PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — South Dakota’s K-12 school districts are eligible to receive more than $41 million of additional federal funding because of the COVID-19 response by Congress, the state secretary education said Monday.

Ben Jones told the state Board of Education Standards that his department also has applied for a $6.8 million federal grant. It would be used to redesign K-12 educator preparation. South Dakota State University would be the initial focus of the three-year effort.

Jones said Governor Kristi Noem also has millions of dollars available from the federal government that she can distribute to K-12 public and non-public schools and to technical colleges.

The $41 million is from the elementary and secondary school emergency relief fund, with amounts listed individually for the 149 districts.

Jones said 90% was assigned according to each district’s federal Title 1 allocation reflecting numbers of low-income students, but the district doesn’t have to spend it for Title 1 purposes.

Jones said he chose to assign another 9.5% by district, using enrollment of students in public and any non-public schools in a district. That averaged $162 per student. Home-school students weren’t covered, he said.

About 60 public districts have already been cleared to draw on the relief fund. South Dakota had more than 136,500 students in public K-12 schools last September when the annual count was taken.

The grant meanwhile would help South Dakota train teachers to work in personalized competency-based programs that are being used in various ways by about 20 school districts. Jones said local school leaders have told him that new teachers generally weren’t adequately prepared to work in them.

He said the grant also would allow new graduate-level courses to be developed for teachers already in the field.

Jones said local school boards have been deciding how they want to resume classes. Most schools open in August for the 2020-21 academic year.

Jones said the state Department of Education and the state Department of Health assembled a 12-page guide, Starting Well 2020, that was released Monday.

While the state departments assume local boards will reopen schools, there is a provision for COVID-19 shutdowns: “Regardless of other factors that currently exist, SD DOE recommends districts have a plan in place for fully remote learning and building closures should circumstances dictate during the year.”

South Dakota schools finished the spring semester using remote classes, with teachers providing lessons to students at homes.