How did Lafayette schools spend COVID funds? Here's what you need to know.

William Taylor Potter, Lafayette Daily Advertiser
·3 min read

The Lafayette Parish School System received nearly $130 million through the various federal stimulus packages passed to help ease the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the district planned to spend more than $99.1 million during the 2021-2022 school year.

The district’s “Comeback Plan” for last school year was submitted to the state in August 2021 and was posted to the Louisiana Department of Education’s Louisiana Comeback website along with plans from schools and districts throughout the state. The plans outline how the districts plan to spend Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, funds.

Here’s what you need to know.

What is ESSER?

The ESSER funds were allocated to states as part of three stimulus packages passed by the federal government during the pandemic.

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The first round of ESSER money came through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act enacted in March 2020. The second round came through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act in December 2020. The third round was part of the American Rescue Plan in March 2021.

How much money did LPSS get?

LPSS received around $10.3 million from the first round of ESSER and about $36.8 million from the second round. The third round was the largest pot of money with more than $82.5 million, giving the district a total of $129.6 million through all three rounds.

How did LPSS spend the money last school year?

According to its Comeback Plan for 2021-2022, the district planned to spend around $16.1 million from ESSER II funds and $83 million from ESSER III funding for a total of more than $99.1 million.

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The largest chunk of the money was for safe school reopening with more than $30.5 million, or 30.8% of all the money included in the plan. Safe school reopening included initiatives like social distancing and masking, but LPSS also used the money to buy eight new school buses to accommodate social distancing, hire more registered nurses and replace Truman Early Childhood Education Center for better ventilation and air quality.

Around a fifth of the money was marked for targeted learning support, totaling around $19.4 million. Targeted learning support focused on ensuring the groups most heavily impacted by the pandemic received support to meet learning objectives through class size reduction, increased strategic support for English language learners and targeted interventions.

About 14.5% of the funds were planned for before and after-school programs. The more than $14.3 million was expected to be used on Accelerate: Louisiana’s tutoring program and extended school days for English as a Second Language students.

Other areas funded for the 2021-2022 school year included:

  • $27,063 for attendance initiatives (0.03% of allocated funds)

  • $548,355 for well-being initiatives (0.55%)

  • $4,414,160 for summer learning (4.5%)

  • $1,774,218 for individual student plans for success (1.8%)

  • $9,804,980 for school improvement best practices (9.9%)

  • $4,483,854 for literacy professional development (4.5%)

  • $13,802,177 for continuity of teaching and learning initiatives (13.9%)

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This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: How did Lafayette schools spend federal COVID money?