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Understanding and Combining ESSER and Federal Funds
Recognizing the significant challenges our country's schools face throughout and emerging from the pandemic, the U.S. Congress and the President approved three rounds of ESSER funding. Additionally, in consultation with stakeholders, the New Jersey Department of Education created specialized grants for local education agencies (LEAs). A major focus of these funding streams is to support education initiatives intended to accelerate learning and address the academic and mental health impacts of COVID-19 for students, families, and educators.
This unprecedented influx of additional funding LEAs an opportunity to meaningfully rethink traditional education policies and practices to best meet the needs of all students, particularly the most vulnerable and those most impacted by COVID-19. Rather than seeing these new funds as short-term, one-time supports, LEAs may consider how best to leverage ESSER funds in conjunction with existing Federal funding streams to have lasting impacts on students and school communities.
The ESSER funds come with very few restrictions on how they can be spent, allowing LEAs great leeway in making decisions most appropriate for their local needs. Long-term funding streams (such as Title IA, Title IIA, Title III, IDEA, and others) have more restrictions on spending to ensure that specific populations are supported, and educational goals are met. This guide outlines an array of different activities LEAs might choose to implement with ESSER funds that may be able to be supported with other Federal funding streams in the long term.
See the Department's pages on ESSER and ESSA for greater details on each funding stream and their lists of allowable uses. The information below provides an overview of different funding streams and how to combine them.
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Program Name |
Description |
|---|---|
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(Title I, Part A or Title I-A) |
The purpose of Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), is to provide all children opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high-quality education, and to close educational achievement gaps. Title I provides financial assistance to local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools with high numbers or percentages of children from low-income families to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards. |
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(Title II-A or Title II-A: Supporting Effective Instruction; Title II, Part B or Title II-B: Teacher and School Leader Incentive Fund) |
The purpose of the program is to increase academic achievement by improving teacher, principal, and other school leader quality. |
| (Title III, Part A or Title III-A: Language Instruction for English Learners and Immigrant Students) |
Title III Supplemental Services: Provide supplemental services and activities that improve the English language proficiency and academic achievement of students who are identified as needing language services. The three required uses are:
Title III Immigrant Children and Youth Services: Provide enhanced instructional opportunities for immigrant children, youth, and their families Funds may be used to implement activities for immigrant children, youth, and families only. Allowable uses may include: Family literacy classes, Trauma-informed staff hire, Technology literacy, Transportation, Civic and Know Your Rights Classes. |
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(Title III, Part A or Title IV-A: Student Support and Academic Enrichment Program; Title IV, Part F, Subpart 2 or Title IV-F, Subpart 2: Community Support for School Success) |
Title IV provides funds for comprehensive academic, social, and health services for students, students’ family members, and community members that will result in improved educational outcomes for children. |
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(Title V, Part B or Title V-B: Rural Education Achievement Program) |
The purpose of the program is to address the unique needs of rural school districts. |
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McKinney-Vento (Title IX, Part A) (Title IX, Part A: Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program) |
This program provides funds for schools and LEAs to use to support homeless students. |
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The purpose of Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) is to:
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Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (IDEA Part B, Sections 611 and 619; IDEA Part B, Early Intervention) |
IDEA Part B Sections 611 and 619 funds must be used only to pay the excess costs of providing special education and related services to children with disabilities, unless they are used for activities related to Coordinated Early Intervening Services. |
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Perkins Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins) |
Perkins funds are used to support high school and postsecondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. |
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Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG); Head Start (Early Childhood programs) |
CCDBG provides subsidies to families for child care programs, and schools may be able to benefit if child care programs are located in LEA buildings. CCDBG also funds out of school time programs for children up to age 13. Head Start funds programs for children from birth through school entry, administered directly from the Federal government to local grantee agencies, which often include public school systems. Among the uses of funds is access to professional development for staff, engaging with families and communities, and meeting the social, emotional, and mental needs of diverse children. Head Start funds are often braided or blended with public dollars to support pre-kindergarten programs. |
Braiding Image
“Braiding” funds is a way for LEAs to use multiple Federal and State funding streams to support various parts of an initiative or activity to meet one purpose. As a result, individual funding streams maintain their identities for eligibility and reporting. Federal and State law allows LEAs to coordinate spending from different funding programs, as long as LEAs maintain documentation on how the funds are spent and the expenditures are allowed under the program.
