Press Release
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it is committing over $450,000 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, announced Dec. 14, supports applications from the third application window, connecting approximately 1,000 students.
“The Homework Gap remains a serious challenge for today’s students and families. This funding is a vital investment that helps ensure everyone who counts on schools and libraries can get the connections they need to thrive in the digital age,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.
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 here.
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, 1,070 libraries, and 130 consortia, and provided nearly 13.5 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. For more information, click here.
