Georgia schools will return to in-person learning with $4 billion of federal money

School districts across Georgia are preparing to reopen their classrooms to full-time in-person learning this fall with the help of more than $4 billion in federal funding.

The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that President Joe Biden signed in March includes $122 billion in economic relief to help public schools shut down by the coronavirus pandemic reopen safely.

Local school superintendents from metro Atlanta made a commitment Monday to fully reopen their classrooms when school starts in August during a news conference with U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.

“This has been a really, really tough time for parents who have had to deal with partial school closures, for educators who have had to adapt to the realities of this pandemic, most of all for your people who over this past year didn’t get the kind of experiences because of the public health crisis that we wanted to make sure we could offer them,” Ossoff said.

Ossoff said the legislation gives local school systems broad discretion over how they plan to use the stimulus money.

Clayton County School Superintendent Morcease Beasley, who hosted the news conference, said parents made it clear they wanted their children to get back into their classrooms as soon as possible.

“These funds we’re receiving today are going to allow us to provide opportunities for our students not only to learn content they may have missed over this pandemic but to ensure that they have social experiences that will add value to their lives,” he said.

The federal funds are going to school districts around the state primarily based on their student populations. Here is a breakdown of the top-10 recipients:

School District         Allocation

DeKalb County         $320.6 million

Gwinnett County    $265.2 million

Atlanta                      $193.0 million

Clayton County        $189.2 million

Cobb County            $182.3 million

Fulton County          $173.9 million

Richmond County   $112.4 million

Bibb County             $106.3 million

Muscogee County   $96.3 million

Chatham County     $95.2 million