In answer to President Biden’s call for more schools to invest in strategies to accelerate academic recovery using American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds and to galvanize more Americans to serve their communities by becoming tutors and mentors to help address the impact of missed instruction on our nation’s students, the USDE announced that it will build on the progress school communities made this year in helping students and families recover from the pandemic. Those actions include: 

Launching the National Partnership for Student Success and recruiting 250,000 new tutors and mentors – USDE is joining forces with leading education, youth, and service organizations to launch the National Partnership for Student Success (NPSS), a new coalition that will support the expansion, launch and improvement of high-impact tutoring, mentoring and other programs to make up for lost instructional time, and support student mental health and overall wellbeing. The NPSS is run through collaboration between USDE, AmeriCorps, and the Johns Hopkins Everyone Graduates Center. 

Expanding the USDE’s Best Practices Clearinghouse to share best practices around academic and mental health recovery efforts – The Best Practices Clearinghouse will highlight and celebrate evidence-based and promising practices implemented by states, schools, and school districts using ARP funds to support learning recovery, increased academic opportunities, and student mental health. The updated Best Practices Clearinghouse is the next phase of the Safer Schools and Campuses Best Practices Clearinghouse that was launched in Spring 2021.

Empowering parents and school communities with knowledge about how their school is using and can use federal funds to provide the necessary academic and mental health supports – In June, the USDE launched the National Parents and Families Engagement Council to facilitate strong and effective relationships between schools and parents, families, and caregivers and has now put out a call to states and school communities to contribute to the revamped Best Practices Clearinghouse. USDE has also updated an interactive map to make state and local plans for ARP funds more accessible to families.   

To view the USDE announcement in its entirety, click here.
For additional information on the USDE’s announcements click here.