About 35,000 students in eight states will benefit from funding totaling more than $15 million awarded through the FCC Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF).
The investment will focus on students in California, Delaware, Indiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Nebraska, New York and Pennsylvania. The funding will help students in about 50 schools as well as patrons of five libraries.
The program has a budget of $7.17 billion and is administered by schools and libraries. Funding will go toward devices and connectivity for off-campus use.
There have been three application windows in the ECF program. The latest announcement comes from the first and third application windows.
So far, $6.7 billion has been allocated through the ECF. The funding has helped more than 17 million students connect to their schools and teachers, the FCC says. Of the total, about $4.14 billion has come from window 1, about $834 million from window 2 and about $1.72 billion from window 3. The program has benefited about 11,000 schools, 1,000 libraries and 120 consortia. In addition, it has provided almost 13 million connected devices and more than 8 million broadband connections.
“This program has helped millions of students get the digital tools they need for online learning and connecting with teachers,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a press release about the ECF funding. “Today’s funding round is another step in our ongoing work to close the Homework Gap.”
In late March, the FCC awarded $2.8 million to support 7,000 students in Arizona, California, Iowa, Maine, Michigan and Missouri. The funding will support about 15 schools, five libraries and a consortium. The entire award was made from the third application widow.
That award followed a commitment of about $1.76 million to support approximately 5,000 students in California, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri and New York. The funding came from all three application widows.
