The application process opened April 6, and within the first weeks, it had received 418 responses. The grants range from $5,000 to $20,000, depending on a center’s size and the number of children served.

More than 30 superintendents and other school district leaders are calling for a moratorium on new charter schools and charter seats until Harrisburg thoroughly revamps the 23-year-old charter law.

Lou Fantini, a social studies teacher, said safe buildings were a social justice issue and that Philadelphia students deserve safe buildings “like in the suburbs.”

It has been a long ordeal for the family and for their supporters, a case that particularly angered immigrant advocates.

In Pennsylvania, as of 2018, less than 3 percent of teachers are African American, and barely 1 percent are African American males.