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The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act provided an unprecedented investment in America’s preschool through 12th-grade (PreK-12) schools to help them safely reopen and remain open for in-person learning and to provide the academic, mental health, and social and emotional support that students, educators, and schools need to recover from the pandemic.
ARP included $122 billion for PreK-12 schools in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) funds, as well as an additional $8 billion to States and school districts to meet the needs of certain student populations, including over $3 billion for students with disabilities and $800 million for children and youth experiencing homelessness.
Across the country, we already see the significant impact ARP has on schools and communities. Since its passage, States, school districts, and schools have used these funds to safely reopen and sustain in-person instruction, support academic learning, and address student mental health needs. To help deploy funds strategically, States and school districts have been engaging with their communities — including parents, families, community groups, and educators — to develop the best plan for their schools.
To learn more about the promising practices helping students across the country, keep scrolling!
Learn about school, early childhood program, and campus approaches to implementing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as other strategies for sustaining safe in-person operations with ARP funds.
Learn how communities and schools use ARP funds to support the social, emotional, mental health, academic, developmental, and basic needs of all learners. This includes providing access to food and other basic needs, with a specific focus on the most vulnerable learners and ensuring that resources provided by schools and campuses will be able to connect with and meet the needs of those disconnected from learning and those whose communities have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
Learn how to better address the well-being and professional needs of teachers, early childhood providers, faculty, and staff, including strategies to address their social, emotional, health, and other needs, with ARP funds. Teachers, early childhood education providers, faculty, staff, schools, districts, institutions of higher education, other places of educational instruction, and States may use these lessons learned, best practices, and Federal resources to create plans of action.
Learn about the Ohio Department of Education’s efforts to address chronic absenteeism and ensure that all students attend school engaged and ready to learn.
This resource from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides helpful tips for parents and caregivers regarding the COVID-19 vaccination for children. This resource from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides helpful tips for parents and caregivers regarding the COVID-19 vaccination for children. See transcript.
Chiefs for Change showcases Tennessee’s Grow Your Own, a teacher apprenticeship program that has received national recognition as an innovative solution to the school staffing crisis. The State leverages both Federal and State workforce dollars, preserving locally designed programs while meeting national apprenticeship standards.
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National Partnership for Student Success (NPSS)
NPSS is a cross-sector connector focused on helping national, State, and local student support efforts. The NPSS focuses on five categories of evidence-based student supports: postsecondary transition coaches, academic tutors, high-quality mentors, student success coaches, and wraparound/integrated student support coordinators.
Research shows that these five evidence-based student supports can meet the needs of students across the country and lead to gains in reading and math, high school and college graduation rates, reductions in chronic absenteeism, and improved student well-being and mental health.
An illustration of the text Engage Every Student on a yellow background above the text Student. All text is on a dark blue background
Engage Every Student Initiative
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona launched the Engage Every Student initiative on July 14, 2022. With support from five coordinating partners and more than 20 allied organizations, this initiative aims to ensure that every student can access a spot in a high-quality out-of-school-time program.
From the Engage Every Student home page, scroll down to the Technical Assistance section to learn how to get support for your specific entity (child, school, district, or State).
An image of an apple on a stack of books with the text Supporting Recovery with Evidence-Based Practices. IES is the nation's premier source for research, evaluation and statistics that can help educators, policymakers and stakeholders improve outcomes for all students.
Institute of Education Sciences (IES): Supporting Recovery with Evidence-Based Practices
IES hosts an online repository of research, resources, and tools that are grounded in evidence and that support States, districts, schools, and postsecondary institutions in improving student outcomes.
The Website includes resources focused on the foundations of evidence-based practice, afterschool and out-of-school-time learning, and data science education, as well as a suite of resources from the What Works Clearinghouse.
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