ESSER III Updates

Dear District Administrators,

There are a few important ESSER III updates to share with you.

First, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has now posted a resource to support planning for the requirement of reserving at least 20 percent of your ESSER III formula allocation to address the impact of lost instructional time through evidence-based improvement strategies, sometimes also called evidence-based intervention strategies (EBIS). The ESSER III Funds and Evidence-Based Intervention Strategies resource identifies the EBIS that will appear on the pre-populated list in the ESSER III WISEgrants application and outlines the process for selecting an EBIS that doesn’t appear on this list. This resource is for your planning purposes as we continue to await approval on the state ESSER III plan.

Second, the Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan section is now open in WISEgrants for local educational agencies (LEAs) to complete. The Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan portion of the ESSER III grant application can be found in WISEgrants fiscal year 2021-2022. To access the plan, go to the Programs menu, select ARPA, then select Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan.

As a reminder, the Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan must be developed in consultation with local stakeholders, and the local education agency (LEA) must take public comment into account when developing the plan. The plan must be made publicly available on the LEA’s website, and the plan must describe:

• how the LEA will maintain the health and safety of students, educators, and other staff;
• the extent to which the LEA has adopted policies regarding safety recommendations established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); and
• how the LEA will ensure continuity of services for student academic needs as well as student and staff social, emotional, and mental health needs.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Student Services Prevention and Wellness team has updated the COVID-19 Infection Control and Mitigation Measures for Wisconsin Schools 2021-2022 (PDF) and the COVID-19 Information for School Health Services page to assist LEAs by providing the most current and best public health practices as recommended by the CDC and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS).

CESA 5 has developed a template version of the plan for LEAs to utilize when designing your LEA’s Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan. Our gratitude to our colleagues at CESA 5 for this great work.

More information, including the ESSER III Start Guide, is available on the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s ESSER III page.

If you have any questions about your LEA’s ESSER III Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan, please contact essergrants@dpi.wi.gov.

If you have any questions regarding evidence-based intervention strategies, please contact EBISsupport@dpi.wi.gov.

We are anticipating that the remainder of the ESSER III grant application will open in November, 2021. Once the full ESSER III application is released, LEAs will have 90 days to submit their initial ESSER III application.

Thank you for all of your hard work on this, and for all that you do for Wisconsin’s students.

Sincerely,