• Welcome to the School District of Fort Atkinson’s ESSER Dashboard!

    ESSER is the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief - or federal COVID relief funding schools across the country received to help them manage operational and academic costs associated with the pandemic. It is important to note that these funds are one-time federal funds where the district gets reimbursed from the federal government after the money has been spent and the State of Wisconsin must approve all grant budgets and claims for funding.

    There were three different waves of funding granted through three different federal acts beginning in March of 2020. Each separate act has its own name, which you might see throughout the information on this dashboard. However, to simplify it, we have been calling them ESSER 1, ESSER 2, and ESSER 3. Each wave provided different amounts, had different requirements for use, and different timelines for the funds to be expended. What you will find on this dashboard are links to information about these funds, as well as sub-pages dedicated to outlining each of the three waves of funding and how the School District of Fort Atkinson leveraged these one-time funds. This dashboard is intended to provide transparency for our 1Fort community for the nearly $3.7 million the School District of Fort Atkinson was awarded.

    Should you have any questions regarding this information, please feel free to reach out by emailing us at the address linked at the bottom of this page - ESSER@fortschools.org

    Thank you again for your interest in the School District of Fort Atkinson’s strategic use of our federal COVID relief funds to help our 1Fort students and 1Fort community.

    What is ESSER?

    Between March of 2020 and 2021, Congress passed three stimulus bills that provided over $2.3 billion under the Elementary and Secondary Emergency Education Relief Fund (ESSER or ESSERF) to local educational agencies (LEAs) in Wisconsin. These funds provide emergency financial assistance to address the impact that COVID-19 has had, and continues to have, on elementary and secondary schools.

    Source: WI Department of Public Instruction

  • ESSER 1

    The CARES Act, signed into law on March 27, 2020, provides economic stimulus to individuals, businesses, hospitals, and Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) in response to the economic distress caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

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  • ESSER 2

    The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021 (CRRSA), was signed into law on December 27, 2020 and provides an additional $54.3 billion for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER II Fund).

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  • ESSER 3

    On Thursday, March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act was signed into law. It is an unprecedented $1.9 trillion package of assistance measures, including $122 billion for the ARP Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) Fund. Funds are provided to State educational agencies and school districts to help safely reopen and sustain the safe operation of schools and address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Nation’s students.

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