Kentucky K-12 Public School Districts
American Rescue Plan Allocations
Students identified as economically disadvantaged based upon being program or income-eligible for free or reduced-priced meals. This data point uses “Student Membership” to calculate the percentage of the total student body who are identified as “Economically Disadvantaged.”
SOURCE: Kentucky Department of Education, School Report Card Data Sets, 2020, and ARP ESSER Allocations
What does the American Rescue Plan Mean for Kentucky?
The federal American Rescue Plan funds can be used through 2024, providing a significant opportunity for Kentucky to leverage these investments to best support families, students, and teachers.
Child Care
The ARP included two pots of funds for child care totaling $39 billion of which Kentucky is to receive approximately $764 million.
- $15 billion will provide expanded child care assistance for families and essential workers through the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG). Kentucky will receive approximately $293.9 million from this fund.
- $24 billion will be for a child care stabilization fund to support eligible child care providers with an array of expenses including personnel, rent, maintenance, COVID-19-related supplies, costs associated with reopening, as well as supports for children and educators. Kentucky will receive approximately $470.1 million from this fund.
K-12 Education
The American Rescue Plan included $122.8 billion in total for public schools in the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) of which Kentucky will receive approximately $2.1 billion.
Of the nearly $1.9 billion above that is reserved for grants to local school districts, 20% must be used by districts to address learning loss – totaling $375.2 million. The rest of local district funding can be used flexibly to make strategic investments to support students and teachers. Examples include accelerating student learning with extended school years, summer programs, tutoring, and other wraparound supports; safely reopening schools and upgrades to school facilities for healthy learning environments, and supporting the educator workforce and teacher pipeline.
Postsecondary Education
The ARP included $36 billion in total for colleges and universities in the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) of which Kentucky will receive approximately $454.2 million to support public, private non-profit, and proprietary colleges and universities. The American Council on Education has made institution-level estimates for this fund which you can search here.
The funding in the HEERF must be used by institutions for specific purposes, including significant amounts for student grants as follows:
- 50% for students grants (100% at proprietary schools)
- These grants can be used for cost of attendance and any emergency costs such as food, housing, health care, and child care.
- Institutions can use remaining funds to further support students financially or defray costs associated with lost revenue, technology expenses, faculty and staff training, payroll, and COVID-19 related expenses.
ARP Blog Posts
- Funding Breakdown: What Does the American Rescue Plan Mean for Education in Kentucky?
- Time for Communities to Come to the Table
- Summer Learning Programs Can Help Children Make Up Lost Ground
- Mental Health, Education, and the COVID-19 Pandemic
- How should Kentucky spend $2.1 billion for K-12 education?