Operations

ESSER funds offer schools a unique opportunity to both respond to the pandemic and tackle the backlog of deferred maintenance.

Building Better School Infrastructure grants will support energy- and cost-saving redesigns and help districts transition to electric school buses.

Transportation challenges, student health, school climate, mobility and poverty—long the leading causes of chronic absenteeism—also became much more severe during the pandemic.

Loss of free universal meal waivers will "devastate school meal programs" and is a "worst-case scenario" for children nationwide, anti-hunger advocates and education leaders say.

The lightbulb went on when the wife of a Fayette County Public Schools bus driver was overheard saying her husband had long aspired to become a substitute teacher.

But there are significant differences among rural, urban and suburban districts on use of ESSER funds.