ARP ESSER Budget Overview

Total Amount of LEA Award: $38,737,912

Required 20 Percent for Learning Loss: $ 7,747,582.40

Funds for Prevention and Mitigation Strategies

In the text field below, describe the extent to which and how the LEA will use funds to implement prevention and mitigation strategies that are, to the greatest extent practicable, consistent with the most recent Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidance on reopening schools, in order to continuously and safely open and operate schools for in-person learning.

Submitted by the Darlington County School District:

Policies or Practices Regarding CDC Recommendations

Universal and correct wearing of masks

Masks will be optional - but strongly recommended - in the Darlington County School District. Face masks or cloth face coverings will be worn by all persons in healthcare settings like health rooms and isolation rooms.

Modifying facilities to allow for physical distancing (e.g., use of cohorts/podding).

Social Distancing

Social distancing, also called "physical distancing," means keeping a safe space between people who are not of the same household. Social distancing aims to limit physical contact to reduce viral spread among people in community settings, such as schools.

When social distancing is practiced in combination with other everyday preventive actions such as handwashing and mask-wearing, it is an effective means to slow the spread of disease.

DCSD will practice social distancing/physical distancing to the greatest extent possible, as recommended by SCDHEC. Schools and facilities will take steps to ensure all spaces support health and safety practices. These may include – but are not limited to –

· Signage and floor markings to remind students of social-distancing practices.

· Possible changes to foot traffic flow through buildings and furniture placement in the classrooms.

· Limiting nonessential visitors and activities in the school buildings.

· Providing sanitizing stations throughout the building.

· Providing opportunities for and promoting of frequent handwashing and the use of hand sanitizer.

· Utilizing guidelines to minimize the number of students sent to the office and the health room/nurse's office.

· Encouraging each school to monitor student arrival and dismissal to discourage students from congregating in groups.

· Encouraging schools to incorporate virtual events such as parent/family meetings, assemblies, etc., where possible.

· Encouraging the use of technology conferencing for District and school staff meetings.

· Monitoring the spread of viruses or other contagious diseases, such as but not limited to influenza and COVID-19.

Handwashing and respiratory etiquette

· The DCSD will support healthy handwashing and respiratory etiquette by:

· Teaching and reinforcing handwashing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and continuing to monitor to ensure adherence among students, teachers, and staff. If handwashing is not possible, the district will provide access to hand sanitizer.

· Encouraging students and staff to cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue when not wearing a mask and to also immediately wash their hands after blowing their nose, coughing, or sneezing.

· Supporting healthy hygiene behaviors by providing adequate supplies, including soap, a way to dry hands, tissues, face masks (as feasible), and no-touch/foot-pedal trash cans. If soap and water are not readily available, schools can provide alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol (for staff and older children who can safely use hand sanitizer).

· Encouraging students and staff to cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue when not wearing a mask and to also immediately wash their hands after blowing their nose, coughing, or sneezing. Supporting healthy hygiene behaviors by providing adequate supplies, including soap, a way to dry hands, tissues, face masks (as feasible), and no-touch/foot-pedal trash cans. If soap and water are not readily available, schools can provide alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol (for staff and older children who can safely use hand sanitizer).

· Providing at least one water bottle filling station at every school.

Cleaning and maintaining healthy facilities, including improving ventilation

The DCSD is updating HVAC and filters throughout the district as part of an ongoing effort to increase outdoor air delivery to schools and improve air quality.

The custodial staff of DCSD will continue to regularly clean high-touch surfaces and objects (for example: door handles, sink handles, toilets) within the school and on school buses at least daily. The custodial staff will also conduct deep cleaning as needed.

Contact tracing in combination with isolation and quarantine

DCSD will follow SCDHEC and CDC recommendations for contact tracing to determine isolation and quarantine criteria for students and staff. To provide transparent reporting for our stakeholders, the District maintained a COVID-19 case dashboard throughout the 2020-21 school year and will continue to do so, as necessary, for the 2021-22 school year.

The District will continue to educate students and their parents about the symptoms of COVID-19 and the importance of staying home if they have any of the symptoms or if anyone in the household tests positive for the disease.

Students who display COVID-19 symptoms or who have received a SCDHEC confirmed positive COVID-19 test result would be asked to quarantine for the SCDHEC's recommended period of time.

Diagnostic and screening testing

The DCSD believes testing for COVID-19 is the responsibility of parents. The district will not be testing students at schools or district facilities unless directed to do so. If needed, school and district health staff will direct parents to available testing facilities to test their children.

