Feb. 2023 ESSER II and III Update

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, The United States Department of Education (US DOE) acted quickly to provide financial support to school systems across the country and to address the long-standing inequities exacerbated by the pandemic. Boston Public Schools received a total of $454 million ($431 million of federal ESSER funds and $23 million as an additional allocation to ESSER I from the City of Boston) to accelerate learning and recovery, support the social and emotional wellbeing of students and staff, and address historic and new challenges in our school buildings.

In June 2022, we provided a report that detailed how funding decisions were made and accounted for by BPS leadership for ESSER II and ESSER III funds, and how input from the community informed those decisions. Now, the February 2023 ESSER Update report provides an overview of spending and a progress monitoring update. Our approach to spending versus outcomes is to focus on continuous improvement towards student outcomes as a way to assess and improve the use of ESSER, especially in FY22 when implementation was in its first year, and then ensure the district has a strong sustainability plan.

There is a lot of work to do, and ESSER has given Boston Public Schools the opportunity to recover from the pandemic while investing in our work together to ensure every child, in every classroom, and in every school has the same opportunity to succeed.