RICHMOND, Va. -- Time ran out for Virginia families to use their learning loss recovery grants, provided by the state's education department. More than $12 million in unused grants, which account for nearly 40% of the total money awarded to parents, have now expired.
The unspent funds came after some parents cited challenges navigating the program, including Erica Daniels, a Henrico mother of four who never put her grant to use.
“It became a very, very frustrating situation for myself and my husband and my little," Daniels said.
In September of 2023, Daniels learned she had been approved for a $1,500 Learning Acceleration Grant from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) for her 4-year-old son.
Governor Glenn Youngkin announced in early 2023 that the money was meant to combat pandemic learning loss and could be applied to tutoring, assistive technologies, and certain therapies.
In total, the state awarded more than 21,000 individual $1,500 grants and 11,000 individual $3,000 grants for lower income families. Those who received a $1,500 grant were given until December 31, 2023 to use their money.
“We were excited to get the money because it was another financial burden that we really didn't have to think about," Daniels said. "But you allow me to apply for my son to be awarded, get our hopes up, and then yanked the carpet right from under us."
Daniels had hoped to use her grant to cover speech and occupational therapy for her child, who has autism. He was already receiving those services from VCU Health.
Upon accepting the grant, she inquired with VCU Health about applying the grant to therapy services. She showed CBS 6 a thread of emails between September and November in which VCU's finance office attempted to become an approved vendor with the program.
However, the week of Thanksgiving and a month before her grant would expire, Daniels received notice that VCU Health could not participate in the program because it was a "political subdivision of the commonwealth."
“I was losing hope, but also very frustrated as an educator and just realizing that there can be so many gaps to access for services," Daniels, who is a university professor, said.
Daniels said she reached out directly to VDOE with questions but showed CBS 6 how her email was forwarded to ClassWallet, the online system which administered parents' grant money. ClassWallet told Daniels she could only go through approved vendors to use the grant.
“I got a lot of emails saying hurry up and use your money, and I was like, well I can't," Daniels said.
She wasn't the only parent to raise concerns about the learning grants. Over the summer, CBS 6 heard from many others who faced difficulties using their money as some service providers would not accept the grants:
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Barrett called the program a "total waste." She said VDOE reached out to her to assist after CBS 6 reported on her struggles to find a tutoring provider that would accept her grant, but she said she never heard back from the VDOE after that initial contact. She said she was able to use $800 of her $1,500 grant to buy an iPad, but the rest of her money expired December 31.
Bolden said the department reached out to him after CBS 6 reported on his situation and resolved his issues. Bolden said he fully used his grant on private tutoring services by December 31.
Out of the $32.8 million in $1,500 grants awarded, parents spent $20.3 million by the December 31 deadline. Conversely, parents did not spend $12.5 million. 62% of the grants were used, and 38% of the grants were not.
But when asked during an interview in December whether the department would see millions in unspent funds by the end of the year, VDOE Superintendent Dr. Lisa Coons answered, "No."
Still, Reid said the program received "great participation."
"Over 6,500 families took full advantage of the program and spent their entire $1,500 grant, and an additional 10,000+ families chose to use the grant to assist their children in recovering from pandemic learning loss. That's close to 17,000 Virginia families who chose to use this grant in the way that works best for their children," Reid said.
Reid said VDOE can repurpose any unused funds, and he anticipates "further announcements of putting them to use in the near future."
In addressing those who did not use their grants, Reid said, "Parents who accepted the $1,500 grant were notified of the December 30 deadline when they accepted the grant. They were notified each time they logged into the system, and 13 notices to parents with $1,500 grants were sent from the start of October thru the end of December last year urgently alerting parents of the deadline."
Combining both types of grants, parents have spent nearly $25 million on tutoring services, and about $5 million more on approved therapy services or assistive technologies.
So far, Virginia students have received 434,830 hours in tutoring and support services thanks to the program, according to Reid.
Economically disadvantaged parents who received a $3,000 grant still have five more months until their money expires.
Meanwhile, Daniels hopes the agency makes improvements in implementing any similar future grant programs.
“I felt like as a parent, I did all of the right steps. I took all of the right processes to kind of make this happen, some of which I felt like I shouldn't have had to do. It should have been just a much smoother process," Daniels said.
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