GAO report shows how US schools spent pandemic relief funds, including on better ventilation

A brand new report from the US Authorities Accountability Workplace (GAO) concludes that, by the top of the 2021-22 faculty 12 months, US faculty districts had spent about $60 billion in federal COVID-19 emergency support via the Elementary and Secondary College Emergency Reduction (ESSER) fund.

Eighty p.c of this cash was used to deal with college students’ social-emotional wants and to maintain colleges operating, whereas 20% went to addressing well being considerations, together with bettering air flow, enhanced cleansing and disinfection, and hiring faculty psychologists. 

To conduct the report, GAO investigators visited 17 faculty districts in six states, together with rural, city, and suburban colleges. 

Of the colleges visited and surveyed, practically half (48.2%) stated they used the federal aid funds to extend constructing air flow. One other 51.7% used funds for bodily distancing measures, and 67.1% stated they used the funds to reinforce cleansing and disinfection practices. 

Eighty p.c of ESSER spending via faculty 12 months 2021-22 went to addressing college students’ tutorial, social, and emotional wants and persevering with faculty operations, the report stated.  For instance, a lot of the districts that GAO visited added educational time, and lots of purchased new curricula. Officers from 12 of the 17 faculty districts surveyed stated they employed social staff or faculty psychologists or bought telehealth remedy companies.

Some cash went to new workers

Along with psychological well being companies, ESSER funds have been used to cowl new workers salaries, purchase faculty provides, and buy technical or skilled companies. 

Officers from 14 of our 17 districts advised us they supposed to maintain at the very least one ESSER-funded exercise after funding expire.

“Officers from 14 of our 17 districts advised us they supposed to maintain at the very least one ESSER-funded exercise after funding expired,” the report stated. “For instance, officers from one district stated that they’d seen robust tutorial beneficial properties from college students that participated within the district’s enhanced summer season programming and would preserve that effort.” 

A number of faculty districts reported utilizing funds to rent extra counselors, partly to deal with rising psychological well being points amongst college students. Faculties in rural districts, nonetheless, reported hassle accessing such workers.

General, faculty officers interviewed within the report stated they didn’t know if ESSER funding would remedy all the issues the pandemic offered to US college students. Many officers voiced concern that they’d not have the ability to supply a continuity of ESSER-funded applications within the coming faculty years, and scholar re-engagement is an ongoing battle.