(Radio Iowa) – Parents in the Sioux City Community School District say their children won’t have the option to attend summer school this year — due to funding cuts. Bailey Gertsma says her seven-year-old son definitely benefited from summer school for the past couple of years.

The school district says COVID-19 relief funding ran out to pay for summer school, which served 350 students last year. The district is still offering summer programming for E-L-L students and at-risk high schoolers. Gertsma says summer school gave her boy the individual attention he needed, and it helped build his confidence level.

The Iowa Department of Education doesn’t have information on other districts that have eliminated or modified summer school, because schools are not required to report that to the state. The department has launched a grant program to support districts offering evidence-based reading programming, with up to two-million dollars available for districts statewide.