US-HEALTH-VIRUS-EDUCATION-SCHOOL
A student wearing a facemask walks outside Condit Elementary School in Bellaire, outside Houston, Texas, on December 16, 2020. - The coronavirus pandemic may be raging in the Houston area, but tens of thousands of students in one district are headed back to in-person classes in January because of poor results while learning from home. The plight of the town of Pasadena is being repeated across America, as educators fret that online learning for children because of the health crisis simply might not work. Photo by François Picard / AFP) (Photo by FRANCOIS PICARD/AFP via Getty Images

After a year of adjustments in the educational system and methods, the state of Texas received more than 4 billion dollars intended for Texas schools to help students in bouncing back from the delays caused by the pandemic.

The Department of Education announced Wednesday it approved seven American Rescue Plans in different states. The cash came from the Biden administration's stimulus plan. Texas schools also received a large chunk of the relief plan in May. With promises of more to come, that's what the Lone Star State is seeing now.

According to NBC DFW, the state of Texas would get a $4.1 billion chunk of the approximately $6 billion dollars handed out to seven states. The Texas Education Agency proposed a plan to use the money in offering high dosage tutoring across the state. The state of Texas wanted to invest in more summer learning and after-school programs to tackle the learning losses of the Texan students.

Replicating Texas' Method

The leaders from the White House and the United States Department of Education shared that several states who received the educational relief plan would be using the methods that the state of Texas would be executing.

The acting assistant secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education, Ian Rosenblum, stated that high dosage tutoring is a great example of an evidence-based intervention. Rosenblum added that they saw that the method was not only applicable in the state of Texas but also in a number of state plans.

In addition, Rosenblum mentioned that states would be focusing on figuring out how to accelerate the understanding of students about their handed educational and instructional materials.

The methods were only some of the programs Dallas and Fort Worth Independent School Districts already pledged to offer. The money from the federal agency would ensure that schools would be able to continue the tutoring program, and it would be available for all students who need them.

Furthermore, Mike Morath, the state of Texas Education Commissioner emphasized that school children across the Texas would have access to specialized tutoring. Specialized tutoring involves high-quality instructional materials and job-embedded professional learning to strategically address the academic impact and delays caused by the pandemic.

In the past, school leaders complained the last round of stimulus money intended to help the educational program of the state was hung up in Austin and took too long to get into their hands. This time, superintendents were hopeful that it won't be a problem.

American Rescue Plan for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief or the (ESSER) funds were approved in seven states across the U.S. Those states were Arkansas, South Dakota, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington D.C., and Texas.

On the other hand, the ARP Act of 2021 was signed by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021, which allowed states to have access to two-thirds of their ARP ESSER allocation in April. The budget was a total of $81 billion; now, the remaining $41 billion would become available depending on the Department's approval for each state's plan.

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Written by Jess Smith

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