{"id":6,"date":"2026-11-02T11:12:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T11:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/?p=6"},"modified":"2026-11-02T11:12:00","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T11:12:00","slug":"philsugar-schools-brace-as-covid-19-emergency-relief-funding-dries-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/?p=6","title":{"rendered":"PhilSugar | Schools brace as COVID-19 emergency relief funding dries up"},"content":{"rendered":"

TUSKEGEE, AL – MARCH 14: Sixth grade students work on math problems together on March 14, 2023, at Tuskegee Public School in Tuskegee, Alabama. (Photo by Julie Bennett for The Washington Post via Getty Images).
\nGovernment resources are drying up, vaccine mandates and COVID-19 protocols are being lifted, and students and educators say they feel they\u2019re being left behind
\n.
\nThis three-part series takes a closer look at how teachers, students, and parents are coping with fear and uncertainty sugar baby scams Philippines<\/a> as government priorities shift.
\nElementary and middle schools that have relied on emergency relief funding throughout the pandemic could soon see those funds dry up.
\nMoney granted by the
\nElementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Act
\n(ESSER) gave schools across the country sugar daddy asking for GCash<\/a> a chance to meet the needs of students, parents, teachers, and administrators during a time of strife and uncertainty.
\nESSER funds arrived two weeks into the pandemic in three installments totaling nearly $190.5 billion. Congress set aside $13.5 billion of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act money for ESSER in March 2020. Schools received an additional $54.3 billion when Congress authorized the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act in December 2020. In 2021, schools received the largest round of funding yet, known as ESSER III, when the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) gave $122 billion to public and charter schools to \u201caddress the
\nimpact of the coronavirus pandemic
\non the Nation\u2019s students.\u201d
\nSchools are on a tight deadline for ESSER III spending, which was distributed to
\nevery state
\n. The funds expire in September 2024, and teachers and best sugar baby sites Philippines<\/a> administrators are feeling pressure to spend responsibly as conversations about the impact of pandemic learning on teachers, parents, and students reveal a range of socioeconomic divides.
\nNearly every state that received ESSER III funding sugar dating features comparison<\/a> has been explicit about making students\u2019 social and emotional well-being a priority. One
\n2021 Pew study
\nshowed that the pandemic wreaked havoc on kids\u2019 mental health, leading to higher than average rates of anxiety sugar baby profile tips<\/a> and depression, a problem that spilled over into hallways and classrooms when schools returned to in-person.
\nAdriana Publico is the ESSER Project Manager at Washoe County School District in Nevada. Her district received more than $121 million in ESSER funding, a significant portion of which was allocated for hiring
\nmental health professionals
\n, social workers, and counselors in the schools. But despite these resources, find a sponsor Manila<\/a> her optimism that students will fully emotionally recover before ESSER III funds expire is waning.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t see any federal funding on the horizon,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re just talking about academics. The social and emotional side I think is going to take even longer because literally everybody\u2019s lived through multiple layers of trauma.\u201d
\nWhen it comes to academics, Publico says Spanish-speaking students, Black students, Indigenous students, and other students of color, who altogether
\nmake up 57.5%
\nof the school\u2019s student population, have fallen very far behind. The district focused heavily on getting more adults into buildings to work directly with students on their individualized needs. They also expanded online learning programs, adding four new distance learning options to their catalog of software for kids struggling in reading and math.
\nWithout ESSER funding, Washoe County School District may have to say goodbye to those programs.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get students prepared for the futures that they want in our state. And, honestly, for the first time, in my experience here, I think we [legislators, superintendents, school board members] are aligned on all levels to put more funding toward education,\u201d Publico said.
\nIn North Carolina, schools largest sugar baby site Philippines<\/a> are already saying goodbye to ESSER-funded programs. Chatham County Schools announced in February the
\nclosure of the fully remote learning option
\nmade available to elementary and middle schoolers during the pandemic, citing \u201cbudgetary changes\u201d as one reason the school was unsustainable.
\nThe school was established sugar dating photo privacy<\/a> using ESSER funds that will expire in June 2024. During a
\npublic information session
\nfor the 2021-22 school year, Assistant Superintendent for Academic Services and Instructional Support Amanda Hartness stated that Chatham County Schools had made a \u201cthree-year commitment\u201d to the virtual academy. Now, just two years in, they are calling it quits.
\nThe remote learning option was a perfect accommodation for students like Carrie Campbell\u2019s son, Ethan. A rare form of epilepsy makes in-person learning risky for Ethan, so Campbell was relieved after enrolling him in Chatham County Virtual K-8 Academy in 2021. And, for the first time, Ethan formed close connections with his teachers and classmates, and his reading improved, Campbell said.
\n\u201cI was really disappointed that they would make such a major decision to close down my child\u2019s school,\u201d she said. So, she emailed the superintendent with pleas to keep the academy open, but administrators insist that the money just isn\u2019t there.
\nCampbell scrambled to find other remote learning options for Ethan. Next year, he will start over at North Carolina Cyber Academy with all new teachers and classmates.
\nCampbell isn\u2019t the only parent frustrated by sugar daddy na legit<\/a> the impending loss of funding.
\nVeronica Quetero is a mother and advocate with three children enrolled at schools in Texas\u2019 largest school district, Houston Independent School District (HISD).
\nHISD received
\nnearly $1.2 billion
\nin ESSER money, and Quetero hopes some of it will go to Benavidez Elementary School.
\nBefore the pandemic, the school lacked basic infrastructure, she said.
\n\u201cOur children didn\u2019t have working toilets. They didn\u2019t have running water or, in some cases, they had a little bit too much running water, so toilets would overflow,\u201d Quetero said. \u201cThere was trash everywhere.\u201d
\nLike many public schools, Benavidez Elementary is severely understaffed, she said, and the pandemic exacerbated this.
\nWhen ESSER funds arrived, Quetero had all kinds of ideas for how to spend the money. She fought for affordable after-school enrichment opportunities for children with special needs after hearing that ESSER funds could be used to expand extracurricular programs before and after school.
\nQuetero and other parents also urged the school\u2019s board of trustees to address clean-up and staffing, but with certain parameters sponsor dating Manila<\/a> about how the money can be spent they saw little improvement.
\nWith help from Latinos for Education, a nonprofit working to amplify the voices of Latinx students, families, and educators, they saw some progress. HISD agreed to allocate ESSER funding for
\nparent liaisons
\non every campus throughout the district, opening a line of communication between Spanish-speaking parents and school administrators that didn\u2019t exist before. When ESSER runs out, it\u2019s unclear whether these liaisons will remain in the schools.
\nQuetero works closely with the liaison at Benavidez Elementary. Together, they\u2019re coordinating a graduation ceremony for the fifth graders.
\n\u201cThese kids are the pandemic children that lost those two-to-three years, and they\u2019ve been through a lot of changes,\u201d she said. \u201cThey deserve something nice.\u201d
\nRelated
\nTagged:
\nCOVID-19
\n,
\neducation
\n,
\nhealth
\n,
\nNews
\n,
\nschools
\n,
\nstudents
\nMakaelah Walters
\nMakaelah is a writer for Facing South, an online magazine published by the Institute for Southern Studies. She is the institute's 2022 Julian Bond Fellow. Previously, she was a reporter for the Watauga…
\nMore by Makaelah Walters<\/p>\n

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TUSKEGEE, AL – MARCH 14: Sixth grade students work on math problems together on March 14, 2023, at Tuskegee Public School in Tuskegee, Alabama. (Photo by Julie Bennett for The Washington Post via Getty Images). Government resources are drying up, vaccine mandates and COVID-19 protocols are being lifted, and students and educators say they feel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}