The final date for schools to submit EANS I claims for reimbursement was November 15. This week, OSPI emailed private schools a status update on their final claims submissions with the tally below, noting the agency had anticipated claims would exceed the remaining available balance and, therefore, held back payment on reimbursement requests received after September 25.
Schools were not sent any communication, between June and September or since, about this concern, which has resulted in OSPI “needing to partially pay final claims.” Some private schools are left owing tens of thousands of dollars.
Legislators redirected six million dollars of the funds designated by the US government to private schools for COVID recovery to cover the new public school lunch program before private schools could utilize their funds.
WFIS is working with CAPE and the ONPE office. The total amount needed to make private schools whole is only $889,000, leaving public schools with over $5 million in windfall.
