1. Deadline to Spend ESSER III
Time Remaining
All ESSER III funds must be expended by 9/30/24.
ESSER III (ARP Act) Important Dates:
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Award Period: 3/1/20 - 9/31/24
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Deadline for Final Spending (with Tydings Extension): 9/30/24
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Deadline for Claiming Funds in EGMS and Filing Reimbursement: 11/14/24
Timely Reimbursement and EGMS Year-End Shutdown
In order for the team (and the public, see ODE's Transparency Dashboard) to better understand how the spend down is progressing, districts are urged to submit reimbursements often. If your district requests reimbursement only a couple times a year, please consider submitting a reimbursement request at the end of the school year so the team can be sure to provide you with timely reimbursement after the end of the grant. Reimbursements could be delayed if ODE staff must process hundreds of millions of dollars in requests after 9/30/24.
Annually, ODE’s Eletronic Grants Managment Systesm (EGMS) closes for a few weeks in late July to facilitate the process of transitioning to a new fiscal year. Therefore, please submit your reimbursement requests prior to Friday, July 12th to ensure your district’s request is processed before the year-end closure.
The federal department of education expects district to continue to collect student participation data if implementing the following ESSER-funded activities:
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Summer School or Enrichment
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Extended Instruction Time
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After School Programs
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High-Dose Tutoring
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Early Childhood Education
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Student use of ESSER-Purchased Education Technology
For more information, visit ODE’s ESSER Annual Data Collection webpage: https://www.oregon.gov/ode/schools-and-districts/grants/Pages/ESSER-Data-Collection.aspx
3. ESSER Funds and Capital Improvement Projects
All remodeling, renovation, repairs, and new construction, other than basic maintenance and repair, costing more than $2,000 must comply with the Davis-Bacon Prevailing Wage Requirements. Specifically, all contractors and subcontractors must be paid no less than the prevailing wages in the LEA’s area and submit weekly certified payroll.
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See more about prevailing wage determination here.
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There are specific recordkeeping, reporting, notice and poster requirements including weekly pay statement documentation for at least three years following the project completion. You can find these requirements here.
If your district has an ongoing or completed project, please review your contracts and records to make sure prevailing wages were paid. There is no time limit on looking back for compliance.
In the coming months, ODE will be sending information and guidance to districts who used ESSER funds for capital improvement projects regarding compliance issues associated with reporting and recording federal interest in capital improvement projects. For more information about these requirements please review:
4. Please Submit and Share Success Stories
We recognize that districts have worked hard to think both creatively and strategically about how to invest their Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) III funds.
We'd like to share an impressive way that Sweet Home School District shared their ESSER spending with their staff, students and community in this comprehensive report.
Please share information about your ESSER III investments, successes, and learning with us by posting to social media #ESSERImpactOregon or by emailing ode.esser@ode.oregon.gov. Use this toolkit for ideas!
5. State ESSER Set Aside Corner
We are excited to highlight one of the 12 projects Oregon has designated as an ESSER III Set-Aside Investment below. To read about all these projects, explore the narratives about Oregon’s full plan for the state’s allocation of ESSER III Set-Aside funds.
Key Investment #2 Update: Career Connected Learning - $12 Million
The Career Connected Learning (CCL) team and partners in ESSER grant work have been busy completing various projects. Educators will find these beneficial to their teaching and support of students. We have a quartet of resources to share with you:
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Team Oregon Build (TOB) addresses learning loss by offering project-based learning activities to build structures that support people experiencing houselessness, including those left homeless by the 2020 wildfires. Students work directly with industry partners and have all building materials provided. Check out this inspirational video to learn more: https://youtu.be/ClDXiBGT1BQ. Training for teachers is also supported. https://ccloregon.org/partners-team-oregon-build/
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Oregon Employability Skills (OES) curriculum is up and ready for use! This pertinent curriculum, aligned with SEL standards, helps students develop the skills that lead to success in the workplace and in school. Training for administrators and staff is available too. https://www.oregonemployabilityskills.org/
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Career Journeys Video Series is a great resource that shares the stories of young Oregonians as they pursued their career goals. https://www.careerjourneys.org/
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The Career Connected Learning Resource Hub is a vibrant platform for communication between educators and professionals supporting CCL. Explore the Hub and connect with others in your region, including your CCCL Systems Navigators, who are ready to support your CCL efforts. https://careerconnectoregon.org
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ODE has introduced the ESSER III Tribal Supplemental Grant, which provides a $70,000 non-competitive grant to each of the nine federally recognized Tribes in Oregon. These funds are designed to enhance opportunities in Career Connected Learning, Career and Technical Education (CTE), and workforce development for Tribal youth.
