Appendix B

American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds

Enacted in March 2021, the American Rescue Plan (ARP) provided a total of nearly $122 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) funds to states and school districts to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on schools and students, especially those disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 (U.S. Department of Education, 2021).¹

ARP ESSER includes language directing both state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) to prioritize “underrepresented student subgroups, including each major racial and ethnic group, children from low-income families, children with disabilities, English learners, gender, migrant students, students experiencing homelessness, and children and youth in foster care” (U.S. Department of Education, 2021).

In terms of support for afterschool and summer, ARP outlined specific ways in which both SEAs and LEAs should use their ARP ESSER funds to provide those opportunities for young people. Of the roughly $12.2 billion in ARP ESSER funds available at the state education agency level, states were directed to reserve the following to support afterschool and summer:

• $1.22 billion for summer enrichment (1% of ARP ESSER)
• $1.22 billion for evidence-based comprehensive afterschool programs (1% of ARP ESSER)

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¹ ARP ESSER is also sometimes referred to as ESSER III, since the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and the CRRSA also included ESSER funding, making ARP ESSER the third round of ESSER. However, ARP ESSER is the only one of the three rounds that mandates funding for afterschool and summer programs.

• $6.1 billion, for learning recovery, such as summer learning or summer enrichment, extended day, comprehensive afterschool programs, or extended school year programs (5% of ARP ESSER)

Of the $109 billion in ARP ESSER available at the LEA level, districts were required to reserve 20% ($22 billion) for learning recovery strategies, including afterschool and summer enrichment. If a district decided their afterschool and summer funding needs were greater than their learning recovery set-aside, there was nothing in the legislation that prohibited a district from spending more than 20%; however, given the wide range of needs at the district level, that is widely seen as an unlikely scenario.

In addition to the ARP ESSER funds, ARP included other funding streams that could be used to support afterschool and summer opportunities, with the largest of those being the $39 billion in Child Care Development Funds, which could be used for afterschool and summer programs for school-age children and $350 billion in State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds for state and local governments, which could be used in part for child care and other purposes.

ARP ESSER funds were required to be obligated by September 30, 2024. States and districts could request a 14-month extension for liquidation of those funds, shifting the liquidation deadline to late March 2026, if approved.² For afterschool and summer programs operated by community partners, an approved extension means that a district could enter into a contract with a partner by September 30, 2024, and could pay that partner through March 2026 or until all funds are expended. Similarly, states and cities were required to obligate their state and local fiscal recovery funds by December 31, 2024, and they had until September 30, 2026, for liquidation of those funds (Gleeson, 2023).

Education finance experts did not anticipate that the extensions would play much of a role in extending afterschool programs funded by ARP ESSER. For example, the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University anticipated that very little in ESSER III funding, likely less than 5%, would be left to expend beyond September 2024 (Edunomics Lab, n.d.) Similarly, AASA anticipated that districts would obligate the bulk of their funding by the deadline and CCSSO estimated that 98% of ARP ESSER state set-aside funds were planned, budgeted, or committed as of November 2023 (Council of Chief State School Officers, n.d.; AASA The School Superintendents Association, 2023).

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² The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education’s September 18, 2023, letter can be found here: https://www.aasa.org/docs/default-source/advocacy/arp-liquidation-extension-request-letter-(9.18.23).pdf?sfvrsn=c15fbb0b_3

ARP ESSER SPENDING AT THE STATE EDUCATION AGENCY LEVEL FOR AFTERSCHOOL

Limited information is available as to how states spent their ARP ESSER funds. In fact, 20 states report no details on how their ARP ESSER funds were spent (Silberstein & Roza, 2023). The Council of Chief State School Officers maintains a dashboard of state ESSER set-aside spending, based on their own analysis. As of March 2024, the dashboard indicated $3 billion in ESSSER funding has been spent on afterschool, summer, and extended day or year initiatives. Of that nearly $2.5 billion came from ARP ESSER. Similarly, the Afterschool Alliance estimates $2.7 billion in ARP ESSER state set-asides has been directed to afterschool and summer based on their work with statewide afterschool networks (Afterschool Alliance, 2024).

While the top-level spending numbers are insightful, they do not offer much detail on the type of OST activities supported. For that, reviews of individual SEA’s ESSER plans, and their afterschool and summer requests for proposals (RFPs) and/or grant award announcements, are necessary. A national study conducted by Westat offers a picture of how states invested their 1% set-asides for summer. Researchers conducted interviews with individuals at 37 different SEAs and reviewed all 51 SEA ARP spending plans, finding that a majority of SEAs (71%) used grant programs to disburse their summer learning set-asides. Of the states with grant programs, the grant programs were mostly a mix of competitive awards (44%) and formula-based awards (22%). Nearly half (46%) of states gave funding to districts, almost one-third (32%) awarded funds to both districts and community-based organizations (CBOs), and 22% distributed funds to CBOs only (Westat, 2023).

