Arizona state schools chief releases federal district-charter COVID funding update

PHOENIX (KYMA, KECY) - Arizona State Schools Chief Tom Horne has released data showing "multiple school districts and charters have not obligated all the federal COVID-related funding that was appropriated to them by Congress in 2021."

In a press release, the deadline for the districts and charters "to obligate funds under the ESSER III law" is September 30, 2024.

The press release says $2.36 billion, or 81%, has been spent "with only 19%, or $432 million, remaining," and districts and charters have until the end of the year "draw down these dollars."

"In 2021, Congress appropriated billions of dollars to schools throughout the country to help mitigate the effect of the pandemic. This money is not spent by the Arizona Department of Education but is passed through to local districts and charters for them to manage. Every district or charter that received these dollars was told in 2021 that the deadline to obligate ESSER III funds is September 30 of 2024. We have been in contact, in many cases multiple times, with districts and charters to remind them of their responsibility to obligate these funds. Most are showing the ability to do this, but a number of them are at great risk of reverting funds. That outcome is still avoidable if they simply do the work that we have been urging them to do."

Tom Horne, Superintendent, Arizona Department of Education

The Arizona Department of Education has a dashboard on their website to show "the status of all the districts and charters that have received ESSER III dollars." However, the dashboard is "not designed to show real-time progress being made," but it is updated periodically.

To view the dashboard, click here.