U.S. Department of Education Announces Distribution of All American Rescue Plan ESSER Funds and Approval of All 52 State Education Agency Plans

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced that every state education agency (SEA) received approval of their American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) plan before the end of December 2021.

As a result, the Department has distributed all $122 billion of ARP ESSER funds to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

These funds are critical to helping states and local districts safely keep schools open for in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, including responding to recent challenges arising from the Omicron variant. As of last week, with the help of ARP funds, about 96% of K-12 public schools were open for full-time, in-person instruction. The Department recently issued a new resource to state and local leaders stressing the importance of full-time, safe, in-person learning and how federal funds can be used to achieve that goal. Additionally, last week, the Administration announced the availability of millions of new tests each month to help schools safely remain open and implement screening testing and test-to-stay programs. READ MORE >