Key Investment #3 Update: Bilingual Teacher Pathways - $4 Million
Bilingual Teacher Pathways is aimed at fostering the recruitment and retention of bilingual educators, including supporting "grow your own" initiatives. With over 30 districts participating, this grant is creating and sustaining innovative strategies for educator career pathways and helping to increase student access to bilingual education. District projects have included providing professional development to multilingual educators, implementing recruitment efforts to hire and retain multilingual and culturally diverse educators, mentor stipends to provide support for existing multilingual educators and tuition remission to advance certification for future multilingual educators.
6. District Innovation Spotlight
Share Your ESSER III Success Stories with ODE!
What are some innovative things districts are doing with their ESSER funds? Every quarter, we will highlight promising and creative activities that have the potential to impact student outcomes.
This time we feature Bend-La Pine School District which tapped into its emergency relief funding to provide professional development following the adoption of a new K-5 foundational skills curriculum in the 2021-22 school year.
 Reading specialists with Bend-La Pine Schools engage in professional learning around the science of learning. (Photo by Becca Burda, Bend-La Pine Schools)
For Bend-La Pine Teachers, ESSER Boosts Professional Development in Reading Skills
The availability of ESSER funds landed at just the right time to support the implementation of elementary foundational reading skills in Bend-La Pine Schools. The district tapped into its emergency relief funding to provide professional development following the adoption of a new K-5 foundational skills curriculum in the 2021-22 school year.
Implementation of the Really Great Reading curriculum began in the summer of 2022 and continues this school year. ESSER dollars helped prepare over 400 teachers, instructional coaches, interventionists and reading specialists with the transformation.
“All of this has been in the service of ensuring our students learn to read and supporting our teachers in understanding the science of reading,” said Julie Walker, Elementary Director for Curriculum, Instruction, and Systems.
Specific application of the ESSER-funded professional development included:
- A series of three literacy trainings for newly hired teachers, followed by small group learning labs with instructional coaches.
- One-on-one and small group coaching cycles with elementary teachers and instructional coaches aimed at facilitating the implementation of Really Great Reading. This included covering the cost of providing substitutes to allow classroom teachers to meet with coaches to refine their instructional practices.
- A 2-year cohort for LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling). Seven instructional coaches in the district received the facilitator training, and the first cohort of 25 educators began this year.
- Providing training in the Orton-Gillingham Approach to teaching literacy, through the Oregon Dyslexia Institute. About 50 specialists, interventionists and classroom teachers benefitted from this training.
Lindsley Gehrig, a K-5 Literacy Instructional Coach for the district, said ESSER funds have played a crucial role in enabling Bend-La Pine teachers to engage in collaborative learning focused on the science of reading. “Arguably the most helpful aspect is the time and space it gives teachers to learn and problem-solve the challenging task of teaching kids to read,” Gehrig explained.
The district is now preparing to adopt a new elementary language comprehension curriculum.
American Rescue Plan Homeless Children and Youth (ARP-HCY) Funds Ending 9/30/24
The ARP-HCY funds are from a different part of the American Rescue Plan and not administered by the ESSER team, but we are collaborating with our ARP-HCY colleagues in ODE to try to get the word out that the ARP-HCY (I&II) funds also need to be expended by 9/30/24. The ARP-HCY/McKinney-Vento team will be reaching out to districts that are not spending down the ARP-HCY (I&II) funds and they are also providing webinars on spend down and reporting and individual technical assistance as needed.
Please contact their team for assistance: ODE.ARP.HCY@ode.oregon.gov.
ARP-HCY (I & II) information, webinar links and FAQs can be accessed on this ODE web page.
Use of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds in Oregon
Since 2020, Oregon has received $1.62 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Funds to support the needs of all students, with a focus on historically excluded communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. The state has allocated 90% of its allotment to school districts to spend based on their community’s unique needs. ODE has distributed the other 9.5% (.5% can be used for administrative costs) to support 12 equity-driven initiatives designed to address unfinished learning, support the health, safety, and mental wellness of our students and staff, and strengthen high-quality, culturally-sustaining instruction and leadership. These initiatives are designed for all students and are specifically centered on equitably serving Oregon’s Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, and Tribal students, students with disabilities, students who identify as LGBTQ2SIA+; emerging bilingual; and those navigating foster care, houselessness, and poverty, and those with limited access to resources due to rural location.
We send out newsletters on a quarterly basis, so keep an eye out to stay up to date on ESSER III information. Visit the ESSER archive to find previous newsletters and announcements.
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