The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund, authorized under the ARP Act of 2021, provides over $411 million to Maine to support schools in safely reopening and sustaining safe operations while meeting the academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs of students resulting from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It is particularly important that ARP ESSER funding will enable school administrative units (SAUs), and more directly schools, to support students who have been most severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are likely to have suffered the most because of longstanding inequities in our communities and schools that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This page includes information related to SAUs use of ARP ESSER funds.
The ARP ESSER interim final requirements (IFR) (link to https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/04/22/2021-08359/american-rescue-plan-act-elementary-and-secondary-school-emergency-relief-fund) indicate that each SAU that receives ARP ESSER funds must develop, submit to the SEA on a reasonable timeline determined by the SEA, and make publicly available on the SAU's website, a plan for the SAU's use of ARP ESSER funds. In addition, Section 2001(i)(1) of the ARP Act requires each SAU that receives ARP ESSER funds to develop and make publicly available on the SAU's website a plan for the safe return to in-person instruction and continuity of services for all schools, including those that have already returned to in-person instruction.
The URLs for Maine SAU plans are listed in the the spreadsheet below. The URLs are collected from the ARP application and annual ESSER Performance Reports as they become available on their corresponding SAU website. These plans are regularly updated to include SAU modifications, as appropriate.
SAU Use of Funds and Safe Return to Instruction Plans