The end date of the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds is looming, and district leaders are going to have to make some hard decisions in the coming months and years. However, the so-called fiscal cliff does have some silver linings, even if it may be hard to see them right now.

Through the challenges and tough decisions, district leaders can use the coming shocks to focus on innovative solutions.

Where have districts increased funding the most?

It’s important to see what categories of K-12 spending increased over the last few years. Burbio, an education funding tracker, looked at trends in keyword references in K-12 district strategic plans from 2018-19 to 2023-24, which reveal spending priorities in those districts.

These plans show that the most crucial post-pandemic goal is to ensure that a generation of students who had their education disrupted in unprecedented ways has the support they need. There also is a nod to how the workforce is shifting, with a large focus on community engagement.

These current top spending trends look very different than when the pandemic was in its early stages. When the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which funded ESSER 1, passed in March 2020, the world was in a very different place than now. It feels like an eternity ago, but with ESSER I, the spending focused on figuring out how to serve students in remote environments, keeping doors open, providing protective gear for when learning did happen in person, and trying to keep learning on track. As each state and district handled things differently, these funds were used to mitigate fallout from school closures in the most effective way possible. This means that the top spending categories were related to remote learning, personal protective equipment, and staff.

ESSER II, funded in December 2020, then shifted as many schools began to open and allow for in-person learning. Many families still wanted a remote learning option, so remote learning did not disappear after schools reopened. This is where the term accelerated learning or learning loss really took off. This phase of ESSER funds focused a great deal on tutoring and working to both assess and get students back to or above grade-level performance. Schools were learning how much ground needed to be made up after math and science achievement were assessed nationally.

Now, amid ESSER III, funded in March 2021, the focus remains on accelerating learning, but districts are looking ahead at how to maintain services once the funds drop off. This is where some of the challenges will give us opportunity to innovate, try new things, and review services to consider if they are worth continued funding. This, too, is where transformation comes in.

How do we ensure that we transform?

With the idea of transformation in mind, it’s important to look at what the U.S. Department of Education is doing to ensure that districts have the time that they need to use the last round of funds for transformation. In January, the department released updated guidance on ESSER spending timelines. It is allowing for “late liquidation,” which means that funds must still be allocated by Sept. 30, but the funds do not need to be spent and out of the account until March 30, 2026. Late liquidation gives districts an extension beyond the standard 180 days, which would have only allowed funds to be spent through January 2025.

The department has templates available for anyone wanting to apply for the liquidation extension. If a district is requesting an extension, the department suggests that the grantee should include several reasons, and gave the following examples:

• Describe projects (e.g., parent communications initiatives, adoption of early warning intervention systems, home visiting programs, and interagency data-sharing investments) that promote regular student attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism.

• Indicate how many subgrantees are requesting liquidation extension to support contracted evidence-based tutoring services throughout the 2024-25 school year, and the approximate number and percentage of students to be served.

• Identify uses of funds to provide summer learning opportunities and to provide after-school and extended learning time during the regular school year, and the number of students served.

Cover letters may also describe other activities that contribute to academic success, such as:

• Providing counseling services to address mental health needs.

• Offering professional development and coaching to educators to build math and literacy instructional capacity.

• Making targeted improvements to school infrastructure, including HVAC investments, to enhance indoor air quality and environmental safety that keep students healthy in school.

This timeline is huge for districts. Ever since the ESSER funds were passed through the legislature, it all felt so rushed. Drinking from a firehose is as dangerous as a drought. The extension of the liquidation period really allows for most of 2024 to be a planning year, just like any other federal grant would likely allow for. If we want transformation, the planning phase right now is critical.

Solutions to workforce shortages

To say education is experiencing workforce challenges is an understatement. The talent pipeline is shrinking. According to a 2022 survey by the National Education Association (NEA), “A staggering 55% of educators are thinking about leaving the profession earlier than they had planned. This represents a significant increase from 37% in August 2021 and is true for educators regardless of age or years teaching, driving buses, or serving meals to students.” NEA also pointed out that, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), “there were approximately 10.6 million
educators working in public education in January 2020; today, there are just 10.0 million, a net loss of around 600,000.”

On top of those leaving the field of education, there are fewer entering it as well. According to the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) in 2022, COVID-19 continues to “have a significant effect on undergraduate enrollment, budgets, and staffing.” In both fall 2020 and fall 2021, AACTE data shows that 20% of institutions reported that “the pandemic resulted in a decline in new undergraduate enrollment of 11% or more. At the graduate level, 13% of fall 2021 respondents reported significant declines in the number of new graduate students due to the pandemic.” Between educators leaving the field and a decrease in those entering, the teacher shortage, which predates the pandemic, is exacerbated even further.

So how can districts attract educators to their schools? It is critical to understand what the next generation of educators is truly looking for. The best thing for a district to do is to survey employees. Often what district leadership thinks educators want doesn’t align with what educators are looking for in their employers.

The Predictive Index has spent a good chunk of time interviewing Generation Z job seekers and has found several helpful things to consider when hiring from the next generation workforce. They expect personal connections with their employers, a modern and efficient hiring process, and the chance to make an impact at work. Benefits that attract the Generation Z workforce include maternity and paternity leave, student loan repayment, and tuition reimbursement. 

Generation Z is not interested in gym memberships, company social events, or stock options. Even retirement benefits are less important as two-thirds of Gen Z workers plan to leave their current employer within the next two years while millennials plan to stick with the current employer on average for five years.

States and districts are implementing several new ideas to try and additionally allow for more educators to enter the workforce sooner. Several states have “grow-your-own teacher” programs that provide opportunities for current high school students to earn a paraeducator certificate and associate degree and paraeducators to earn their bachelor’s degree-—all while learning and working in the classroom. Four-day work weeks are being proposed at an increasing rate across the country, as well.

Solving declining student enrollment

On the other side of the equation is declining student enrollment from students. This is a very nuanced issue, and each district has varying challenges to address. However, there remains the question of where all the students have gone. A quick search will bring up multiple headlines, all with different hypotheses of where the students have gone and why they have not returned. The 74 Million reported in January that schools won’t recover from COVID chronic absenteeism until at least 2030.

Some lawmakers and think tank leaders are calling absenteeism the biggest challenge ahead for districts. There are things districts can do to draw students back in, but it again requires innovation and, often, taking some risks (based on data, of course).

Public school districts now find themselves in a more competitive environment than ever before, so it is critical to offer more learning options—or pathways—including online learning opportunities for students.

Other reforms to consider for bringing students back are offering more flexible schedules for students, rethinking the Carnegie Unit; enlisting the help of parents, families, and community groups; making it easier for students to make up lost credits; and creating schools where students and staff want to be.

The history of previous stimulus funds shows that school districts will feel the impact of the fiscal cliff. The good news is that we can look back and learn from that history, and we also can predict where the impacts will likely be felt the hardest. If your district focuses on innovation, the shock of the cliff will have far less impact.