State of Montana Newsroom
Montana Schools are required to submit Data Collection for Federal Funding
Montana districts must conclude the first of four new federally required significant data collections by March 18th. The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) data collection is mandated in order for districts to receive their share of the total allocation of $534,072,538 education federal COVID dollars. The federal COVID dollars are from three federal funding sources: ESSER I, ESSER II, and ESSER III.
“Federal funding always has strings attached. This data collection connected to the $6 Billion from the federal government is extremely challenging for our rural districts and frontier schools,” said Superintendent Elsie Arntzen. “The state of Montana will always be lawful and accountable, but this data collection is an example of federal overreach.”
The Department of Education granted the requests of the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) for additional time to provide flexibility to our districts to gather the required data. The federal ESSER data collection has three large “use of funds” categories with 25 subcategories.
- Supporting Physical Health
- Meeting Students’, Academic, Social, Emotional, Mental Health and other needs.
- Operational Continuity and Other Allowed Uses
Additional data was also required regarding the use of funds for:
- Provision of Internet Access
- Planned Use of Remaining ESSER I, ESSER II, and ARP ESSER Funds.
- Maintaining Safe In-Person Instruction
- Reengaging Students
- Student Activities
- Support for Staff Salaries and Benefits
- Equitable Allocation to High Poverty and Non-High Poverty Schools.
- Impact of Lost Instructional Time (“Learning Loss”)
- Complementary Priorities of Mental Health, Physical Safety, and Coordination with Partner Agencies.
- Specific Expenditures for Targeted Support for Underserved Populations.
- Support for Learning Recovery for Disproportionately Impacted Populations
- Equitable Access to Key Staff
- Data describing Student Outcome.
The OPI has provided monthly and weekly webinars and office hours for questions. For ease of use, the OPI has defined data-collection tools in the ESSER data collection portal so that staff may more easily fulfill the substantial data requests of the federal government.
For more information, please contact ESSER/EANS Director Wendi Fawns at wendi.fawns@mt.gov.
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