MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa — As many people continue to work from home, some students prepare for a virtual school year.
Now, Iowa schools are getting some federal assistance to help hook kids up to WIFI that may not have it.
It's an estimated $400,000 expense that, just five months ago, Marshalltown Community School District never anticipated having to spend.
"It's going to take funds probably from a number of different allocations and sources in order to make all this work for districts," Marshalltown Superintendent Theron Schutte said.
A recent survey showed that roughly 20 percent of Marshalltown families don't have reliable internet.
So the district bought 300 hot-spots to send home with students.
They're also paying monthly Mediacom bills for roughly 450 families.
"I'm very grateful for any and all financial support that we get from the state and the federal government," Schutte said.
Gov. Kim Reynolds announced schools across Iowa will be getting more than $26.2 million to help cover internet connectivity costs.
“During an unprecedented pandemic, we have had to adapt, innovate, and change the way we do business," Reynolds said in a press release Friday. "Expanding high-quality broadband connectivity is more important than ever for tele-learning, telework and telehealth. This funding will play a critical role in our children’s education, helping to close significant gaps in broadband access for rural schools.”
$183,000 of that is marked for Marshalltown schools.
"From what we can tell today, that amount of money will cover about 50% of what our additional expenses have been for additional devices that have been necessary as a result of needing to move to remote learning, and also connecting up students and their families to the internet that otherwise wouldn't have connectivity," Schutte said.
Every Iowa school district is getting a piece of this money, both public and private.
$19.3 million is going to K-12 schools. $6.9 million is going to public and private colleges and universities.
See how much your district is getting here.