Emergency Covid Funding for Primary and Secondary Schools — Spending Challenges

Primary and secondary schools in the United States face a wide range of challenges arising from the Covid 19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021.  To help schools address these challenges, the United States Congress passed three funding bills to assist with everything from remote learning to new air ventilation systems, Wi-Fi and other technology assistance and teacher pay raises and tutoring, among other needs. These appropriated funds have totaled an unprecedented $190 billion with each allocation having spending deadlines, the last of which is currently set for September 2024.  In many schools, the funds are presently helping address a myriad of Covid related problems. In other school districts, however, there have been problems in administering the expenditure of the funds. 

According to a long-term trend assessment report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress in September 2022, 9-year-olds suffered the largest decline in reading in 32 years during the pandemic and the first decline in math scores since it started testing in 1969.ⁱ  A July 2021 report by McKinsey & Company reported that after two years of the pandemic, United States students in K-12 suffered academic losses.  Students fell five months behind in math and fell four months behind in reading by the end of the 2020-2021 academic school year.ⁱⁱ  The losses hit disadvantaged students hardest.  According to the McKinsey report, the fallout from the pandemic “threatens to depress this generation’s prospects and constrict their opportunities far into adulthood.  The ripple effects may undermine their chances of attending college and ultimately finding a fulfilling job that enables them to support a family.”ⁱⁱⁱ The federal funding is designed in part to enable states and districts to develop programs to improve these student outcomes.

The first package of funding directed to K-12 schools during the pandemic was the March 2020, Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act which allocated $13.2 billion for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund.^iv This relief package was designed to meet immediate pandemic needs such as home learning and maintaining social distancing at schools.  At the time, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) released its methodology for allocating the funds and its estimates as to how much money each state would receive.^v The CARES Act funds were originally slated to be obligated by September 2022, however, in its most recent guidance, the DOE has allowed for possible extensions of that deadline.^vi  The DOE also released a Frequently Asked Questions information sheet concerning the CARES Act funding for K-12 schools which sets forth several categories of permissible uses for the funds.^vii These include, among others, coordination of preparedness and response efforts with state and local public health departments to prevent, prepare for and respond to future coronavirus outbreaks; staff training on methods of sanitation and minimizing the spread of infectious disease; and planning for and coordination of how best to handle long term school closures such as providing meals to students, meeting technology needs for online learning and how to continuing educational services consistent with state and federal laws.

In December 2020, Congress passed a second Covid relief package known as the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSA).^viii This package included another $54.3 billion for K-12 schools (ESSER II).  Once again, the DOE released an estimate of what each state would receive for K-12 schools.^ix  Much like the CARES Act, the ESSER funds may be spent on a wide array of programs to stabilize schools. 

In contrast with the first two Covid related relief packages passed to help during the crisis, the American Rescue Plan Act passed in March 2021, attempts to direct its K-12 funding ($122 billion) to needs following a return to in-person learning such as student mental health and rectifying learning loss.  According to the executive director of a leading education policy think tank, Future Ed, the new package (knowns as ESSER III) represents the “biggest one-time infusion of federal dollars ever to come to schools.”^x The terms of the funding plan require that monies be spent pursuant to a plan, approved by the DOE, for returning to in-person schooling safely and that at least 20% of the K-12 funding be spent on evidence-based learning loss programs.

On December 7, 2022, the DOE released some expanded guidance for K-12 schools on how to spend the billions in funding before the last September 2024 deadline.^xi  Of great interest to school districts are the deadlines for obligating the relief funds.  According to this recent guidance, school districts had until September 30, 2022 to obligate CARES Act (ESSER I) funds, until September 30, 2023 to obligate ESSR II funds and until September 2024 to obligate the ESSER III funds.^xii The DOE made some concessions in the recent guidance as to the timeline for expending CARES Act (ESSER I) funds and advises that since the timelines for obligating the remaining funds have not yet expired, it will address similar requests as to deadlines for obligating those funds at a later date.^xiii