Blending image
“Blending” funds is a way for LEAs to consolidate multiple funds into one stream to meet one purpose. The individual funding streams lose their original identity and gather into a larger funding program. Under the Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA), an LEA may choose to blend Titles I, II, III and IV. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), an LEA may choose to consolidate all funds into a schoolwide program or to blend their Early Intervening Services (CEIS) funds to maximize impact. A few general rules apply to consolidating funds in a school operating a schoolwide program:
- Supplement, not supplant: Consolidating funds does not exempt a school from the Title I-A “supplement, not supplant” requirement, which requires each LEA to ensure that each school receives all the State and local funds it would otherwise receive in the absence of Title I-A or other Federal funds.
- Meeting the intent of Federal programs: If a school consolidates Federal funds, it must maintain records that demonstrate that it meets the intent and purposes of each Federal program that was consolidated. For example, if a school consolidates Title III-A funds with other funds, it must demonstrate how it is still providing supplemental activities/services to English learners and, if applicable, immigrant students, as this is the purpose of Title III-A funds.
Combining ESSER funds and the Federal Entitlement Grants (ESSA funds) is only possible by “braiding”, but funds under ESSA may be “braided” or “blended” under the allowances described above and in the legislation. For more information on leveraging ESSA funds consult New Jersey’s “Unlocking Your Federal Funds” published in 2017.
Schools and LEAs develop the best spending plans using collaborative, data-driven processes. New Jersey’s Annual School Planning process and its guidance provide a model framework for planning, spending, and engaging stakeholders to make equitable and effective decisions that embody a continuous improvement cycle in improving student and educational outcomes. LEAs can apply the framework to the broader and longer-term district planning cycle and various LEA plans (e.g. "ESSER Use of Funds Plan").
To most effectively decide how to spend ESSER funds in the short-term and Federal funds in a more aligned way in the long-term, LEAs should:
- Identify goals, both short- and long-term.
- Ask, “what are the outcomes we want to achieve?”
- Consider short-term (one year), intermediate (2–3 years), and long-term (4+ years) outcomes.
- Involve stakeholders in the entire process.
- Ask, “what stakeholders (e.g. students, teachers, specialists, families, administrators, and community members) can help us set goals, provide and/or analyze data, determine priorities, and monitor progress?”
- Here is a resource for conducting meaningful stakeholder engagement.
- Use data to impact decision-making.
- Ask, “what data exist currently to inform planning, and how will progress and outcomes be measured?”
- Plan now how you will evaluate the effectiveness of programs after a year or two.
- Balance and diversify expenditures.
- Ask, “how will funds be best used?”
- Funds will generally be spent on people (e.g., staff, stipends, bonuses, consultants), programs, trainings, and/or material items (e.g., facilities, technology, or supplies). LEAs should weigh the pros and cons of each type of activity and the portfolio of their prioritized needs. For example, items such as technology may be useful for many years, although they require upkeep; training staff in a new program can have a larger short-term impact, but that will diminish as staff turnover. Additionally, LEAs may redirect resources from ineffective and low impact historical activities to high impact and updated evidence-based practices.
Needs Assessment and Continuous Improvement Cycle
Source: USED State Support Network. (2018). Needs assessment guidebook: Supporting the development of district and school needs assessments.
Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research.
Questions and Considerations When Identifying Appropriate Funding Streams:
- Under which Federal funds(s) is this activity allowable?
- Which Federal funds(s) is most restrictive in terms of the use of funds?
- Which long-term funding streams may support activities that are not one-time expenses to avoid the ESSER Spending cliff in September 2024? Consider spending deadlines when deciding what funding streams to spend first.
- Will using Federal funds this year suggest that supplanting has occurred? While ESSER does not include “supplement not supplant” requirements, other Federal grants do; LEAs should exercise caution to prevent the use of applicable Federal funds to replace or “supplant” State and local funding for particular services.
- Will using the transferability provisions (where allowed) or adding other funding sources to the schoolwide pool increase flexibility or the ability to use funds before they expire?
- How will this activity be sustained, if necessary? For example, how will funding decisions made now enable or preclude later decisions?
Consider maintenance of effort and equity provisions. “Maintenance of effort” means that an LEA cannot reduce funding in a school more than it is reduced in the LEA overall. LEAs are not required to maintain efforts to receive ESSER funds. LEAs must, however, continue to comply with “Maintenance of effort” requirements in other federal education laws such as ESEA and IDEA (ESSA). “Maintenance of equity”?means that to receive funds under ARP ESSER, LEAs should ensure that resources meet the needs of students who have been subject to longstanding opportunity gaps in our education system. Please see US Department of Education pages for additional details on “Maintenance of effort” and “Maintenance of equity”.