The FCC Emergency Connectivity Fund program (ECF) is committing almost $42 million to support about 100,000 students’ off campus learning efforts in six states.
The commitments are in two funding rounds and come from all three application windows. The students are in Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin. The funding awards are administered by school districts and libraries.
The announcement includes more than $4.4 million from the first and second application windows that will support five schools. The ECF is providing almost $37 million from the third application window to support more than 230 schools, 30 libraries and five consortia.
More than $5.7 billion has been awarded in the program, which was created last year by the American Rescue Plan Act. Eventually, $7.17 billion will be awarded. So far, about $4.1 billion is for applications from Window 1, $831 million from Window 2 and $811 million from Window 3.
To date, the program has pledged support to more than 10,000 schools, 900 libraries and 100 consortia. It is providing support to almost 12 million connected devices and over 7 million broadband connections.
“This is the time of year when families stock up on school supplies, and internet access should be on that list. Yet we still have too many students who lack the ability to connect with school after hours,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a press release about the Emergency Connectivity Fund program awards. “This latest round of funding will help more students get the online access they need for a successful education, and bring us closer to closing the Homework Gap.”
Last month, the ECF awarded more than $266 million in Delaware, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York and Oregon. The funding will support more than 1 million students. More than $12 million will come from the first and second application windows and more than $254 million will come from the third window.
