Time is ticking for ESSER funds

Key points:

Superintendents in the midst of the budget-setting process should be aware: With ESSER funds soon gone, reporting, supplementing, and telling stories about their pandemic-related spending will be key to long-term student success.

The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) was one of the largest educational bets ever undertaken by the federal government.

In theory, the funds had three main priorities: Help students return to their desks, help schools avoid mass layoffs of teachers and support staff, and help schools deal with the residual impacts of the closure.

For the districts, however, this type of financial windfall was unprecedented. The Houston Independent School District, for example, with an annual general fund budget of approximately 2.2 billion dollarsreceived about 1.2 billion dollars in ESSER funds over three years that were expected to be used by the September 2024 deadline. The Los Angeles Unified School District, with an annual budget of $12.9 billion, received approximately $4.2 billion over three years; Toledo (OH) Public Schools with an annual budget of $385.3 million received about $194.4 million over three years.

In an incredibly short time frame, school districts would have to allocate millions of dollars that they didn't normally have access to, and do it in a way that helped them adapt to a reality that no one was familiar with.

Now, as the deadline to spend these funds approaches and districts debate their annual budgets, educational leaders should take a moment to fully prepare for life after the ESSER Fund.

Taking stock of what worked, what didn't, and figuring out how to tell that story will be a critical task for superintendents to help lawmakers and policy experts understand the results of this historic educational experiment.

Almost every district will need to rethink at least part of its budget for next year. While education officials were always aware that a schedule would be imposed on these funds, not all districts were able to find a way to spend millions of dollars through a series of one-time expenses like technology or cleaning supplies.

Comprehensive, holistic services that could help students not only with their academic performance, but also with their mental health and life outside of school, became an important part of how ESSER funds were spent. Many districts spent most of their ESSER funds on recurring costs, such as hiring additional social workers and tutors and increasing salaries for teachers and administrators.

States spent more 4.2 billion dollars in tutors and accelerated learning programs, for example, that helped close gaps in student learning. It wasn't a perfect solution (districts knew that funding for these programs would run out at the end of 2024), but it worked in many places.

while student learning loss remains high, ESSER funding reduced the impacts of school closures on student learning. But with the end of the program, and based on evidence seen in working with school districts across the country, the problem for district officials is now twofold.

First, your state department of education and the U.S. Department of Education require you to report how these funds were spent. Certainly, academic-focused programs are easy enough to explain and justify, but there are districts that will have a much more difficult task, as they have spent funds in ways that are less clearly related to student success.

This is not to say that these districts have done anything wrong; In the midst of the pandemic, it was difficult to say what would be necessary and what would not. However, effective superintendents will invariably have an answer when the question arises and the ability to tell stories about their thought process and its ultimate impact on student achievement.

Second, they will have to figure out how to adjust their budgets so as not to create a funding gap for certain programs. It is inevitable that some programs will cease to exist when the ESSER Fund is exhausted; This is not necessarily a bad thing. However, districts should look at which programs were especially effective and think about how they can keep those programs funded.

These two parts of the ESSER Fund closure should be done in partnership with each other; The education budget gap created by ESSER will no doubt stimulate conversations about education funding in the future, and superintendents have an opportunity to make their voices heard if they can provide data on what types of programs worked and which is it. challenges they faced.

The ability to demonstrate the return on investment of an initiative or program will help ensure that we do not simply revert to the pre-pandemic status quo and can instead use the learnings and benefits that students have received over the past three years to build a better educational system.

It is not something that will happen by itself. Policymakers need the push from educators to provide more freedom and flexibility in education funding, as well as to increase available dollars.

The lessons of the ESSER Fund will resonate with the world of education for years to come, so district leaders must act now to shape future perceptions and priorities.