Governor announces $30 Million to combat pandemic learning loss

Governor Glenn Youngkin announced last week the upcoming release of $30 million in Learning Recovery Grants to parents to be used for qualifying education services intended to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ educational progress and well-being. 

“Virginia’s students and children across the country experienced catastrophic learning loss throughout the COVID-19 pandemic from the loss of in-person instruction and in-school support services,” said Youngkin. “These targeted resources for parents will ensure that many children in Virginia have access to the tutoring, summer enrichment programs, and other specialized services they need in order to reach their full potential and combat the severe learning losses.” 

Qualifying students whose family income does not exceed 300% of the Federal Poverty Level will receive a $3,000 K-12 Learning Recovery Grant; all other qualifying students will receive a $1,500 K-12 Learning Recovery Grant.  

“Virginia fourth graders had the largest decline in the country for both math and reading -- three times worse than the national average,” said Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera. “We are on the cusp of losing an entire generation of students.  Parents deserve actionable information and financial support to determine and access the tools for their child to combat their learning losses.” 

A parent-friendly, accessible, and secure online service will allow qualifying students and their parents to more quickly access the vetted and approved education services they need to address the negative effects the pandemic has had on their educational progress and well-being. 

Accompanying this rollout is the unveiling of Virginia’s Visualization and Analytics Solution (VVAAS), a revolutionary platform that provides parents and teachers actionable data that will shed greater light on individual student learning loss and growth. Nearly half of Virginia school divisions now have access to the VVAAS platform with the rest joining the platform in the next two months. The Virginia Department of Education is currently training over 800 school division staff members to access, navigate, understand, and ultimately use this powerful information to best meet student needs, target remediation efforts, and strategically use division resources.