Coronavirus

CARES Act Emergency Relief Fund – Student Portion

Section 18004(a)(1) of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act authorizes the Secretary of Education to allocate formula-based grant funds to institutions of higher education. A portion of these funds under section 18004(c) of the Act, are to provide emergency financial aid grants to currently enrolled students for expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to Coronavirus. These expenses may include; travel, moving, technology, course materials, food, housing, health care, child care, and other expenses related to leaving campus and remote learning.

CCS signed and submitted the Certification and Agreement form requesting the Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students under section 18004(c) of the Act in the amount of $568,245. We are pleased to report that the College has received its share of the Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students.

The U. S. Department of Education has stipulated that students must meet Title IV funding eligibility, which is determined by completing a FAFSA in order to receive a distribution from the CARES Act funding. In addition, students who have not completed their FAFSA application may be eligible to receive these funds by meeting the following qualifications: 1. Have a valid social security number, 2. Must have established U.S. Citizenship status, 3. Males between the ages of 18-26, must have registered for the U.S. Selective Service, 4. Have a high school diploma, GED, or completion of high school in an approved homeschool setting.

College leadership reviewed various options for distributing this funding to students and came to the conclusion that all students have been impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic and have incurred unexpected expenses related to the disruption of campus operations. We have created a fair and equitable plan to distribute this funding to all students who have filed a FAFSA and meet Title IV eligibility and those we have determined would meet Title IV eligibility if they had filed a FAFSA. The number of students who are or could be eligible to participate in Federal student financial aid programs is 1209.

The formula used to calculate the allocation for each college was partly based on the number of Pell recipients, and because these are our most needy students, the College has given Pell recipients a higher amount of funding. The College also allocated these funds based on the students’ enrollment status (full-time, three-quarter time, part-time, and less than part-time), at the time of distribution as illustrated in the chart below: