With the final round of ESSER funds required to be committed by Sept. 30, 2024, the day school districts have been dreading has arrived.
Educators across the country have dubbed it the ESSER cliff: when the temporary federal funding designed to alleviate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic comes to an end.
From May 2020 through September 2023, three waves of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) grants totaling close to $200 billion were distributed to 14,000 districts across the United States. Districts used the money on everything from building upgrades and air purifiers to labor costs, summer enrichment, and tutoring. Many also added counseling positions, aiming to address mental health problems that arose in students after the pandemic.
In states where spending data was available, research showed that just under 50% of the funds went to labor costs, according to the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. The money covered the cost of hiring new teachers and counselors, administrative staff, and reading and math specialists. Funds also went to providing salary increases. As a result of the ESSER funds, schools across the country had more staff than at any time in history, according to an EdWeek webinar examining the issue.
But a report released in September 2023 by the Brookings Institute found that the loss of ESSER funds could cost districts more than $1,000 per student in funding, meaning many of those new positions might have to be cut. In high-poverty districts, the loss may be even greater, since ESSER funds made up an even bigger part of their budget.
In Michigan, the Citizens Research Council of Michigan estimated the state would have to lose 5,100 teachers statewide in order to get back to the same staffing ratios they had before the ESSER funds.
As they search for ways to navigate the loss of funds, school districts are reassessing their budgets, streamlining operations, and exploring cost-saving measures.
But when considering which services still make sense, school districts might be surprised to find that substitute staffing services can actually be cost-neutral for school districts.
Most school districts haven’t tallied the true cost of handling substitute staffing themselves, so they don’t know how much they’re devoting to it. But if they add up the time they spend finding good subs, training them, contacting them to fill absences, and managing them, along with other expenses like workers’ comp insurance and having district administrators or other staff fill in for an absent teacher, districts might not be saving as much money as they think.
District HR offices are buried in work. Offloading some of that to a staffing company can free up the district team for other tasks, saving money as well as time. Here are some of the biggest areas where Edustaff takes work off the plates of the district HR staff:
There’s no doubt about it - navigating the ESSER cliff is going to be hard, and the loss of teaching staff might bring about the need for even more substitute teachers as districts adjust to the new staffing levels. Working with a trusted staffing partner can help lighten the load.
