* State Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders back in May…

You may have seen or heard news over the past few weeks about an issue with funding for the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant program. This stemmed from the pandemic years when the agency allowed grantees to carry over unspent grant funds into the next year, rather than return them to ISBE to help fund the following year, per normal practice. ISBE did not adequately forecast the impact of the carryover allowance, leading to a projected shortfall of $12.4 million for FY 2024.

ISBE requested to use some of our ARP ESSER state set-aside funds to address the shortfall, and the U.S. Department of Education approved our request. This will fully cover the shortfall and allow us to meet all obligations to grantees in FY 2024. But there is still not federal funding available to allow us to offer renewals or a new grant competition in FY 2024, which means the grant cycle for the cohort initially funded for five years in FY 2019 concludes this year. Renewals and new competitions are only offered in years when funding is available, which is why the 21st Century grant application requires applicants to plan for sustaining programming once the grant concludes. The FY 2019 grantees serve 68 locations. ISBE staff are contacting all of the school districts, and 42 have indicated they intend to offer afterschool programming for students using other funding sources. Another 13 school districts are working through this possibility. This does not guarantee that the district will continue working with the 21st Century grantee, but it does mean that programming will continue for many of the affected students. […]

We take full responsibility for the lack of forecasting and the late communication to grantees and are taking action to prevent this situation from occurring again.

* Resulting coverage from ChalkBeat Chicago…

After-school programs for 27,000 Illinois students may be in danger of running out of money after next year because of an accounting error made by the Illinois State Board of Education. […]

A coalition of community groups that provide after-school programming — who estimate the shortfall as much larger — are calling on Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Illinois lawmakers to use state dollars to fill the gap to help programs survive in the future.

If that gap is not closed, they say, programs that provide students with a safe space after school to participate in extracurricular activities, tutoring, and mental health services may not have enough funding after next year.

Afterschool for Children and Teens Now (ACT Now), a group of Illinois after-school advocates, says these programs serve mostly Black and Latino students who attend high-poverty, low-performing schools. About 66% of students in the programs qualify for free and reduced lunch.

* Closures have begun, the Tribune reports…

Of 33 after-school programs that already lost funding in July, 27 have since closed their doors, affecting around 6,000 students across the state, [Susan Stanton, executive director of the statewide Act Now coalition] said. […]

Mah, Villanueva, Villivalam and around 20 other state legislators signed an Oct. 18 letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon, urging the General Assembly to pursue the $50 million annual appropriation in support of the community learning center programs. As of Wednesday, Act Now spokesperson Emma Spencer said, the organization isn’t aware of any lawmaker committed to proposing an amendment to the budget.