NMPED News:

SANTA FE — The Public Education Department’s interactive digital dashboard now allows the public to track how New Mexico schools are spending $488 million in federal COVID-19 relief funding to support students amid pandemic-related learning disruptions.

The department launched the digital dashboard in September with data from the first round of relief funding ($97.7 million, now 89% spent) and enhanced it this week to include round two ($390.4 million, now 38% spent).

“The public needs to see that New Mexico and our schools are being good stewards of this important federal funding. This dashboard lets anyone track that spending dollar by dollar and see how it’s being used, as intended, to support our students in a variety of ways designed to offset impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Public Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus said.

New Mexico and other states have now received three rounds of federal pandemic relief funds provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March 2020, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act in December 2020, and the American Rescue Plan in March 2021.

The appropriations are intended 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 COVID-19 pandemic. 

Under each law, the appropriations flow to states and then districts and state-chartered schools through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund:

• ESSER I provided $108.6 million to New Mexico to be spent by Sept. 30, 2022.
• ESSER II provided $435.9 million to New Mexico to be spent by Sept. 30, 2023.
• ESSER III – the largest funding round – sent $979.1 million to New Mexico to be spent by Sept. 30, 2024.

For all three awards, 90% must be distributed directly to school districts and state-chartered schools through sub-grants. That totals nearly $1.4 billion for New Mexico schools over three rounds.

The dashboard, designed and hosted by Falling Colors, a Santa Fe-based technology group, consists of two digital pages of charts, drop-down menus, embedded links and data lists for ESSER I and ESSER II. 

The first page provides total funding, amount of requested reimbursements for spending so far and amount remaining — for the whole state and for individual school districts and state-chartered schools. The second page includes data showing how districts/state-chartered schools planned to use these funds, broken down both by the planned allocation category (student supports and interventions, for example) and sub-category (summer learning and after-school programs, for example.) 

The dashboard shows the largest share of funding – $97.2 million –has been allocated for purchasing education technology to support students in remote learning. Another $61.9 million has been allocated for activities to maintain continuity of services (which includes purchasing personal protective equipment for students and staff), and $49.5 million is earmarked for improving indoor air quality. Districts and charter schools allocated $21.3 million to address pandemic-related learning loss.

The dashboard is updated regularly as districts and state-chartered schools submit additional ESSER I and ESSER II reimbursement requests to the Public Education Department. 

To date, very little of the ESSER III funding has been spent because districts/state charter schools are still spending down their ESSER I and ESSER II funds, and they have 2 ½ years remaining to spend ESSER III. ESSER III will be added to the dashboard as data become available.

Altogether, the federal government has appropriated nearly $189.5 billion to support the nation’s schools in safely reopening and sustaining safe operations of schools while meeting the academic, social, emotional and mental health needs of students resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This instructional video shows how to use the dashboard.

This fact sheet includes additional information and examples of how schools are spending federal relief funds.