Recommendations for State Leaders to Advance Equity Using Funds from the American Rescue Plan Act

May 14, 2021

We’re proud to join with eight civil rights and education organizations in detailing five recommendations for how states can use funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to advance educational equity.

Recommendations include:

1. Ensuring equity in fiscal policy;
2. Meaningfully engaging stakeholders in decisions about how additional federal funding will be used to support students and redesign public education to work for all students;
3. Targeting additional resources, including federal stimulus funding, to create safe and equitable learning environments and provide whole child supports, particularly for vulnerable and systematically neglected students;
4. Prioritizing federal stimulus funds and additional state funding to evidence-based programs that address unfinished instruction and accelerate learning (e.g., targeted intensive tutoring, high- quality expanded learning time) and respond to students’ academic, social, and emotional needs in high-need districts and schools; and
5. Strategically allocating federal stimulus funding to address immediate student needs and lay the groundwork for systemic changes that can be sustained in the long term.

Read the detailed guidelines here.