Unfortunately, a similar study does not exist to offer a national picture of how states invested their 1% set-asides for afterschool, but an analysis of 39 SEA ESSER III plans found that

• Nine states planned to combine the comprehensive afterschool and summer enrichment set-asides into one combined funding stream. Those included Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, Utah, and Wyoming.
• 19 states planned a grant competition for comprehensive afterschool programs which include partnerships between community-based organizations and nonprofits. Those include Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

• Eight states planned to provide the afterschool set-aside funding directly by formula to school districts. Those include Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, and West Virginia.
• Thirteen states planned a grant competition for summer enrichment programs, which include partnerships between community-based organizations and nonprofits. Those include Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Georgia, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
• Twelve states planned to disburse the summer enrichment set aside funding directly by formula to school districts. Those include Alabama, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and West Virginia (Peterson, 2021).

The real richness of how SEA afterschool and summer set-asides were used to support opportunities for young people during the out-of-school-time hours comes from reviewing individual state RFPs for funding. While the approaches to distributing the state set-asides varied, it is clear that those states that ran competitions for funds, especially when the SEA partnered with the state afterschool network, focused on closing opportunity gaps in their grant making. Box B-1 describes examples from a number of states.

ARP ESSER SPENDING AT THE LOCAL LEVEL TO SUPPORT AFTERSCHOOL AND SUMMER

Local ARP ESSER, which flowed to school districts via formula funding, represented the largest portion of ARP ESSER funds available for afterschool in summer, with the 20% learning recovery set-aside totaling $22 billion.

However, getting a national picture of how the local ARP ESSER funds have been spent is challenging. In the school district portion of the National Call for Summer Learning Report Series, researchers at Westat used data collected via surveys and web scraping to learn about summer learning programs offered by districts in 2021. They found that 76% of districts used one of the three COVID-19 relief funding packages to support their summer programs. Given the summer 2021 focus, CARES funding was the most common, which is unsurprising given that much of the ARP funding was not available during the planning and implementation of summer 2021 programs. In terms of types of programs, they found that academic programming was nearly universal among districts (94%) and social and emotional learning was a big focus (57%). They also found relatively few districts (41%) worked with partners to plan or offer summer programming (Westat, 2023).

The Westat findings on use of ARP ESSER funds for academics and social-emotional learning align with a survey of 650 superintendents with ARP ESSER oversight, conducted by AASA, the School Superintendent’s Association. AASA found the top short-term priority for superintendents was increasing instructional time and opportunities (tied with investing in high-quality curriculum) and the number one long-term priority for superintendents was expanding whole-child supports, services, and programs (AASA The School Superintendents Association, 2023).

Given limited reporting requirements, it is not possible to determine the total spending on ARP ESSER on afterschool and summer at the local level, but a Fall 2023 Afterschool Alliance report estimates at total of $5.4 billion in local level ARP ESSER funds has been used to support afterschool and summer. “Investments in Student Recovery: A Review of School Districts’ Use of American Rescue Plan Funding to Support Afterschool and Summer Opportunities” is based on a review of 6,315 school districts’ ARP ESSER spending plans across all 50 states, finding that 8 in 10 districts reported investments in afterschool and summer programs, totaling more than $5.4 billion. While that top-level figure is encouraging, the more detailed review of district plans found that the funds were primarily invested in academic-only programming, and summer programming, with a focus on academic remediation or

recovery, was the most popular strategy. Despite the ARP legislation’s call to use the funds to address educational inequities and support students’ social, emotional, mental health, and academic needs, only 1 in 5 school districts invested in afterschool programming with academic and enrichment components, totaling roughly $544 million (Afterschool Alliance, 2023a).

