MIAMI and ATLANTA, Aug. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — ClassWallet will distribute grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to schools in Georgia that are voluntarily opting into the Epidemiology Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Reopening Schools Program. The program will help offset direct and indirect costs associated with COVID-19 testing for faculty and staff, students and those involved in school athletic programs.
The opt-in CDC program, part of the American Rescue Plan, will provide up to $50 million to Georgia to support the state’s more than 2,000 public, private and charter K-12 schools serving 1.7 million students. Through the ELC program, the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) will conduct the COVID-19 testing, while schools are responsible for arranging the logistics and covering the costs for the wide range of resources associated with the initiative. This includes everything from test kits, rental space and nurses to assist in testing, to administrative materials, technology and supplies as determined by each school.
“Working to help Georgia schools reopen safely is an important program for ClassWallet,” said Jamie Rosenberg, CEO and co-founder, ClassWallet. “Our SchoolWallet spending management platform will help streamline disbursement of payments, reduce staff hours and fully centralize records for distribution, tracking and reporting.”
School administrators will receive digital education wallet accounts from ClassWallet to purchase what they need to support the program from a pre-approved marketplace. The system allows for quick reimbursements and vendor payments can be processed rapidly for approved purchases made outside of the marketplace.
“Because the needs of individual institutions will be different, it is more challenging to allocate and track the funds throughout the state,” said Rosenberg. “By automating the entire process, from distribution to reimbursement and reconciling all expenditures, we’re easing the burden on school administrators and ensuring the financial integrity of the program.”