The Tennessee Department of Education announced all 147 Tennessee school districts have received approval on their required ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) plans to spend more than $3.5 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funding to benefit K-12 public school students in their districts. Per U.S. Department of Education guidelines, all districts were required to develop plans that outlined their local spending strategies for their portion of the historic amount of federal funding.
Warren Co. was issued 18.9 million dollars under the ESSER 3.0 plan and must be spent by September 2024.
Director of Schools Grant Swallows told us that it is significant money but has narrow parameters but will working o serve students, employees, schools and community with these funds. He added they are excited about what they are going to be able to do. Some of the plan includes over 3.5 million toward academics, over 6 million dollars for student readiness, and over 2 million dollars toward teacher retention.