LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. — Lexington County School Districts are announcing what they plan on using federal funding from the CARES Act for in the coming school year.
The coronavirus pandemic has impacted almost every part of life. This includes how students are learning.
In March, schools were closed to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Since then, students have been learning online to continue their education.
Since school has not been in-person, districts across the state have been working on plans for both in-person and virtual learning.
Over the past week, school districts have released their plans for this school year. This includes five-day in-person learning, a hybrid schedule, and online learning options available for families to choose.
To help the Department of Education get through the pandemic and continue to help students learn, they have received more than $200 million through the CARES Act.
Lexington School District Two has already announced plans to have options for families to choose including in-person learning and a virtual academy. The district has been researching to find out what things they'll need to help protect students and staff for in-person learning and also provide wi-fi sources for students who don't have access to the internet at home for virtual learning.
Lexington School District Two said in a statement:
"Our CARES Act funding requests include PPE for employees and schools (such as face shields, sneeze guards for teacher desks, hand sanitizer stations and solutions); purchase of supplies and equipment to sanitize and clean schools and facilities; help fund increased costs of cleaning facilities by contractor; purchase connectivity (hot spots and service) for students not served by the state's equipment; provide training on virtual teaching and COVID protocols in schools and facilities."
Lexington Three released the following statement to Street Squad Lexington: "Lexington Three has worked hard to identify essential educational needs that have arisen as a result of COVID-19 through various methods including staff surveys, parent surveys and via our task force planning committee that has assisted us with coming up with a back-to-school plan for the 2020-2021 school year."
The school district says they've requested funding to help with, "Health and Safety enhancements, Translators for IEP Meetings/504 meetings, Postage, Mileage, Communication, Consumables for communication with parents, printing costs, signs, Translation Services, Stipends for back-to-school planning committee members, Training for maintenance people, Sanitation & supplies, Food Services, Technology, Mental health books, Transportation Routes/equitable resources for rural students."
News 19 reached out to Lexington School District One but haven't heard back at this time.
Lexington School District Four and Lexington-Richland Five plans on giving us more details later on this week.