REPORT: IRG’S ESSER RELIEF AUDIT - MAY 31, 2023 DATA

By releasing this information to the public and lawmakers, IRG hopes to inform parents and taxpayers, to highlight successes and failures in school allocations, to hold the Department of Public Instruction accountable for children’s futures, and to have influenced state budget discussions. [...] o Preparedness and Response to COVID-19 o Addressing Long-Term School Closure o Educational Technology o Outreach and Service Delivery to Special Populations o Addressing After-School and Summer Learning o Mental Health Services and Supports o Continued Staff Employment • DPI lets districts classify the same items multiple ways. [...] • This makes it difficult to assess whether Wisconsin funds “help safely reopen and sustain the safe operation of schools and address the impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on the Nation's students by addressing students' academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs.” HOW DID IRG CALCULATE ESSER ALLOCATIONS? IRG wants to put kids first and to encourage oversight on important. [...] • All district and state totals exclude funds for LETRS, Lakeland School, Syble Hopp School, Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and Wisconsin School for the Deaf, as DPI does not track them publicly. [...] Why have districts put more toward renovating buildings than to any other cause? Why are the internal district plans that DPI and Governor Evers confidently reference so different from the final ones that they actually approve? How can $36.4 million in mystery money pass oversight? And why can nobody decide who controls when and how $1.49 billion gets allocated? None of the delays, none of the gym.