Nearly a month into the school year, a number of schools and districts across Mississippi still don’t know if they will have federal funding for after-school programs this year.

“Everything is on the table, to be honest with you,” State Superintendent Carey Wright said Thursday.

Last month, Wright said there would be about $10 million in federal funds to work with for after-school grants this year. Education officials announced at the time that what they call an accounting error led to a halt of some after-school programs because the wrong category of federal funds had been used in the previous year and it was unclear how much in federal funding would be available for this year’s after-school programs.

Wright said the department will choose which programs can continue and which will be cut based on factors such as past student outcomes for the programs and the number of students affected.

Wright told reporters Thursday that the department is still validating the July and August reimbursement requests from schools and districts, which will affect what the final amount left over for this year’s school programs will be.

“We want to make sure when we do make a final decision and say ‘We have x number of dollars,’ that we do in fact have x number of dollars,” she said.

Wright said she expects to have a plan by the end of next week.

The after-school programs, or 21^st Century Community Learning Centers, provide after-school academic opportunities for students, particularly those in high-poverty and low-performing schools, and are funded by federal Title IV money. The programs served about 29,000 students around the state last year.

Title IV refer to a section of the federal Elementary and Secondary School Act that provides federal financial assistance for specific education needs.

X

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Unless otherwise noted, you can republish most of Mississippi Today’s stories for free under a Creative Commons license. For digital publications:

• Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
• Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
• You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
• You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
• Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
• If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.

For print publications:

• You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
• You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
• You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
• Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
• You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
• You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
• Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
• If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.

If you have any other questions, contact Audience Development Director Lauchlin Fields.

After-school funding still up in the air

by Kate Royals, Mississippi Today
September 8, 2016

<h1>After-school funding still up in the air</h1> <p class="byline">by Kate Royals, Mississippi Today <br />September 8, 2016</p> <p>Nearly a month into the school year, a number of schools and districts across Mississippi still don't know if they will have federal funding for after-school programs this year.</p> <p>"Everything is on the table, to be honest with you," State Superintendent Carey Wright said Thursday.</p> <p>Last month, Wright said there would be about $10 million in federal funds to work with for after-school grants this year. Education officials announced at the time that what they call an accounting error led to a halt of some after-school programs because the wrong category of federal funds had been used in the previous year and it was unclear how much in federal funding would be available for this year's after-school programs.</p> <p>Wright said the department will choose which programs can continue and which will be cut based on factors such as past student outcomes for the programs and the number of students affected.</p> <p>Wright told reporters Thursday that the department is still validating the July and August reimbursement requests from schools and districts, which will affect what the final amount left over for this year's school programs will be.</p> <p>"We want to make sure when we do make a final decision and say 'We have x number of dollars,' that we do in fact have x number of dollars," she said.</p> <p>Wright said she expects to have a plan by the end of next week.</p> <p>The after-school programs, or 21^st Century Community Learning Centers, provide after-school academic opportunities for students, particularly those in high-poverty and low-performing schools, and are funded by federal Title IV money. The programs served about 29,000 students around the state last year.</p> <p>Title IV refer to a section of the federal Elementary and Secondary School Act that provides federal financial assistance for specific education needs.</p> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org/2016/09/08/after-school-funding-still-up-in-the-air/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org">Mississippi Today</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/MT_square-thumb.jpg?fit=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://mississippitoday.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=19433&ga=UA-75003810-1" style="width:1px;height:1px;"></p>

1