Thursday, May 5, 2022
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is pleased to share that our state plan for ESSER III funds has been fully approved by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) in a letter dated May 2. This plan includes additional ESSER III funds for LEAs and CESAs. DPI knows that many are involved in deep budget planning for the next school year and that these funds are a part of that planning, which is why the State Superintendent and other DPI leaders have been advocating for full approval of this plan with ED. LEAs have already received their initial ESSER III formula grants; those original ESSER III formula grant amounts have now been changed due to recalculations caused by LEAs choosing to surrender their ESSER III funds.
The final portion of Wisconsin’s state plan just approved focuses on how Wisconsin will spend its ten percent state reservation. Federal requirements for spending that ten percent are as follows:
- one percent to be spent on evidence-based summer school programming;
- one percent to be spent on evidence-based out-of-school time programming;
- five percent to be spent on evidence-based improvement strategies (EBIS); and
- three percent to be spent on state emergency needs, including administrative costs.
The plan for these funds approved by both Wisconsin Joint Committee on Finance (JCF) and ED is as follows:
- one percent to be spent on evidence-based summer school programming given as competitive grants in two rounds, with the first round only open to LEAs eligible for sparsity aid;
- one percent to be spent on evidence-based out-of-school time programming given as competitive grants in two rounds, with the first round only open to LEAs eligible for sparsity aid;
- award funds totaling approximately $67 million to LEAs from the five percent portion in a combination floor-ceiling formula that ensures an LEA’s ESSER III allocation of $578/pupil (guaranteeing a minimum ESSER III allocation of $323,074 for LEAs with more than 25 total pupils and guaranteeing an allocation of $200,000 for LEAs with 25 [or less] total pupils). These funds may only be spent by LEAs on EBIS;
- award funds totaling approximately $37.6 million to LEAs from the three percent portion based on the Wisconsin JCF initial in-person instruction hours formula. These funds may be spent by LEAs to plan for, prepare for, or respond to COVID-19;
- award Lincoln Academy funds in the amount of $781 per pupil from the three percent portion;
- award funds totaling $700,000 each to Syble Hopp and Lakeland schools from the three percent portion;
- award $400,000 to the Wisconsin School for the Deaf and $300,000 to the Wisconsin School for the Blind and Visually Impaired from the three percent portion;
- award a total of $5 million in various reading grants from the three percent portion;
- award $5 million to Graduation Alliance to identify and re-engage chronically absent students from the five percent portion;
- award $5 million in competitive grants to community-based organizations and LEAs for evidence-based out-of-school time programming from the five percent portion; and
- reserve $1.2 million from the three percent portion for DPI administrative costs.
Preliminary amounts of the additional ESSER III funds are posted at https://dpi.wi.gov/arp/esser-iii . These figures differ from initial projection amounts due to recalculations caused by LEAs choosing to surrender their ESSER III funds.
DPI will contact LEAs when the applications are available in WISEgrants along with the deadlines for completing these applications and budgets. In the meantime, continue to take advantage of the many resources for ESSER III fund use found at https://dpi.wi.gov/arp/esser-iii.
Please contact essergrants@dpi.wi.gov with any questions.