ARP-ESSR Funds
The 2021-2022 enacted state budget includes language requiring local education agencies, such as school districts, that receive funding from the Federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund allocated by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP-ESSER) to post on its website a plan by school year of how these funds will be spent.
New York has been allocated nearly $9 billion in ARP-ESSER funds, with a minimum of $8.09 billion (90 percent) going to local education agencies, including public schools. Norwich City has been allocated $5,852,099.
This total includes funds specifically for supporting summer programming, after-school programming, and/or additional support to address learning loss.
Districts are also required to prioritize spending on non-recurring expenses in the following areas:
- Safely returning students to in-person instruction;
- Maximizing in-person instruction time;
- Operating schools and meeting the needs of students;
- Purchasing educational technology;
- Addressing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on students, including the impacts of interrupted instruction and learning loss and the impacts on low-income students, children with disabilities, English language learners, and students experiencing homelessness;
- Implementing evidence-based strategies to meet students' social, emotional, metal health, and academic needs;
- Offering evidence-based summer, after-school, and other extended learning and enrichment programs; and
- Supporting early childhood education.