The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund was authorized by
Section 18003 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to provide emergency aid to states to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) received $193,186,874 – 90% of which is to be distributed to local education agencies (LEAs) to support their crisis response efforts.
Most recently, on March 11, 2021, a third ESSER Fund (ARP ESSER III) was authorized by the enactment of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act. This act includes more than $2 billion dollars for Kentucky public schools, and Section 2001(e) of the ARP Act requires districts to reserve not less than 20 % of ARP ESSER funds to address learning loss through the implementation of evidence-based interventions – such as summer learning or summer enrichment, extended day, comprehensive afterschool or extended school year programs.
To help us track which Kentucky schools and districts will be offering afterschool, summer learning, and other types of allowable interventions to address learning loss during non-school hours, the Kentucky Out-of-School Alliance (KYOSA), with the help of the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), recently sent out an online survey to all K-12 public schools and districts in Kentucky to compile this information.
Schools and districts have until September 17, 2021 to complete the survey. Data from the survey will be made available to the public via our interactive mapping tool, the KYOSA Data Explorer, later this fall.
If you have additional questions about this survey, please contact us at kyosa@savechildren.org.