The data suggest that the opportunity to invest $22 billion of ARP funding into comprehensive afterschool and summer programs that offer an array of enrichment activities and academic supports was largely missed, but there are many examples of communities across the nation that prioritized afterschool and summer opportunities and directed their ARP funds to these critical supports.³ Among the numerous local examples of ARP ESSER investments are the following

• Utah’s Carbon School District directed roughly 20% of the district ESSER III funds to restart a successful afterschool program, serving a community that ranks among the highest in intergenerational poverty in the state, that had been forced to close due to lack of funding. With ARP funds, the program is once again able to offer academic support, transportation, meals, and additional wraparound supports (Afterschool Alliance, 2023b).
• In Alaska, the Kuspuk School District, which spans 12,000 square miles, nine schools, and seven villages, dedicated more than $1.2 million toward summer opportunities for K–12 youth. Activities ranged from wilderness exploration to engaging in STEM learning opportunities to collaboration and teamwork skill-building. Members of the local communities led culturally relevant activities, including drumming, beading, fishing, fish printing, fish preservation, berry picking and preservation, and skin sewing.
• Through ESSER III funds, Tuba City Unified School District, located on the Navajo Reservation, was able to dedicate more than $900,000 toward its summer school programming, doubling the number of K–12 students served during the 2022 and 2023 summers, as well as expanding and enhancing summer offerings. In addition to increasing the number of students served during the summer from approximately 245 to 500, Tuba City Unified School District was able to provide students with both academics and enrichment (Afterschool Alliance, 2024). The district is pursuing alternative funding sources to maintain its robust summer programming; however, when its ESSER III funds expire, the district will most likely have to return to a scaled-back version of its summer programming, serving a smaller number of students.

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³ A map detailing state and local investments is available at https://engageeverystudent.org/interactive-map/

• The Belcourt School District 7, located on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indian Reservation, dedicated a portion of its ESSER III funds toward comprehensive afterschool programs. In addition to reinforcing learning in core subjects such as reading and math, the afterschool program provided STEM learning, sports and other physical activities, leadership opportunities, and career readiness programming that is culturally relevant to their Native students (Engage Every Student, n.d.).

Of course, sustaining the education funding beyond ARP investments will be challenging in many communities. When asked to look ahead to the fiscal cliff, AASA found that “summer learning and enrichment” were a very close second in terms of areas that superintendents anticipate needing to cut. Fifty-three percent of AASA survey respondents said they would decrease “staffing for specialist staff such as behavioral health personnel, tutors, reading specialists and other key personnel hired to address the social and emotional and academic needs of students resulting from the pandemic” followed by 51% who said they would cut resources, “on their summer learning and enrichment opportunities.” Alongside those cuts, respondents indicated they would be forced to reduce spending on staff compensation for additional learning time (42%). Compared to a previous survey in 2022, AASA finds that, “the only major shift is that staffing has shifted to the top cut while summer learning is now the second largest funding cut.”

Furthermore, some district leaders responding to the survey reported: “A third of superintendents responding believe that all students will be impacted equally in their communities by the discontinuation of ARP funded instructional programs and supports while a little more than a quarter said that students who are struggling academically will be impacted the most. A fifth of respondents highlighted how economically disadvantaged students will be most impacted by the cuts in programming and staffing while 14% said students with mental health needs will experience these funding cuts most acutely” (AASA The School Superintendents Association, 2023).

ARP STATE AND LOCAL FISCAL RECOVERY FUNDS

The State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, part of the American Rescue Plan, provided $350 billion to state, local, territorial, and Tribal governments to help them respond to the COVID-19 emergency and its economic impacts. The funding came with tremendous flexibility, enabling recipients to use the funds to meet local needs, including providing supports for households, small businesses, impacted industries, essential workers, and the communities hardest hit by the crisis. Among the categories of allowable uses of funding were “efforts to address educational disparities” and “promoting healthy childhood environments.” Afterschool programs were specifically

cited under efforts to address educational disparities and new or expanded high-quality childcare was included under promoting healthy childhood environments (U.S. Department of the Treasury, 2021). These specific mentions gave cities and other local leaders the flexibility they needed to invest these funds in afterschool and summer opportunities, which mayors and local leaders are increasingly linking to a wide range of priorities, including public safety, workforce development, and childcare access (Stockman, 2024).

In the fall of 2021, the National League of Cities (NLC) surveyed 115 cities in 33 states to explore how they were using funds to support afterschool and summer programs during the pandemic. They found that more cities invested in afterschool and summer learning during the pandemic and that they planned to continue those investments post-pandemic. While the amount of funding invested initially decreased at the height of the pandemic, as the country moved into pandemic recovery, the funding increased above pre-pandemic levels and city leaders expected funding levels to continue to increase post-pandemic (Spooner et al., 2022).

A subsequent 2022 report from the National League of Cities reviewed ARP investments across 80 cities and documented city level investments in strategies to support youth into eight categories: afterschool and summer programs, parks and recreation infrastructure, workforce training opportunities and support services for postsecondary students, youth employment programs, youth support services such as mental health counselors, library programs and infrastructure, city partnerships with K–12 schools or districts, and youth reengagement programs. They found that on average, cities invested 12% of their total ARP funds—an average of $12.8 million—in strategies to support young people. Among the categories of supports for youth, the most popular among cities was investments in afterschool and summer programming, with 72.5% of cities saying ARP funds went to that category. Across the sampled cities, $1 billion in ARP funds was invested in afterschool and summer learning programs and opportunities (Young & Spooner, 2022).

