The US Department of Education has approved Wisconsin’s American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief plan. This is commonly called ARP-ESSER fund. Or, a shorthand name is ESSER II.
However, those funds only cover public K-12 schools. By design. Congress did not include in ARP-ESSER any private school equitable participation provision. The money is not being shared with us because the law does not include us.
Instead, Congress included funding for private schools in the American Rescue Plan law by creating the Emergency Assistance for Non-public Schools (ARP-EANS) funds.
WCRIS is in the process of helping private schools access these EANS funds through CESA 6, which has been hired by DPI to manage them.
Wisconsin’s private K-12 schools have spent about 51% of the state’s $77 million allotment of these funds. About 50 schools have not applied. WCRIS schools have received from as much as $1.5 million each to as little as $146 each. A handful of schools have received less than $1,000 each. There are still about $39 million awaiting your use.
You can get more information about EANS here.
