The federal CARES Act (enacted in March 2020) included a Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER I) Fund, which provided relief funding directly to public and private higher education institutions. The CARES Act generally required institutions to use 50% of their allocations for student financial aid grants.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, public and private institutions in Washington received $232.6 million from HEER I, of which $112.9 million went to financial aid. (Some of the HEER I funding wasn’t subject to the 50%-to-financial aid requirement. For example, minority serving institutions received additional funding.) Public institutions received $188.2 million.

The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSA) was enacted Dec. 27, 2020. It included $22.7 billion for a second round of higher education emergency relief (HEER II). A U.S. Department of Education allocation table shows that higher education institutions in Washington will receive $371.2 million from HEER II. Of that, $329.5 million will go to public institutions. For HEER II, institutions must provide the same amount of financial aid as was required in HEER I (which may be less than 50% of their new allocations).

The tables below show how much each institution is allocated. Allocations for institutions in Washington (including both HEER I and HEER II) total $603.7 million, of which $517.7 million is for public institutions. Of the total $603.7 million, $219.1 million is for financial aid.