides digital services for students in communities across the country. The funding commitments support applications from all three application windows, benefiting approximately 150,000 students across the country, including students in Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Washington, and West Virginia.
“We need to make sure all our kids have the digital tools they need to connect with teachers and online homework,” said Chairwoman Rosenworcel. “This latest round of funding brings us closer to our goal of closing the Homework Gap.”
To date, the Commission has committed over $6.4 billion to schools and libraries across the country as part of the Emergency Connectivity Program, which launched last year. The program has provided schools and libraries three different “application windows” for schools and libraries to apply for support. Today’s announcement will support approximately 100 schools, 10 libraries, and 2 consortia.
The funding can be used to support off-campus learning, such as nightly homework, to ensure
students across the country have the necessary support to keep up with their education. To date, the program has provided support to approximately 10,000 schools, 900 libraries, and 100 consortia, and providing approximately 12 million connected devices and 8 million broadband connections. Of the over $6.4 billion in funding commitments approved to date, approximately $4.14 billion is supporting applications from Window 1; $833 million from Window 2; and $1.43 billion from Window 3.
More details about which schools and libraries have received funding commitments can be found HERE.