FCC Announces Over $5 Million in Emergency Connectivity Funding for Schools

The Federal Communications Commission announced it is committing nearly $5.2 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program, which provides digital tools and services to support students in communities across the country.  The funding commitment supports applications from the third application window, benefitting approximately 14,000 students nationwide, including students in California, New Jersey, and Wisconsin.

“In this digital era, broadband connections and digital tools are vital to students’ everyday lives and learning.  These connections and tools will only grow in importance as they continue to provide access to new and dynamic ways of learning.  That’s why we’re pleased to announce another round of funding to help close the Homework Gap for students,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

The announcement will support approximately 23 schools and school districts.  The funding can be used to support off-campus learning, such as nightly homework, and summer online learning programs to ensure students across the country have the necessary support to keep up with their education.  More details about which schools and libraries have received funding commitments can be found at https://www.fcc.gov/emergency-connectivity-fund.

Launched in 2021, the Emergency Connectivity Program has provided schools and libraries three different “application windows” to apply for support.  Approximately $7.09 billion in funding commitments have been approved to date, approximately $4.14 billion is supporting applications from Window 1; $834 million from Window 2; and $2.12 billion from Window 3.  To date, the funding has provided support to approximately 18 million students, 11,500 schools, 1070 libraries, and 128 consortia, and provided nearly 13 million connected devices and over 8 million broadband connections.

As a long-term solution to the Homework Gap, Chairwoman Rosenworcel recently announced her new initiative “Learn Without Limits” to modernize the E-Rate program to allow for Wi-Fi on school buses and for permanent support to loan out Wi-Fi hotspots. 

Source: Federal Communications Commission media announcement