As the last of the historic $189.5 billion infused into the K-12 system during COVID-19 is being spent this month, education experts say it's difficult to sum up how effective the massive federal relief package has been in helping schools and students recover from the pandemic.

Many state and local education leaders can point to specific projects that tie the funding to a boost in academic performance or safer and healthier school buildings. Some also say it led to better school engagement, tighter partnerships with community organizations and quicker responses to student mental health and behavioral challenges.

And district administrators note that the emergency funds contributed to lasting improvements for K-12 operations. Among them: the widespread and now ingrained practice of online parent-teacher conferences that give parents flexibility to participate from home or from their jobs.

Nationally, researchers found that a $1,000 per pupil increase in pandemic-relief spending led to a significant increase in math test performance and a smaller improvement in English language arts performance, according to a 2025 study by the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research. The study examined test data from almost 5,000 school districts across 28 states. 

But whether the entire Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund, known as ESSER, fully delivered on its return on investment is hard to quantify. This might be because research into the impact is still ongoing. But it is also because of how the program was designed and the trajectory of the COVID pandemic itself.

Congress spread the funding over three tranches of one-time funds to be used only for K-12 COVID recovery purposes. Within that, however, districts had a lot of flexibility in how to spend the money. 

The broad and shifting demands and fiscal needs of districts — from technology for remote learning in the pandemic's first year to tutoring in the later years — make it difficult to generalize national spending impacts over the lifespan of ESSER, according to education finance experts and researchers. 

School districts, in large part, used the $13.2 billion in ESSER I and $54.3 billion in ESSER II — both allocated in 2020 — to create remote and hybrid learning programs as COVID infection rates spiked and lockdowns were widespread. A 2024 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics said 183 children ages 1-17 died of the virus between 2020 and 2022.

In 2021, Congress allocated the last and largest pot of ESSER funding, $121.9 billion, under the American Rescue Plan. Districts used much of those funds for academic recovery, mental health supports, ed tech and capital improvements. 

As of March 24, nearly $1.5 billion of ESSER-ARP's $121.9 billion — or 1.2% — had not been spent, according to the U.S. Department of Education, which oversaw the ESSER disbursements. 

For the first ESSER allocation, $63.2 million— or 0.48% — was not spent. With the ESSER II bucket, about $361.7 million — or 0.67% — remained unspent. Leftover ESSER funds revert to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Low-income districts received a higher proportional share of ESSER funding, because the federal emergency aid was distributed using Title I, Part A funding formulas. 

And while the ESSER program marked an unprecedented infusion of money, it was nonetheless insufficient to mitigate the loss in learning caused by prolonged school closures, according to a 2022 paper from The Brookings Institution. In fact, schools would have needed $440 billion to recover lost learning for students living in poverty, the paper said.

According to a 2024 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office that examined 17 school districts in six states, multiple factors at national, state and local levels influenced ESSER spending decisions in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years. Spending projects that would have been allowed in one state — such as the renovation of athletic fields — were prohibited in others, GAO found. 

In addition, significant supply chain challenges and labor shortages frustrated administrators who had to follow specific obligation and spending deadlines for each ESSER allocation.

Still, many district administrators say they know one thing for sure: Their schools and students would be worse off if ESSER hadn't existed.

Without the funding, "an entire generation would have been lost," Connecticut's Ashford School District said in a 2023 survey by American School Business Officials International.

Joseph Ricca, superintendent of New York's White Plains Public Schools, told K-12 Dive how crucial the funding was: "Whether it was opportunities to access additional support academically, being able to support our parents and guardians, being able to support technological access and infrastructure, all these areas are really important and we're grateful that we were able to do it."

ESSER investments

The first thing researchers and school business officials said when asked to reflect on ESSER's legacy is how long ago the COVID era seems. 

For many school districts, their pandemic accounting books closed more than a year ago. Even for districts that had a late liquidation deadline of March 28, those funds were obligated way back on Sept. 30, 2024. Districts in 41 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico received extensions from the Education Department to spend ESSER-APR funds by the end of this month. The regular spending deadline for ESSER-ARP was Jan. 28, 2025. 

"So much of it now seems like it was so long ago," said Angie Smith, associate superintendent for operations for Illinois' West Aurora School District 129, which did not have a late spending deadline. It's "kind of like labor pains, you just block it all out."

The 11,000-student, 17-school district received about $40 million in ESSER funds, or about 6% of its annual budget. About half of its emergency funds were used for capital improvements, including roof replacements, plumbing upgrades and completion of a geothermal heating and cooling project at the Title I district’s only high school, Smith said.

Other ESSER funds went to student services, such as coaches for math and literacy instruction and 1:1 devices. The district also used the federal monies plus state mental health grant funding to pilot restorative practices to repair relationships among students, between students and teachers, and among staff. That initiative led to lower suspension rates and continues this school year through dedicated district dollars, according to Smith. 

Summer school offerings were expanded with ESSER money, but when student participation fell below expectations, the district scaled back and invested in other student academic supports instead.

