On December 16, 2021, the U.S. Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, sent out a letter to clarify that ESSER III funds authorized by the ARP Act may be used to support hiring and retaining qualified and effective educators, in alignment with the goal to provide safe, in-person learning and address the social, emotional, mental health, and academic impact of COVID-19. Because previous guidance from ED states that allowable uses of one ESSER fund are allowable under all three ESSER funds, this clarification additionally applies to ESSER I and ESSER II funds. The letter describes four evidence-based and promising short- and long-term strategies for addressing teacher and staff shortages that can be funded through ESSER funds:
- Increase educator and staff compensation
- Build and maintain a cadre of high-quality substitute teachers
- Support educator and staff well-being, including improved working conditions (including systems to support educator and staff well-being, increasing the availability of qualified adults and personnel to support educators, students, and staff, and implementing flexible and creative scheduling to support students for full-week in-person learning while providing planning and collaboration time for teachers.)
- Make investments in the educator pipeline
For the full text of this letter, including more information and examples of each of these strategies, please reference the Letter from Secretary Cardona re: Addressing Teacher and Staff Shortages
(PDF; posted 16-Dec-2021).
UPDATE (4-Mar-2022): Additionally, ED has released guidance that summarizes strategies LEAs can implement to address teacher and staff shortages, leveraging ESSER funds. For examples of strategies to address teacher shortages, please see the Using American Rescue Plan Funds and Other Federal Resources to Address Teacher Shortages fact sheet
(PDF). For examples of strategies to address shortages of other staff, including nurses, social workers, bus drivers, cafeteria staff, custodial staff, and others, please see the Using American Rescue Plan Funds and Other Federal Supports to Address Staff Shortages fact sheet
(PDF).
UPDATE (13-Jun-2022): ED released additional guidance on June 9, 2022, with the Sustaining Investments in Teachers Beyond the American Rescue Plan
(PDF) fact sheet, which provides examples of how ESSER funds can be used to invest in strategies addressing teacher shortages. It also provides examples of other federal funding available that may be used for the same purposes to support the transition from ESSER funding to other available federal fund sources when the period of availability for ESSER funds has ended. This fact sheet acknowledges the ESSER funds are key to supporting immediate, short-term staffing needs, but other federal fund sources may be needed to sustain investments in teachers over time. ED will continue to provide resources and other assistance to states, districts, and schools as they work to address the teacher shortages in the short- and long-term.
UPDATE (9-Jan-2023): In questions D-1 and D-1.a of the December 2022 revision of the ESSER and GEER Use of Funds FAQs
(PDF), ED reaffirms that the strategies above may be allowable ways to use ESSER and GEER funds to stabilize and support the educator workforce. ED also provides new strategies to use ESSER and GEER funds in conjunction with funding and initiatives from other federal agencies to support this same goal. In particular, ED highlights that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Coronavirus-related relief for retirement plans and IRAs questions and answers
clarifying that, in some instances, retirees can return to work and still receive their pensions or remain on the job and begin receiving pension payments, where permitted.
UPDATE (21-Dec-2023): ED has released additional guidance in the November 2023 Raise the Bar Policy Brief: Eliminating Educator Shortages through Increasing Educator Diversity and Addressing High-need Shortage Areas
. This Brief acknowledges that the use of ESSER funds has allowed states and LEAs to address teaching shortages, including examples of how ESSER and other federal funding sources may aid in hiring diverse educators and educators in high-need shortage areas. The Brief defines diverse educators to include educators of color and educators with disabilities who can serve as role models for students with similar identities. The Brief identifies high-need shortage areas to include special education, STEM, and CTE. In this Brief, ED emphasizes the importance of diverse educators and filling educator roles in high-need shortage areas to help achieve ARP ESSER's goals to address the mental health and academic needs of students that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Further, ED provides strategies and highlights alternative federal funding sources that may aid in the hiring and retention of educators in these areas. These recommendations for alternate federal funding sources may be particularly significant as LEAs make plans to continue investments currently funded through ESSER funds once ESSER funds sunset. For more information, please see the full text of the Brief.