ESSER Newsletter - March 2022
- Mon, Mar 7 2022
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Greetings, school leaders!
Thank you for continuing to utilize ESSER funds in creative ways to support students’ academic, social, and emotional wellbeing and success.
As we head towards the final quarter of this school year, our ESSER team reminds you to visit our EMAC portal to complete the second submission of your Safe Return to In-Person Learning plans. Please visit EMAC to check your submission date.
As a reminder, you may only submit one month prior to your LEA’s assigned due date. LEA has been assigned to a specialist for review, feedback and approval will all be in the EMAC system moving forward. Below are resources to help familiarize yourself with EMAC:
- How to add new users in EMAC (for ADEConnect Administrators)
- EMAC Portal User Guide
Please contact [email protected] with any EMAC questions. Thank you to all our LEAs who submitted their plans via EMAC!
Post-Secondary ESSER Set-Aside Opportunities
The following professional development opportunities are funded and supported by the Arizona Department of Education’s federal recovery dollar investments. These activities are supported by the funds at ADE’s discretion and are separate from dollars allocated directly to LEAs:
The Ask Benji Chatbot is a free FAFSA completion tool whose services are available statewide to teachers, students, and their families. For high school seniors, completing and submitting the FAFSA by April 1st is one of the requirements of the Arizona Promise Program, which provides free in-state tuition to qualifying Arizona high school seniors.
AzCAN’s College Access Professional (CAP) Training will help professionals develop an understanding of their role in developing a college-going mission for all students, particularly students in poverty or facing other barriers in postsecondary planning. All the courses are designed for anyone who provides direct service to students, no matter what their role may be. Cohorts of staff are encouraged to participate in the courses together as creating an action plan is a course component.
Courses are self-paced, with a one-hour commitment a day! You can view the full course list here. Initial courses include:
- Building a College Going Future for All Students
- Financial Aid & College Applications
- College & Career Advising in the Middle Grades
- College & Career Advising for Non-School Counselors
LEA ESSER III Grant Approvals
Thank you to all our LEAs who submitted applications to receive their allocations of ESSER III funding. We’re so grateful that this additional funding is being used to support students, teachers, and communities.
Our ESSER team is reviewing these applications and working diligently to complete the reviews in a timely manner. We appreciate your patience as our small but mighty team reviews the applications.
After your ESSER III application is approved, we request that LEAs do a monthly drawdown of funds. Learn more on our ESSER III page.
ESSER Data Collection to resume
The US Department of Education is ready for LEAs to resume ESSER (I, II, and III) data reporting as required by the federal covid relief packages. These new requirements are comprehensive and include fiscal, programmatic, and personnel data that will need to be submitted from LEAs regarding their ESSER (I, II, and III)-funded activities that occurred between July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021.
Join us for our weekly education leaders call on March 9th for a high-level overview for leaders on the new ESSER data reporting requirements. Do you need to be added to our weekly education leaders call? Sign up here.
Additionally, ADE is partnering with ASBA, ASA, AASBO, and ACSA to host a deep-dive next steps webinar for LEAs on these reporting requirements on March 14th from 2-3:30 PM. You can sign up for the joint webinar here.
ESSER Data Reporting: Next Steps for LEAs Webinar Registration
