Kendall County Times

An Illinois state senator who worked as a school social worker for 15 years is heralding the more than $173 million of federal funding that will help school districts in her senate district address COVID-19-related challenges.

State Sen. Karina Villa (D-West Chicago), who represents the 25th senate district that includes Kendall, Cook, DuPage and Kane counties, said in an Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus video that she formerly worked “in severely underfunded school districts.” 

“In that time, I saw the care and compassion that educators, school board members, parents, provided their children and the supports that they offered for their futures,” Villa said in the video.  “Let’s keep going and move forward. I’m so excited.” 

Funding will mostly come from Illinois’ over $5 billion it receives through the American Rescue Plan’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER III), Carmen Ayala, state superintendent of education, said in the March 23 weekly message. The American Rescue Plan is the $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package, Investopedia said.

Ayala said 90% of the money that Illinois will receive through ESSER III will go to Local Education Agencies.

“One important stipulation of the grant is that LEAs must reserve at least 20 percent of the direct allocation to address learning loss through the implementation of evidence-based interventions and to ensure that those interventions respond to students’ social, emotional, and academic needs and address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on underrepresented student groups,” Ayala said.

The Illinois P-20 (“P” for preschool and “20” for after-college education) Council for “quality education and support” produced the “P-20 Council Learning Renewal Resource Guide: March 2021” to help school districts know “how to best use their resources,” a press release said. 

“I urge the school districts to look and see how this guide can help us move forward in providing assistance, not just for the students, but also professional development for the teachers who they themselves have gone through so much in this last year,” Villa said in the video. “We’ve learned so much during COVID.  We’ve learned how to be resilient. We’ve learned new tricks, new ways of engaging students. 

School districts in the 25th district will receive $173,730,885 in additional funding. School districts in Villa’s district to receive funds, the press release said, are “West Chicago Elementary School District,  $9,867,839; Community High School District 94, $3,930,792; Yorkville Community Unit School District 115, $3,184,923; Batavia Public School District 101, $3,672,413; School District U-46, $95,027,296; St. Charles Community Unit School District 303, $5,782,524; Geneva Community Unit School District 304, $3,829,821; Kaneland Community Unit School District 302, $1,684,262; Indian Prairie School District 204, $12,261,096; and West Aurora School District 129, $34,489,919.”