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State, Local Educational Dollars Coming from American Rescue Plan

It’s not yet clear how much local districts will receive from the record $1.9 trillion federal act, though estimates are out. But school officials are already contemplating how to preserve and enhance the gains they have made in technology and innovation.

Educational allotments from the record $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, some of which will undoubtedly be spent on IT goods and services, are coming into clearer focus with further information from local and federal authorities.

The act, also known as the American Rescue Plan, contains billions in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding for states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to support “their efforts to reopen K-12 schools safely this month and equitably expand opportunity for students who need it most,” the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) said last week via news release. Among the takeaways:

  • California, the USDOE said in a letter to state education commissioners, will receive nearly $15.1 billion in ESSER funds, which it will begin to make available to state educational agencies this month. The state, the nation’s most populous with around 40 million residents, received the largest share of the nearly $122 billion in ESSER funds. This funding is sometimes referred to as ESSER 3, to distinguish it from ESSER 1 and ESSER 2 funding via two earlier federal bills. A representative of the California Department of Education (CDE) told Techwire via email that it “just received guidance” from the USDOE on funds in the American Rescue Plan. Actual funding hasn’t yet been made available to states, and CDE officials are “just now beginning the calculations for local educational agencies,” the representative said Friday.
  • It’s not yet clear how much of that funding local school districts will receive, when they’ll receive it or how it will be spent, but local school districts are already considering those questions. Two sets of estimates of how much funding districts will receive have been published — one from Oakland nonprofit EdSource, the other from Sacramento-based School Services of California, a consulting firm that advises school districts on budget matters and other matters related to public education. Santino Danisi, interim chief financial officer at Fresno Unified School District, told Techwire that EdSource estimates his district will receive nearly $405 million from ESSER 3, while School Services of California estimates it will receive more than $385 million. A representative of School Services of California pointed out to Techwire the lag between when monies are appropriated by the federal government and when they’re released to school districts, noting that currently only around half the ESSER 1 dollars have been released. It’s likely, the representative said, that ESSER 3 funds may not be released until at least the next state budget year, beginning July 1.
    Danisi indicated that due to the availability of “one-time resources to school districts,” it’s likely the ESSER 3 funding will not be used immediately. Spending on IT and innovation is being considered, he said, pointing out that as districts like Fresno Unified return to in-person instruction, they’re considering “how can we leverage the technology that we’ve already implemented,” ensuring equitable access to the Internet as well as better penetration of technology to bolster instruction in courses like the Advanced Placement (AP) series. Many districts including Fresno Unified have tried in the past to rely on hot spots to make the Internet available to students, with mixed results. Danisi said his district is mulling how to create its own “district Internet” that would be accessible to students off-campus.
  • Elsewhere around the state, EdSource estimates Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the nation’s second-largest by enrollment behind New York, would receive nearly $2.7 billion in ESSER 3 funds — the most of any district in the state. An LAUSD representative told Techwire via email that the entity expects to learn what it will officially receive from the state soon, saying: “District-specific allocations will likely be released by CDE in the coming weeks. We have nothing beyond this at this point.” (School Services of California’s estimates are intended just for its clients, the representative said.) Rounding out the top five, according to EdSource, San Diego Unified School District would receive nearly $284 million — ranking it third behind Los Angeles and Fresno. San Bernardino City Unified School District would receive more than $239 million, and Long Beach Unified School District would receive more than $221 million.
  • At Pacific Grove Unified School District, where San Mateo County Chief Information Officer Jon Walton is a school board trustee, he said it’s not yet certain how much the district will receive from the American Rescue Plan. EdSource estimates the district will receive more than $976,000, which would be the largest such sum for the district since its CARES Act allocation of more than $800,000 in March 2020. His district works with others in San Mateo County, Walton said. “Certainly, everybody’s trying to interpret the bill and understand what the flow of the money is going to be — is it going to come directly from the feds to the school districts; is it going to be routed through the state and then the state will make the allocations?” he said. School district funding mechanisms, whether via average daily attendance (ADA) or basic aid, could affect that, he said. Typically, basic aid districts — around 125 throughout the state — are able to collect enough property tax revenue to meet their minimum funding requirements, and therefore receive less aid from the state. Pacific Grove Unified is a basic aid district.
Theo Douglas is Assistant Managing Editor of Industry Insider — California.