State Representative Jim Struzzi on Friday announced more than $55,000 in funding for education services to students with disabilities affected by the pandemic in six school districts in Indiana County. The funds are to be used for “enhanced real-time instruction to bolster remote services and supports for complex needs…students with disabilities who experienced a loss in skills or behavior and/or a lack of progress due to mandatory school closures.”
The funds include:
- Penns Manor Area School District – $5,120.11.
- Indiana Area School District – $18,761.40.
- United School District – $5,886.73.
- Marion Center School District – $9,165.27.
- Blairsville-Saltsburg School District – $10,871.66.
- Homer-Center School District – $5,731.99.
Struzzi says “Schools being forced to close this past spring and the continuation of at least some degree of remote learning for this coming fall have done our students an enormous disservice, particularly those students with disabilities.”
The funds comes from a combination of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, funded by the federal government, and the Department of Education’s federal funding through the Individuals with Disabilities Act. Grant amounts were calculated using an allocation formula based on the number of students with complex special education needs within each school district.