Ricca said White Plains Public Schools' decision to add high efficiency air conditioning to its nine schools — using much of its $9.8 million in American Rescue Plan ESSER funds along with local dollars — will reap benefits for decades to come. With that project, classrooms, cafeterias and gyms can now be used year-round, he said.

Adding air conditioning to make student learning spaces comfortable "was and is still a big deal" for the district, he said.

Ricca said the district, its stakeholders and partners aimed to spend their ESSER dollars efficiently and responsibly by carefully understanding the needs and selecting investments that could deliver long-term positive impacts.

Both Ricca and Smith say their districts' already established facilities master plans helped their school systems make quick decisions when ESSER funding became available since desired projects were already documented. 

New Mexico's Zuni Public School District dedicated ESSER funds to tutoring and invested in capital projects like indoor air quality improvements and a high school roof upgrade. It also used $2.5 million of its total $10.5 million allocation to build outdoor learning spaces at two schools. 

Those outdoor spaces give students "additional incentives to come and enjoy school," said Martin Romine, the district's director of finance.

A July 2024 survey by AASA, The School Superintendents Association, found that 65% of district leaders put renovating school facilities among their districts' top five ARP expenditures. Nearly 80% said their district's ESSER-ARP funds were going toward expanding summer learning, and 76% said money was being spent on mental health initiatives.

The other top spending categories were technology purchases (73%) and high-intensity tutoring (66%).
 

The post-ESSER landscape

For districts like White Plains, West Aurora and Zuni that used ESSER for one-time expenses, or found alternate ways to sustain COVID-era inspired initiatives, the post-ESSER landing has been smooth.

But other districts — those that went for recurring expenses like new staff and didn't plan on how to sustain those expenditures after ESSER — are facing turbulent times, said Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab and research professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

"We said this from the beginning, that you dump this much money at once onto a system, what happens when it's gone? And I think there are a lot of school systems now reeling from the fact that it's gone," Roza said.

That fiscal hurt is starting to be felt this school year as reserves that may have been built up due to the ESSER cushion run out, she noted. "That's why, I think, everywhere we turn, we see school districts doing layoffs, which are very, very hard for them," Roza said.

An Edunomics analysis published in 2025 by The Brookings Institution found that an ESSER-fueled hiring spree during the 2021-22 through 2023-24 school years occurred while student enrollment stagnated. 

However, staff layoffs may also be brought on by the coinciding dips in enrollment caused by declining birth rates and other factors. Since school systems are funded on a per-student basis, fewer students mean less revenue. Many districts, especially some large urban systems, are "really struggling to handle this moment," Roza said.

"We can't tell that story of financial crisis now without talking about ESSER," said Roza. "I'm also sympathetic to districts where they weren't given a playbook. They weren't given any specific goals."

Elleka Yost, ASBO director of advocacy and research, said districts that planned for the end of ESSER were more likely to avoid a fiscal cliff once the emergency funds ran out. 

ESSER's flexible spending gave districts the ability to target the funds to programs that could address the hardships of the yearslong pandemic, said Yost.

"School business professionals on the whole have been very strong stewards of these public funds," Yost said. The funding flexibility "gave a lot of opportunity" for districts to put funds toward allowable uses that addressed the challenges that schools, students, parents and communities were facing in those moments, she said.
 

ESSER's imprint

In a post-ESSER world, school systems are looking to sustain innovative and impactful programs launched with the help of federal pandemic dollars — particularly as federal funding has been less predictable under the Trump administration, said Yost.

States too are examining the returns on investment from COVID emergency funds and how to carry forward the programs proven to work. 

The Connecticut Department of Education used COVID funds to create the Connecticut COVID-19 Education Research Collaborative, now named the Center for Connecticut Education Research Collaboration, in partnership with colleges in the state. 

The center examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on learning and well-being, as well as recovery efforts in the state’s schools. It now has broadened its work to other K-12 research topics, such as understanding artificial intelligence in schools and the implementation of a new literacy curriculum aligned to the science of reading and the state's literacy strategy in grades K-3.

School and district leaders, like Ricca, who experienced 2009's Great Recession and the resulting nearly $100 billion in national education stimulus funding, say that background left them more prepared to navigate ESSER budgets and spending deadlines. From the onset, K-12 leaders said, they planned for ESSER's end by avoiding long-term fiscal commitments. 

"I remember the dangers associated with creating long-term fiscal expenses and liabilities using short-term or one-time only funds," Ricca said.

But it remains unknown how the broader ESSER experience will shape the next economic crisis in K-12. In other words, how will the wisdom gained from this emergency relief program be used to inform new crises in the future? 

"One of the lessons learned is that no one thinks about the lessons learned," Roza said. "This seems like people just want to turn the page and move on."

District administrators, while grateful for the federal emergency funds, are certainly ready to put ESSER — and the memories of COVID — behind them. "It was an ugly period of history, and I'm glad that the government stepped up and helped us out," said Zuni school system's Romine.