On May 4, 2020 House Bill 1043, known as the “2020 COVID-19 Recovery Act” was passed to allow the state of North Carolina to assist local governments, communities, families, workers, and other individuals and businesses in accessing federal relief and recovery funds related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In HB1043 Section 3.3(18) pg. 9-10 the legislation allocated $5 million for the Extended Learning and Integrated Student Supports (ELISS) Competitive Grant program. However, since the original source of these funds were from the federal government in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, these funds have a limited period of availability in that all funds allocated must be incurred during the period that begins on July 1, 2020, and ends on December 30, 2020.

A total of 26 non-profit organizations, across seven of the eight regions of the State, were awarded funds to implement extended learning and/or integrated student supports to serve at-risk students whose learning has been negatively affected by COVID-19.