OSSE is responsible for overseeing the management of nearly $1 billion dollars of federal stimulus funds to support the recovery and restoration of our public education and early childhood education sectors in the District.
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) today launched a new web portal to keep the public informed about how the District is using federal stimulus funds to support recovery and restoration efforts.
The new portal, available at osse.dc.gov/recovery, offers transparent data and information about the investment of nearly $1 billion of federal stimulus funds in students, education agencies and the early childhood education sector in the District. Visitors can view breakdowns of recovery funding by source and focus area, details on how OSSE is investing funds over which the agency has greater discretion and interactive dashboards that include data about local education agency (LEA) spending of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) money.
“We are committed to keeping stakeholders informed about the sources and uses of these recovery funds,” said State Superintendent Dr. Christina Grant. “The collective recovery and restoration work we are doing in the District’s public education and early childhood education sectors will allow us to strategically address student and educator needs now and in the future.”
OSSE identified seven primary areas of focus for targeting state-led investments in recovery and restoration: accelerating learning, supporting safe reopening, promoting student and staff wellbeing, reimagining pathways to postsecondary success, stabilizing and strengthening early childhood education, improving outcomes for students with disabilities and investing in core infrastructure and operations. LEA spending of ESSER funds focuses on accelerating learning, supporting safe reopening and promoting student and staff wellbeing.
“Our recovery investments address the impacts the pandemic had on our students and their learning head-on,” said Superintendent Grant. “We’ve launched a high-impact tutoring initiative that has already directly benefited nearly 2,200 students and will support more than 9,000 students in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years.”
OSSE has also invested recovery funds to improve high-quality instructional materials in math and literacy, increase literacy training in the science of reading for teachers, supported extended learning time through our summer accelerator grant, and enabled the launch of the DC Special Education Hub, a family resource center for students with disabilities.
“We’ll continue to focus our investments in areas that accelerate learning for all students, but especially for those who have been most impacted by the pandemic and interrupted instruction,” said Superintendent Grant.
OSSE will continue to add to this portal as recovery work and investments progress. View the portal and learn more at osse.dc.gov/recovery.