This morning, the Department of Education (ED) announced the release of $3.2 billion in additional emergency grants under the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF). The purpose of these funds is to help historic and under-resourced institutions develop programs that expand opportunity for all students, including those aimed at engaging disconnected students, expanding mental health services and improving retention rates.

These newly released funds include $2.97 billion in American Rescue Plan (ARP) formula funding broken down as follows:

-$1.6 billion for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). An updated HBCU allocation table can be found here.

-$143 million for Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs). An updated TCCU allocation tale can be found here.

-$1.19 billion for Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) and Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP)-eligible institutions, many of which are community colleges. Updated allocated tables for MSIs and SIP institutions can be found here and here.

Additionally, ED is announcing the distribution of more than $225 million in CARES and CRRSAA funds to public and non-profit institutions with the greatest unmet need related to the pandemic. These funds are broken down as follows:

-$113 million in Supplemental Assistance to Institutions of Higher Education (SAIHE) program grants for 110 institutions. Over half of these funds have been awarded to community colleges that experienced significant fall 2020 enrollment declines.

-ED is providing notifications to the grant awardees and will post an allocations table when the notification process is complete.

-$112 million in Institutional Resilience and Expanded Postsecondary Opportunity (IREPO) program grants for 62 institutions. Of these institutions, more than half are community colleges, HBCUs, MSIs or rural colleges.

For more information on ARP, CRRSAA, and CARES Act, including the programs mentioned above, click here.