CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A paperwork error potentially cost Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools $450,000 for students facing homelessness over three years, Superintendent Crystal Hill said on Tuesday.
WCNC Charlotte's Julia Kauffman learned this month that the CMS McKinney-Vento program is losing funding. Hill confirmed the district was missing out on $150,000 a year due to a paperwork error. Hill also confirmed the person who made the error no longer works for CMS.
A district spokesperson previously said the error led to the program missing out on federal funding for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years. However, documents obtained by WCNC Charlotte show the district actually missed out on the money for three school years, not two.
The documents also reveal that CMS previously received $75,000 every school year for the McKinney-Vento program from 2020 to 2023. However, the application for years 2023-2026 requested $150,000 a year.
Hill said during the Tuesday media briefing that the person in charge of submitting the application sent it in late, and that's why they missed out on the money.
The McKinney-Vento Act requires school districts to offer vital services for unhoused children like meals, transportation, and more. States receive federal money for the program and dish it out to school districts. However, since CMS mistakenly missed out on the money, it has to cover the costs with its budget.
Hill reassured reporters on Tuesday that the lapse of funding did not negatively impact students.
"While it was a loss in one area, because now we have the visibility, we've actually now been able to provide better services for our students," Hill said.
The district previously shared with WCNC Charlotte that despite the error, it has increased the number of social workers from 110 to 143 this year.
"Previously, we did not have social workers assigned to every school, we now have that on an itinerant basis," Hill added.
A CMS spokesperson told WCNC Charlotte that there are nearly 5,500 students in the district experiencing homelessness and eligible for the program. The goal of McKinney-Vento is to give them a fair chance to succeed in school. North Carolina had over $7 million to distribute to districts statewide over the last two years.
Marissa Patti-Marshall, a clinical family social worker with Charlotte Family Housing, said the program helps ensure students have reliable transportation to school and support to get them to and from school-related activities daily. Patti-Marshall works closely with the program and said she has not noticed any negative impacts due to the grant application error.