Katy ISD to receive nearly $45M in federal dollars in first allotment of COVID-19 relief funding

Katy ISD is slated to receive about $67 million in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education to help address unexpected costs incurred during the coronavirus pandemic.

Gov. Greg Abbott in an April 28 press release announced the release of $11.2 billion in federal funds for Texas public schools, funds that will be dedicated to help districts address student learning loss and costs incurred during the pandemic. Due to federal requirements, just two-thirds of the funding is available immediately, Abbott said, through grants administered by the Texas Education Agency.

Applications for grants were open as of April 29, according to the TEA.

The remaining one-third of the funding is expected to be released later this spring, according to the TEA, after the state gets federal approval.

According to the data, KISD is set to receive an initial allocation of about $44.79 million, which equates to two-thirds of its total allocation, and another $22.39 million in the remaining allocation.

"The state of Texas is ensuring that our public schools have the necessary resources to help Texas students recover from learning loss related to COVID-19. ... To ensure this pandemic does not become a generational education crisis, we expect, and students deserve, for this funding to be used to remediate the progress lost due to the pandemic. This will ensure that Texas students will be ready to fill the jobs created in and attracted to this state,” Abbott said in the release.