Education Department approves all requests to extend ESSER spending deadlines.

Summary:

• States have not faced rejections for extending spending deadlines for COVID-19 federal emergency funds for K-12 schools, as all requests have been reviewed by the U.S. Department of Education. Approximately half of the states sought extensions from one or more of the federal COVID emergency allocations designated for K-12 education. 

• Approved spending extensions amounting to $1.7 billion constitute only a small portion of the nearly $200 billion allocated by Congress to states and local school districts to aid in pandemic recovery efforts.

• The Education Department has started endorsing spending extension requests for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds under the American Rescue Plan Act, the final and largest federal COVID-related appropriation. To date, Delaware and Puerto Rico have secured ESSER-ARP spending extensions.

Key Insights:

Entities with spending extensions now have an additional 14 months past the original deadline to utilize their allotments.

Requests for spending extensions were filed for each allocation under the Education Stabilization Fund supplied for K-12 programs, including ESSER, Governor’s Emergency Education Relief, and Emergency Assistance to Non-Public Schools. 

The Education Stabilization Fund was created through the CARES Act in March 2020 to address early pandemic impacts. Altogether, subsequent fund allocations were channeled via the CRRSA Act and the ARP Act.