Some Fresno-area students may be getting some emergency cash relief from their colleges soon, as federal money from the CARES Act, signed into law in March, reaches local colleges.

Fresno State will receive over $32 million, Fresno City College $11 million, and Fresno Pacific University $4 million. Half of those funds must be given as emergency financial aid relief to students, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

The money is part of nearly $14 billion set to go to higher education institutions in the country after the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act passed on March 25.

Several key details about the money remained unclear Wednesday, including which students may receive it, how much and when.

Fresno State President Joseph I. Castro said Tuesday that colleges have not yet received the money. Administration staffers are figuring out which students the money will go to when it does.

“Our goal is to distribute this money as quickly as possible in order to help our students with the support they need to continue their educational pursuits without additional barriers,” he wrote in an email to students. “The distribution of these funds will be based on guidance from the U.S. Department of Education and the CSU, with the priority being students who demonstrate significant financial need.”

State Center Community College District officials also are finalizing plans. Once the funds become available, “our financial aid offices will be coordinating the notifications to students as well as the distributions,” spokesperson Lucy Ruiz said in a statement. State Center is the parent district of Fresno City College.

The funds are supposed to be used for course materials, food, childcare and housing for students who were attending classes before the pandemic shut down campuses in March.

The U.S. Department of Education released guidelines on Tuesday that barred undocumented immigrants from receiving the aid, Politico reported. Only students who are eligible to fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid -- known as FAFSA -- can get the funds.

The other half of the money “can be used to expand remote learning programs, build IT capacity, and train faculty and staff to operate in a remote learning environment so that at any moment institutions can pivot quickly,” U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said in a news release. “I hope that institutions that already have robust remote learning capacity will consider using this funding to support additional emergency cash grants for students.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a searchable database that shows the amount given to each college in the U.S.

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