Gov. Evers applied to the U.S. Department of Education for Wisconsin’s $77.4 million in Emergency Aid to Nonpublic Schools (EANS) on Monday 2/8 and the Department of Public Instruction estimates it will have an application available for our schools via an electronic portal around March 12.

Once a Governor applies, federal law requires the money be sent to the state within 15 days and the Governor must obligate the funds within six months. Systems have to be in place to make this ambitious timeline work. That’s why WCRIS has been working with the DPI since Congress created EANS on December 27.

What WCRIS has Accomplished Thus Far:

WCRIS has given the DPI substantial input on the private school application for funds, with the goal towards keeping the application short and manageable.

WCRIS has fought for a base funding amount per pupil, with additional per pupil aid for low income students. Not all state’s have agreed to this, choosing instead to target only low income children so the unused funds revert back to the public schools.

At WCRIS’s urging, the DPI is looking at possibly using CESAs as the administrator of EANS funds because the law requires public control of funds. In particular, CESA 6 has experience working with our schools. WCRIS worked with them to get our non-choice schools access to the FORWARD exam at more affordable prices. CESA 6 has been providing COVID-19 testing for private schools. Another strong possibility is CESA 2 Purchasing, which already is serving some of our schools and has group buying rates with contractors and vendors that could stretch the EANS funds. This is evolving; stay tuned.

What You Can Do Now to Get Ready to Apply for EANS Funds

The EANS application will be online through the WiseGrants portal. You will need to set up a WiseGrants account through DPI to apply for the EANS funds and have them routed to the school’s vendors. The DPI has to program its system for that flow of funds. We are pushing the DPI to provide technical assistance and/or webinars to help our principals access the WiseGrants portal.

The goal is to have the online application auto-filled with data from DPI’s records. To make this work, you can:

  1. Immediately, if you have not already done so, submit your PI-1207 DPI Form for this school year. It will serve as verification that your school is recognized by the state, as required by the EANS law. If you don’t have this done, you will have to certify some other way that your school is recognized by Wisconsin;
  2. Check your WAMS ID number that you used to file the PI-1207 to make sure it’s valid and that you know/remember the password;
  3. Check your school’s entry in the DPI School Directory to make sure the contact names, school address, etc. is up-to-date and correct;
  4. Review your Pandemic response needs that can be covered under the EANS 12 allowable uses (scroll down on this WCRIS web page) and divide the money between the amount already spent that you would like reimbursed, and the amount you would like to spend going forward. It’s likely the online application will have separate entries for those two categories.

Stay tuned to our Current Events e-letter for updates.