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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah schools received another $205 million in federal pandemic funding on Wednesday to help address the most critical needs created by the pandemic, officials announced.
"The Utah State Board of Education and the state's school districts and charter schools intend to put this much-welcome funding to work mitigating the pandemic's impacts on students, teachers and families and create educational success for the long term," State Superintendent Sydnee Dickson said in a statement.
"Utah's plan builds upon the existing state actions to keep students in school as we seek to address their personalized needs for the future," she added.
The U.S. Department of Education announced it approved the state's plans for how the funding will be used, allowing Utah to receive the money. In total, Utah has received $615 million in American Rescue Plan funds meant to help schools safely reopen and recover from the pandemic.
The full extent of learning loss and mental health struggles for K-12 students due to COVID-19 are still being evaluated in Utah and throughout the country. Some national projections say students have lost three months to a year of learning, depending on the quality of their remote instruction, but these are estimates.
The State School Board distributed a survey to schools throughout the state in the spring to look into the impact of COVID-19 on all student subgroups. The board is "actively collecting school level data on lost instructional time," which it will use to determine the most critical needs for those who have been most impacted by the pandemic.
Utah used some of the funding to establish health and safety protocols to help schools return to in-person learning in the 2020-21 school year, according to the statement.
Through a grant process, the State School Board will also award funding to schools that provide evidence-based summer learning and after school programs, officials said.
Several school districts throughout Utah earlier this summer announced expanded summer school programs to help students make up for learning loss.
"I am excited to announce approval for Utah's plan," said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. "It is heartening to see, reflected in these state plans, the ways in which states are thinking deeply about how to use American Rescue Plan funds to continue to provide critical support to schools and communities, particularly as we move into the summer and look ahead to the upcoming academic year."
The $81 billion that the government is distributing to schools throughout the U.S. as part of the American Rescue Plan is expected to "address the urgent needs of America's children and build back better," Cardona said.
