Bill > A4133

Introduced Session

This bill establishes the "School Connectivity Grant Program" within the Department of Education to provide funds to certain public schools to expand access to online instruction for economically disadvantaged students. Under the grant program, the department would award grants to school districts, charter schools, and renaissance schools to defray the costs of purchasing a qualifying stockpile of online instruction equipment. Specifically, any grant recipient would be required to purchase and maintain a reserve of one piece of online instruction equipment for every 12 students who were enrolled in the school district, charter school, or renaissance school during the previous school year. For the purposes of this reserve, one piece of online instruction would include (1) one connected device (e.g., a laptop or tablet computer); and (2) one Wi-Fi hotspot, or the provision of mobile broadband Internet access service. Any school district, charter school, or renaissance school may apply to the department for a grant. The grants would be awarded in amounts determined by the Commissioner of Education. When awarding these grants, the commissioner would be required to give preference to applicants with the largest number of students who lack access to online instruction. The bill authorizes the commissioner to adopt emergency regulations within three months of the bill's effective date to effectuate the purposes of the grant program. At a minimum, these regulations would be required to set forth the requirements for application submissions, the criteria for application selections, and the eligible uses of financial assistance. The bill also appropriated $2,000,000 from the General Fund to the department to defray the costs of the grant program.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Linda Carter (D)*,  Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D)*,  Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D)*,  Thomas Giblin (D), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Education Committee (on 05/11/2020)