Section 37-68-13 - Equity in Distance Learning Fund created; use of funds; unobligated or unexpended funds; audit(1)(a) There is created a special fund in the State Treasury, to be known as the "Equity in Distance Learning Fund," from which the grants authorized by this chapter shall be disbursed by the department. All monies shall be disbursed from the fund in compliance with the guidelines, guidance, rules, regulations and/or other criteria, as may be amended from time to time, by the United States Department of the Treasury regarding the use of monies from the Coronavirus Relief Fund established by the CARES Act. If on November 1, 2020, there are unobligated monies in the fund from either the department or schools, the department shall have the discretion to distribute the monies for eligible expenditures pursuant to the CARES Act to schools by application. However unexpended amounts of any monies unrelated to the Coronavirus Relief Fund, whether appropriated by the Legislature or donated by any public or private entity, remaining in the fund at the end of a fiscal year shall not lapse into the Budget Contingency Fund or the State General Fund, and any investment earnings or interest earned on amounts in the grant program fund shall be deposited to the credit of the grant program fund.(b) If on December 29, 2020, there are unexpended Coronavirus Relief Fund monies remaining in the fund, those funds shall lapse into the Budget Contingency Fund, to be transferred, by the State Fiscal Officer, into the Unemployment Compensation Fund on or before December 30, 2020.(2) The use of funds allocated under this grant program shall be subject to audit by the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Inspector General and the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor. Each school, or other entity or person receiving funds under this grant program, found to be fully or partially noncompliant with the requirements in this chapter, shall return to the state all or a portion of the funds received.Added by Laws, 2020, ch. 488, SB 3044,§ 2, (became law without the Governor's signature on July 9, 2020).