Emergency Impact Aid for Displaced Students

Funding Source

U.S. Department of Education (ED)

Program Description

Under the Emergency Impact Aid program, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) will award grants to eligible state educational agencies (SEA) on the basis of quarterly counts of displaced students. SEAs will then provide payments to eligible local educational agencies (LEA) and nonpublic schools to assist with the cost of educating students who were displaced by a covered disaster or emergency during the 2018-19 school year and who were enrolled in public schools, including charter schools, and nonpublic schools. States apply for grants based on the data that they collect from LEAs and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) funded schools that have provided educational services for displaced students. The LEAs and BIE schools must submit applications to the SEAs.

SEAs will submit enrollment data for all for quarters of the 2018-19 school year, which may include estimated data for the fourth quarter. ED will use the enrollment data that are included in the initial and final SEA applications and make payments under the Emergency Impact Aid program:

• $8,500 for each displaced student who is not reported as a child with a disability or as an English Learner
  
• $10,000 for each displaced students who is a child with a disability
  
• $9,000 for each displaced student who is an English learner

These payments were ratably reduced to the following amounts:

• $6,375 for each displaced student who is not reported as a child with a disability or as an English Learner
  
• $7,500 for each displaced students who is a child with a disability
  
• $6,750 for each displaced student who is an English learner

In addition, the total amount of a payment on behalf of a displaced student enrolled in a nonpublic school may not exceed the lesser of the above per pupil amounts or the cost of tuition and fees (and transportation expenses, if any) at the nonpublic school for the 2018-19 school year.

If parents have submitted applications on behalf of displaced students who are attending eligible nonpublic schools, LEAs will make payments to accounts at the nonpublic schools on behalf of those students. The remainder of the funds LEAs receive will be used to provide educational services for displaced students attending their public schools. Payments received must be used for expenses for the 2018-19 school year only.

Definition of Displaced Student

The term "displaced student'' means a student who enrolled in an elementary school or secondary school (other than the school that the student was enrolled in, or was eligible to be enrolled in, on the date that is one week prior to the date that the major disaster or emergency was declared for the area) because such student resides or resided on the date that is one week prior to the date that the major disaster or emergency was declared for the area, in an area for which a major disaster or emergency declared by the President in accordance with section 401 or 501, respectively, of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170), related to a covered disaster or emergency.

Application Process

On behalf of impacted LEAs, including charter schools, and nonpublic schools, the California Department of Education (CDE) applied for Emergency Impact Aid funding from ED in October 2019. CDE received a notice of award on December 19, 2019.

Resources

U.S. Department of Education Disaster Information Web page
Emergency Impact Aid Statute