The Federal Communications Commission today announced it is committing over $21 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program, which provides digital services for students in communities across the country. Today’s funding commitment supports applications from the third application window, benefitting approximately 40,000 students across the country, including students in Georgia, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin. …
The Emergency Connectivity Program, which launched in 2021, has provided schools and libraries three different “application windows” for schools and libraries to apply for support. The program has helped over 17 million students get connected to their schools and teachers. Today’s announcement will support 5 school districts and 3 schools. Of the approximately $6.7 billion in funding commitments approved to date, approximately $4.14 billion is supporting applications from Window 1; $834 million from Window 2; and $1.75 billion from Window 3. The funding can be used to support off-campus learning, such as nightly homework, to ensure students across the country have the necessary support to keep up with their education. To date, the program has provided support to approximately 11,000 schools, 1,000 libraries, and 120 consortia, and provided nearly 13 million connected devices and over 8 million broadband connections.