Today,
state leaders announced that they will be releasing $11.2 billion of the funds made available through ESSER III to schools. Decisions regarding the funding available under ESSER II will be forthcoming, as the state continues to work with the USDE in regards to that funding. Hopefully by the end of the legislative session.
Districts will receive the ESSER III dollars in two installments--two-thirds of the allocation will flow upon receipt of the application TEA will soon make available (which will call for assurances and check for district understanding that these are one-time dollars). Then the remaining one-third of the funding will flow once the state receives approval from the USDE. ESSER III funds will flow to districts based on Title I proportional share. You can see
per district allocations for funds here.
We expect more guidance and information from TEA in the coming days, and in particular, on tomorrow's Commissioner call with superintendents at 3:00 p.m. Schools will have until September 2023 to use the funding available through ESSER III, with a possible 12 month extension beyond that through 2024 if needed.
The Texas School Coalition released the following statement today:
"We appreciate the decision of state leadership to release a portion of the education funding that the federal government approved to help Texas students. We are also grateful to the U.S. Congress and the President for making these dollars available to Texas students and, most of all, we appreciate the many Texas teachers, parents, business leaders and other community voices who have spoken out on behalf of supporting our students.
"The COVID-19 pandemic created unforeseen and unprecedented learning challenges for Texas students and teachers. The state's decision to release some of the money available to Texas will help students begin to catch up and recover from this difficult year, and we look forward to hearing more about the state's plans for the billions of other dollars that Congress has approved to help Texas students. This is a positive step forward for Texas students, but there is much work ahead as schools put these dollars — and the remaining dollars — to work in order to help more than 5 million students across the state."
