Governor Walz has called the legislature back for the 7^th special session of the year. 

With COVID-19 cases spiking and a new round of government ordered business closures, the legislature meets at 3pm today to pass a financial relief package aimed at helping struggling businesses. House and Senate negotiators worked through the weekend to hammer out final details. While schools won’t see direct funding help, the relief package includes additional time for schools to collect free and reduced price lunch applications from families.

The MDE and several school districts asked the legislature to extend the December 15^th cut-off date for schools to collect free and reduced applications from families. With the USDA providing a fee meal waiver for the entire school year and distance learning creating gaps between normal school-family interactions, many schools have struggled to collect FRE applications for many families they know previously qualified.

 In an effort to provide some help, today’s relief package will include a 20 day extension for schools to seek FRE applications from families by extending the 12.15.20 deadline to 1.4.21. There aren’t many business days in this window, and even fewer educational days, but it gives one last chance for district staff to reach out to families, perhaps helping to move a schools FRE count closer to what they would normally expect. This year’s FRE count impacts next year’s compensatory revenue for educational programming.