COVID-relief funds deep dive (part 1)

By Emily Murtaugh and Liana Shivers.

Two years have passed since states received their portion of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER III or ARP ESSER) funds as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Funds, allocated at the state education agency (SEA) and local education agency (LEA) levels, could be used to invest in afterschool and summer learning to support pandemic-related learning recovery for young people. One year ago, we noted that a preliminary scan of 3,200 school district plans revealed a need for a deeper analysis if we are to determine the extent that local funds are supporting comprehensive, evidence-based afterschool programs, including the level to which community partners are being utilized.

Our research team is now reviewing more than 6,000 district plans and conducting interviews with district leaders, program providers, and related intermediaries to understand how their ARP ESSER funds are impacting local-level afterschool and summer learning. Thus far, we have reviewed 1,347 plans from eleven states that account for $8.4 billion of ARPA funds. The states include Washington, Rhode Island, Arkansas, Michigan, Missouri, Louisiana, Vermont, Colorado, Montana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania (the district plans we review are those that are publicly available, therefore, the data represents a fraction of a state’s total district plans and the combined data represents a fraction of the nation’s ARP ESSER spending on out-of-school time). You can also find a previous ARP ESSER case study on Connecticut and Kentucky. All plans are reviewed for details regarding afterschool learning and summer learning. Though it remains challenging to determine which districts implement comprehensive afterschool programs, trends are emerging. Here is an update on what we are noting:

• Plans vary considerably in language and details provided, depending on the instructions, use of templates, or guidance received. For example, a SEA may provide a section on their templates that covers all out-of-school time learning under one question while another may break out sections specifically for summer, afterschool, or extended day, allowing districts to go into detail and clarify the unique elements of a program. Other plans do not provide specific sections dedicated to out-of-school time at all.

Example of plan that does not require funding amounts.

• Plans may not require districts to outline how much funding is going to afterschool specifically. For example, in one state, districts had a checklist of allowable activities, while other states noted their plans with a “yes,” next to the option. In these cases, we used an “X” to indicate that though it appears that funding is going to an out-of-school time program, we are unable to identify how much exactly. We also found that some districts only reported the twenty percent required set-aside for learning recovery, and many districts combined funds for afterschool and/or summer learning with other spending areas. As a result, we added additional categories to capture this aggregate data.
• A plan can fall into multiple afterschool categories. Under afterschool, we have a range of categories, including, but not limited to comprehensive afterschool, tutoring, and unclear. For example, the first district below is categorized under comprehensive afterschool. They are allocating $413,560 to their afterschool program run in partnership with their local community fine arts council. The second district runs separate programs with overlapping funds including an afterschool club program, a Saturday learning program, before and afterschool tutoring programs, and a summer program.
  • District One
    • “...to provide after school tutoring/enrichment combined with fine arts. Students will be immersed in the fine arts by attending classes such as violin, guitar, piano, drama, art and crafts, digital media, creative writing, creative reading, and music. Students will also be able to participate in meditation and mindfulness classes to address the social emotional component of the child. Students will be involved in community service activities throughout the year. This program will be available for students in grades K-12 and will be totally free to all students. This program will also be partnered with the school's after school feeding program. Students will be fed after school before they enter into tutoring or fine arts classes.”
  • District Two
    • “Extended day programs; Extra-curricular learning opportunities, Tutoring, Small Group Activities before/after school for Reading, Math, ELA, SEL, Trauma/Wellbeing services.”
    • “Mini-sessions will be offered to include Academic Activities in areas of identified interest; E-Sports, Coding, Engineering, Art, Journalism, Book Club, Chess, Makers Club, Link Crew (peer mentor/tutor training).12 Schools; 6 Teachers and 6 Support Staff, Two (2) 1.5 hour sessions totaling 3 hours per week.”
    • “Saturday Sessions, 9-noon Academic Interest driving programs with physical and social components and planned educational field trips. Summer Mini-Camp Programs- Week long Sessions provided through MOUs; Mad Science, Chess Club, Science Center, Zoo”
    • “Individual and small group tutoring opportunities in Math/ELA/Reading (pull out/push in, before/after school, Saturdays, Summer, on-line).”
• Afterschool tutoring is a frequent support school districts are implementing during the school year, more so than comprehensive afterschool programs. While we will dig into the numbers in our next blog, a distinct trend we are seeing in district plans is the use of ARP ESSER funding for tutoring after school, and oftentimes tutoring as the only afterschool intervention.
• Community partners are not often mentioned in plans related to providing afterschool programming. As noted above, the level of detail in plans regarding spending ARP ESSER funds varies dramatically from state to state, and between districts, however, among the plans that do provide specifics about afterschool programming, many do not mention community partners. Plans that include summer programming are more likely to indicate a partnership with an outside organization.
• What districts included in their plans may have been updated. It is important to place our findings in context. Districts have until September 2024 to obligate funds and through January 2025 to spend funds (120 days after September 30, 2024). As a result, plans may have been updated since we reviewed them. Our preliminary findings are based on plans collected as of November 2022. There are some plans that we have reviewed, and in rechecking the online plan, saw that the date updated had changed and the amounts allocated to activities differing slightly from the original plan. More recently, the data firm Burbio wrote about changes they have encountered in district plans. For example, they note a number of Virginia plans that have been updated, ranging from some districts increasing funding for tutoring-related programming and others dedicating funds to systems and structural improvements.

Though our final release is set for fall, if you would like to learn more before then, please join us at the Best of Out-Of-School Time (BOOST) conference where we will lead a workshop  diving into the findings. If you are a program provider or district leader, we would love to interview you. Please email us at eesfellows@afterschoolalliance.org. Finally, if you wish to find examples of how ARP funds are being used to support afterschool and summer learning in your state, check out the recently updated ARP Map.