6/30/2021

CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund

The CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund-IHE/Student Aid provides funding to institutions to ease the pressing financial need of students due to the disruption of campus operations from coronavirus, (including eligible expenses under a students cost of attendance such as food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child care), pursuant to the authority duly delegated to the Secretary under the CARES Act and associated with the coronavirus emergency, as stated in Proclamation 9994 of March 13, 2020, “Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).

On December 27, 2020, the President signed the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021 (CRRSAA) (P.L. 116-260). This new law gives the U.S. Department of Education (Department) additional funding to distribute for  institutions of higher education.

Students cannot apply for assistance directly from the U.S. Department of Education but should contact their institutions for further information and guidance.

In order to enable Kehilath Yakov RABBINICAL SEMINARY (KYRS) being an institution of higher education to provide grants, KYRS was obligated to submit a Recipient's Funding Certification and Agreement for Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act, which authorizes the Secretary of Education (“Secretary”) to allocate formula grant funds.

1.      The Certification and Agreement that the institution signed and returned to the Department did certify that the institution has used, or intends to use, no less than 50 percent of the funds received under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act for the sole purpose to provide Emergency Financial Aid Grants to students.

 2.      The total approved amount of funds that the institution will receive from the Department pursuant to the institutions submission of the Certification and Agreement for Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students including the additional CRRSAA funds totals to $334,422 to provide emergency financial aid grants to students.

     3.   The total amount of Emergency Financial Aid Grants distributed to students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act as of  6/30/2021 totals $161,750.

      4.      The estimated total number of students at the institution eligible to participate in programs under Section 484 in Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 and thus eligible to receive Emergency Financial Aid Grants to students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act are about 158.

     5.      The total number of students who have received an Emergency Financial Aid Grant to students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act are 134.

     6.      Specific methods are used by KYRS to determine which students receive Emergency Financial Aid Grants and how much they are eligible to get under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act. First is to ensure that students receiving grants meet eligibility to receive an emergency grants. Many other factors were utilized to determine how much, such as expense budgets, total allocation, and total number of eligible students. KYRS is anticipating to disburse funds of between $750 - $ 2500 per student.  

      7.      Instructions were provided by the institution to students that the sole and exclusive purpose of providing emergency financial aid grants are for their expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to coronavirus, such as food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child-care expenses.