Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) allocation and expenditures by district in Hawaii

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This page includes information and data on federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding in Hawaii. ESSER was a series of grants totaling roughly $190 billion that Congress sent to K-12 public schools during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. All 50 states closed schools to in-person instruction at some point during the 2019-2020 academic year.

Congress included the funding in three separate spending packages between 2020 and 2021. In an April 23, 2020, letter sent to state education commissioners, then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos wrote: "The ESSER Fund provides you, and your local educational agencies, with emergency relief funds to address the impact that COVID-19 has had, and continues to have, on elementary and secondary schools."[1]

On this page, you will find data on the funding Congress allocated to Hawaii's school districts through the three ESSER grants (I, II, and III). Data is made available by Georgetown University's Edunomics Lab.[2] Navigate the page using the following links:

Background

At the time, the $190 billion was the largest injection of federal funding into the education system in a one-year period.[3] The first of the three ESSER packages was created in March 27, 2020, when President Donald Trump (R) signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, releasing $13.2 billion to schools. Trump signed the second ESSER package, providing roughly $54 billion through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act, into law on December 27, 2020. President Joe Biden (D) signed the final ESSER package on March 11, 2021, apportioning $122 billion to schools through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act. Each of the three ESSER packages came with their own spending deadlines. Districts had until January 2025 to spend the last round of the funding, known as ESSER III.[4]

Congress placed few conditions on the grants, largely relying on districts to make their own spending decisions.[5] The exception to this was that Congress required districts to spend 20% of their ESSER III funds addressing “the academic impact of lost instructional time through the implementation of evidence-based interventions.”[6] Districts spent the funding in a variety of ways, including on afterschool programming, tutoring, professional development for teachers, mobile hotspots and other technologies, upgrading heating and air conditioning systems, and building new schools.[7]

Districts also reported using the funding to hire school psychologists, new teachers, custodians, and math specialists.[7] Some districts reported hiring contractors out of a concern about paying for permanent positions after the ESSER funding expired.[7] An August 2023 School Superintendents Association (AASA) survey found that 53% of respondents said they would need to cut support staff in response to the expiration of ESSER funding.[8] A 2024 survey of district leaders by the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company found that 53% of district leaders "expect a fiscal cliff in their district’s spending when ESSER concludes."[9]

ESSER I

The table below shows the total amount of ESSER I funding allocated to each district in Hawaii.

Hawaii ESSER I allocation by district
District Name Total ESSER I Allocation
Hawaii State Department of Education $43,385,229

ESSER II

The table below shows the total amount of ESSER II funding allocated to each district in Hawaii.

Hawaii ESSER II allocation by district
District Name Total ESSER II Allocation
Hawaii State Department of Education $183,595,211

ESSER III

The table below shows the total amount of ESSER III funding allocated to each district in Hawaii.

Hawaii ESSER III allocation by district
District Name Total ESSER III Allocation
Hawaii State Department of Education $412,530,222

ESSER allocations by state

Click a state below to see a detailed breakdown of ESSER allocations by district in each state.

History of ESSER

Throughout Spring 2020, all 50 states shuttered K-12 public schools to in-person learning. In most states, students would not return to classrooms for the remainder of the academic year. Congress allocated roughly $190 billion to schools between March 2020 and March 2021 through three rounds of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund grants.[10]

Congress also allocated about 10% of ESSER funding—or about $19 billion—to state education agencies.[11]

Each tranche of ESSER funding came with its own deadline. States had until September 30 to commit money they received in the third round (ARP Act) of ESSER funding—unless they requested and received an extension.[12] Districts were required to have spent the funds by the end of January 2025 (though they could request an extension from the federal government).[13]

According to the U.S. Department of Education, “These Federal emergency resources are available for a wide range of activities to address diverse needs arising from or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, or to emerge stronger post-pandemic, including responding to students’ social, emotional, mental health, and academic needs and continuing to provide educational services as States, LEAs, and schools respond to and recover from the pandemic.”[14]

Districts, already facing declining public school enrollment, grappled with the loss of billions of dollars in federal aid as ESSER funds expired.[15] To put the loss in perspective, in 2019, the last year before Congress began allocating ESSER grants, the federal government spent a total of $57.9 billion on K-12 public schools—less than a third of what Congress allocated to schools through ESSER.[16]

A 2023 Education Next analysis of 22 states found that districts had spent about half of the money on labor costs, which could include new hires and raises for existing personnel.[17] A December 2023 Education Week survey of 250 district leaders found that a quarter of respondents said they didn’t anticipate finding alternative funding to cover ongoing expenses made with ESSER grants.[18]

Some districts announced staff and teacher layoffs due to losing ESSER funds.[19][20][21] Districts also cut expenses in other ways, including ending after-school programs, tutoring services, and more.[22][23]

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See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ U.S. Department of Education, "ESSER Fund Cover Letter," accessed June 13, 2025
  2. ↑ Edunomics Lab,"ESSER Expenditure Dashboard," accessed June 29, 2025
  3. ↑ The 74, "ESSER Post-Mortem: How Did Districts Spend $190B in Federal Funds? Did It Work?" June 29, 2025
  4. ↑ Intercultural Development Research Association, "How Schools Will Be Impacted by the End of Federal COVID-19 Relief Funding," October 8, 2024
  5. ↑ District Administration, "Learning loss can still be overcome with ESSER," August 15, 2024
  6. ↑ U.S. Department of Education, "Strategies for Using American Rescue Plan Funding to Address the Impact of Lost Instructional Time," accessed August 21, 2025
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Government Accountability Office, "School Districts Reported Spending Initial COVID Relief Funds on Meeting Students' Needs and Continuing School Operations," accessed August 21, 2025
  8. ↑ Intercultural Development Research Association, "How Schools Will Be Impacted by the End of Federal COVID-19 Relief Funding," October 8, 2024
  9. ↑ McKinsey & Company, "When the money runs out: K–12 schools brace for stimulus-free budgets," September 18, 2024
  10. ↑ K-12 Dive, "ESSER funding: What it is and how to use it before it expires," February 21, 2023
  11. ↑ CCSSO, "States Leading: How State Education Agencies Leveraged Pandemic Relief Funds," accessed February 4, 2025
  12. ↑ New America, "Size: More Money Than Ever Before," accessed February 4, 2025
  13. ↑ School Superintendents Assocation, "The Advocate March 2024: ESSER Late Liquidation," March 8, 2024
  14. ↑ U.S. Department of Education, "Frequently Asked Questions," May 2021
  15. ↑ Brookings, "Breaking down enrollment declines in public schools," March 14, 2024
  16. ↑ United States Census, "K-12 School Spending Up 4.7% in 2019 From Previous Year," May 18, 2021
  17. ↑ Education Next, "The Massive ESSER Experiment: Here’s what we’re learning.," April 4, 2023
  18. ↑ Education Week, "When ESSER Funds Are Gone, Here’s Where Districts May Turn to Fill Gaps," December 5, 2023
  19. ↑ NBC DFW, "Arlington ISD faces layoffs with COVID-era ESSER grants coming to an end," March 25, 2024
  20. ↑ K-12 Dive, "Teacher layoffs are growing — and won’t be going away anytime soon," March 26, 2024
  21. ↑ CT Insider, "Hartford school board approves $429 million budget with staffing cuts across the district," April 18, 2024
  22. ↑ Chalkbeat, "Many schools want to keep tutoring going when COVID money is gone. How will they pay for it?" February 1, 2024
  23. ↑ KOSU, "The end of pandemic-era federal dollars may mean the end of some Oklahoma school programs," April 18, 2024
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