Strategic Use of Summer and Afterschool Set Asides Community Resources

"Raise the Bar: Lead the World" is the U.S. Department of Education's call to action to transform P-12 education and unite around what truly works—based on decades of experience and research—to advance educational equity and excellence

The RESTART Network is a clearinghouse for pandemic-related learning recovery research.

The U.S. Department of Education has partnered with the Afterschool Alliance, AASA, the School Superintendents Association, National League of Cities, National Summer Learning Association, and the National Comprehensive Center to provide schools and communities the connections and assistance they may need to expand access to afterschool and summer learning programs.

We know that as States and districts pursue the strategies within each pillar, they seek opportunities to share with and learn from each other. The Best Practices Clearinghouse serves as one mechanism for them to do so. The Best Practices Clearinghouse remains focused on student well-being and now aligns that focus with the Raise the Bar pillars.

Future Forward Ohio encompasses the state’s strategic priorities for using federal funds to help students recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on students who experienced the greatest disruptions to learning. Please visit the Student Recovery Dashboard to see the impact of the pandemic on Ohio students, as well as the progress towards academic recovery.

Connecticut's official source for education data.

Researchers from CEPR have partnered with colleagues at CALDER at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and NWEA to uncover the impact of the pandemic on learning loss and work with a coalition of districts across the country to help determine which COVID recovery interventions are working (or not working) and why. The research group aims to maximize the potential of this research to practically inform each district’s recovery efforts, as well as offer insights to the larger field. 

 In 2022, $50 million was allocated for community-based organizations (CBOs) to provide summer learning opportunities, administered through the Oregon Community Summer Grants (OCSG) Initiative.

NJSACC has developed a free, downloadable toolkit with all of the information needed to assist school leaders partner with quality afterschool providers to create afterschool, out-of-school time (OST), and summer programs using ESSER funds.

The Federal Funding Streams for Children and Youth Services database helps communities find federal funding available to states, tribal areas, counties, cities, towns, school districts, and local nonprofit organizations to support children and youth.

A facilitation technique that can be used between LEAs and Community Partners

A formal agreement that outlines what each party “gives & gets” in community partnerships. 

This document is only one of many resources provided to administrators seeking to offer high-quality summer learning programming. This is a living document with a diverse range of resources provided throughout the document for various levels and stages in the implementation process for Summer Learning. Several evidence-based resources, tools, and examples are from various organizations that have worked in partnership with the Arizona Department of Education.

The Hawai‘i State Department of Education is excited to provide a comprehensive menu of engaging summer learning opportunities for students in the upcoming summer months.

As summer program providers — or should we say innovators, creators and wizards! — we have an opportunity to make space for students to be successful in ways they haven’t before.

But how do we make the most of that opportunity?

This toolkit is here to help. It’s full of hands-on resources to help inspire, excite and re-imagine high-quality summer programming. 

Nevada Department of Education created a subgrantee map that can be used to see how they have expanded access to summer and afterschool over the past 5 years. 

The ADSY PEP Summer Learning Communities supports districts and schools in a robust program planning and continuous improvement process. Over the course of the year, district/school planning teams will be guided through a variety of supports to help them plan the elements of a high-quality summer learning program in a thoughtful and practical sequence. 

What happens when the money runs out?

Effective technical assistance (TA) is a collaborative, coordinated effort to facilitate change in systems, build capacity, improve practices, and reach agreed-upon outcomes1, 2. Specifically, effective TA provides a pathway to improvement through activities and materials that promote new behaviors, practices, beliefs, and understandings of staff in the systems served3. The purpose of this resource is to present the indicators of effective TA practices to facilitate TA provider understanding, use, evaluation, and improvement of those practices.

State data including expenditures by district

The letter pertaining to school infrastructure projects.  Upon written request from SEA, USDOE may approve up to 18 months beyond the obligation period to spend ESSER III funding on infrastructure projects. Funding must still be obligated by 9/30/24 but instead of needing to be spent by January 2025, approval may be granted to extend the spending timeline to April 2026.

The SCALE program provides summer and afterschool learning leaders with tools to maintain and build high-quality, evidence-based programs.

​​​​​​​A companion resource to EHC’s Measurement Framework to help you use the framework as a planning tool.

Guidance on creating summer evaluation plans that are aligned to research and help capture impact, quality, opportunities for continuous improvement.

This Guide provides an overview of the three Sustainability Planning Tools – the Self-Assessment, Strategy Development, and Action Plan. It also provides helpful tips for summer program leads to prepare for and facilitate a collaborative planning process using those three tools.