Sangamon Sun

Sen. Doris Turner (D-Springfield) announced that school districts in Central Illinois would receive approximately $125 million in additional funding to help address challenges that arose during the year-long pandemic, according to a press release.

The funding is part of the federal government's latest COVID-19 aid packages.

"This is major news for Central Illinois, especially for our students and teachers now that the end of the pandemic is in sight," Turner wrote in a Facebook post, "I encourage local districts to use this funding to help the most at-risk students. When school districts spend money wisely, they have better outcomes, including higher test scores and increased graduation rates."

Most of the funds come from the American rescue plan, which also gives local schools more flexibility in how to use the money for the next 3 1/2 years.

At least 20% of these funds must be used to cope with learning losses that occurred during the pandemic. Otherwise, school districts can use the money to address a wide variety of issues and costs.

The State Board of Education has worked with other state educational institutions to develop guidelines for local school districts to help them decide how to make the most of their resources.