Beyond these NLC survey findings, there is no source that tracks how local leaders invested their State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds from ARP in afterschool and summer programs. However, there are a number of promising local examples that illustrate how these funds are helping expand afterschool and summer opportunities for children and youth.

• The Hillsboro city government and the Hillsboro School District in Oregon directed a combination of ARP Local Fiscal Recovery Funds and ARP ESSER funds, alongside the state’s Student Investment Account, to expand access to afterschool programs at 10 schools, 8 of which were Title I schools. This expanded participation from 320 K–6 students to more than 1,000 students over the course of 3 school years (Afterschool Alliance, 2023b).

• In Memphis, Tennessee, $604,980 is supporting the I Am Included program. The program serves youth ages 14–18 with disabilities and provides them with biweekly programming during the school year and a 3-week Summer Leadership Academy. Students who are deaf and hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired, or have specific learning disabilities or intellectual disorders participate in the program and work with employers in every Memphis council district. Participants receive a stipend and, upon graduation, often receive internships with city agencies (Engage Every Student, n.d.).

The total amount of State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds invested in afterschool and summer is unknown, but it is clear that some local communities prioritized out-of-school-time opportunities for youth, especially youth historically marginalized and disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. With the requirement to obligate all the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds in 2024 and liquidate the funds by 2026, local leaders will face tough choices about how to sustain these opportunities going forward.

ARP CHILD CARE FUNDS

The American Rescue Plan provided a total of $39 billion for child care providers, including those offering afterschool and summer programs for school-age children, through the Child Care Development Fund. Twenty-four billion dollars came in the form of Child Care Stabilization funds, which were intended to help stabilize the childcare community during the pandemic and to address ongoing challenges faced by childcare providers. These funds, which had to be liquidated by September 2023, were largely used by childcare providers for personnel and facilities costs. The Office of Child Care at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that the Stabilization funds reached more than 220,000 providers and as many as 9.6 million children (Office of Child Care, 2023).

In addition to the Stabilization funds, ARP offered $15 billion in Child Care Supplemental Funds, which are more flexible in terms of allowable uses and have a longer timeframe for spending, with a liquidation deadline of September 2024. These funds, which can help programs serve more children and families and offer services at a lower cost to families, can also be used to waive licensing and background check fees for providers, help new programs meet the eligibility criteria for CCDF funds, provide staff with enhanced benefits, and more (The White House, 2021).

Given that there were no reporting requirements to indicate how much of the ARP childcare funds were used to support programs serving

school-age youth or to help school-age families with the cost of care, there are no national estimates of how much this historic investment helped more young people access quality afterschool and summer programs. However, there are a few states that have highlighted how the ARP child care funds helped school-age youth and school-age providers:

• In Utah, the CCDF ARP funds were used to offer a non-competitive School-Age Summer Quality Expansion Grant. The grant funds were available to licensed or license-exempt summer programs designed specifically for school-age youth to help enhance the quality of their summer programs.
• The Vermont Department for Children and Families’ partnered with Vermont Afterschool to offer Room For Me grants to afterschool and summer programs serving school-age youth and meeting the Vermont Child Care Licensing regulations. Since school year 2022–2023, Room For Me funding has supported more than 400 slots for school-age children (5–12) in afterschool and summer learning programs across Vermont. The funding is intended to help programs maintain or reach more children and make quality improvements (Vermont Afterschool, n.d.).
• In Michigan, Child Care Stabilization Funds were used to support local programs, like GOAL in Detroit, which provides afterschool opportunities for 350 youth and has a waiting list of 400 youth (Huffman, 2022).
• In Illinois, the Child Care Restoration Grants helped license exempt afterschool and summer programs pay for staff salaries, facilities costs, and other supplies and services needed by programs that were operating full-time during the pandemic (Illinois Department of Human Services, 2021).

In addition to the examples above, numerous states used their ARP CCDF funds to help support the overall quality of afterschool and summer opportunities in their state by offering new opportunities to programs and staff at low to no cost. For example, Missouri offered free access to their school-age credential, New Jersey offered free special education trainings for school-age providers to help them better serve special needs students, Missouri provided free access to their school-age credential so that staff could more easily demonstrate their qualifications, and Georgia piloted a new technical assistance and professional development system that offered micro-credentialing and bonuses for trainers working in the school-age childcare field.

REFERENCES

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