American Rescue Plan Act State Education Agency ESSER – Initial K-12 Spending Plans

Page updated October 12

The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act was signed into law on March 11, 2021. The rescue package provided $122 billion of the total $1.9 trillion, to support the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) Fund. The fund provided state and local education agencies funding to support safe school reopening and address the impact of the pandemic on our nation’s students.

States are permitted to reserve up to 10 percent of the ARP ESSER funds at the state level, and must, at a minimum, reserve at least seven percent of the total allocated to each state, directly or through grants or contracts, for evidence-based programs and interventions that respond to students’ academic, social, and emotional needs and address the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus on the student subgroups described in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (economically disadvantaged students, students from major racial and ethnic groups, children with disabilities, and English learners), students experiencing homelessness, and children and youth in foster care:

• At least five percent on activities to address learning loss by supporting the implementation of evidence-based interventions, such as summer learning or summer enrichment, extended day, comprehensive afterschool programs, or extended school year programs, including by providing additional support to local educational agencies to fully address such impacts.
• At least one percent on the implementation of evidence-based summer enrichment programs.
• At least one percent on the implementation of evidence-based comprehensive afterschool programs.

State education agencies were required to put forth a plan to the U.S. Department of Education (USED) by June 7, 2021, if practicable. The Hunt Institute has been tracking how states are deciding to allocate these dollars.

The Power BI tool below shows two views of ARP ESSER plans and allocations:

1. Posted Plans: Shows the 39 states that have submitted plans to USED, how much they received, and a link to their submitted plan (plans are still under review by USED).
2. Categorical Program Summaries: An initial categorization of states’ plans for spending ARP ESSER state reserve funds to support K-12 education from those 39 state plans. Users can select specific categories of programs (i.e. literacy or tutoring). Users can also view the expenditure approaches states are using – formula allocations to districts, competitive grants, state contracts or procurements, etc.

This tool will be updated on an ongoing basis as plans are submitted, posted, or revised. Detailed summaries of each state’s proposed activities will be added soon.