Efforts to provide vaccinations to educators, other staff, and students, if eligible

During the 2020-2021 school year, the DCSD worked collaboratively with the staff of Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center to provide vaccines for employees. Moving forward, the district will include vaccine testing sites on the district’s COVID-19 resource page and encourage parents and staff to use that information to vaccinate their families as they see fit.

Appropriate accommodations for children with disabilities with respect to health and safety policies and practices.

When circumstances require specific policies or practices designed to protect the health and safety of students, 504 and IEP teams will determine if modifications and/or reasonable accommodations are needed for individual students with disability-related issues.

Coordination with state and local health officials

The DCSD has worked closely with local and state health officials throughout the pandemic. The district has developed strong working relationships with SCDHEC staff, local health care providers, and state and government officials and will continue to work collaboratively with those entities during the 2021-2022 school year for the safety and well-being of our staff and students. The DCSD will also continue to work with community partners to share information about vaccination sites.

ARP ESSER High Level Budget

Note: The total amounts below must match the LEA’s ARP ESSER Budget that details expenditures by allowable activity. A description of the ARP ESSER allowable activities are online on the ARP Act ESSER Spending Categories webpage.

Activities to Address Learning Loss

ARP ESSER Learning Loss Requirements

The LEA must use 20 percent of the funds it receives under the ARP ESSER program to address the academic impact of lost instructional time through the implementation of evidence-based interventions, such as summer learning or summer enrichment, extended day, comprehensive afterschool programs, or extended school year. The LEA should duplicate or align with the goals, strategies, and evidence-based interventions in its Academic Recovery Plan to minimize duplication of efforts.

Academic Recovery Plan – English Language Arts

Submitted by the Darlington County School District:

By June 2022, all schools within Darlington County School District will use a common, district-wide set of pacing guides and curriculum guides that provide pathways with shared priority goals and objectives during daily Tier 1 Instruction, so that all students will follow the same course structures while providing subject specific content with the intent to increase student performance reading skill levels by 5% as measured by MAP Testing.

District written pacing guides and curriculum guides will ensure common scope-in-sequence, content presentation, and instructional resources district-wide so that all students have similar/equitable learning experiences. This scope-in-sequence will include common unit assessments that provide consistent means of benchmarking student achievement.

Common district-wide instructional frameworks with an emphasis on small-group and individualized instruction will be established for each grade-span level and content area in an effort to create a personalized pathway for each student.

Common instructional technology tools will be provided district-wide:

· Edmentum Tools (Exact Path/Study Island/Reading Eggs)

· USA TestPrep

· APEX

· Amira

Students will be administered MAP Testing 3 times during the school year to monitor progress and growth.

Academic Recovery Plan – Mathematics

Submitted by the Darlington County School District:

By June 2022, all schools within Darlington County School District will use a common, district-wide set of pacing guides and curriculum guides that provide pathways with shared priority goals and objectives during daily Tier 1 Instruction, so that all students will follow the same course structures while providing subject specific content with the intent to increase student performance math skill levels by 5% as measured by MAP Testing.

Common instructional technology tools will be provided district-wide:

· DreamBox

· USA TestPrep

· ALEK

· Math/Algebra Nation

· APEX

Students will be administered MAP Testing 3 times during the school year to monitor progress and growth.

Academic Recovery Plan – Social, Emotional, Behavioral, and Mental Health

Box is empty. Suggested text: This area is covered by previous ESSER funds.

Academic Recovery Plan – Other Activities

Submitted by the Darlington County School District:

By June 2022, all schools within Darlington County School District will develop a system-wide approach to address targeted Tier 2 instruction with the intent to increase student performance reading skill levels by 10% as measured by MAP Testing and move students out of lower-level reading categories to next higher level reading level categories. Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) structures will be established with a set of district-wide expectations. All students identified as needing targeted interventions and support will have a personalized academic or behavioral plan that will be electronically documented and stored in the district-wide data warehouse.

All schools will receive additional interventionists to provide targeting instruction with prescribed interventions to recover learning loss (Reading Recovery Teacher, Reading Interventionist, Math Recovery Teacher, Math Interventionist, MTSS School Level Coordinator). All students identified for targeted Tier 2 reading or math instruction will be provided additional instructional support through the use of computer adaptive instructional software (System 44/Read 180/Math 180). The district will establish a district-wide SEL Leadership Team, and each school will create a school-wide SEL Team that will meet to analyze data, assess needed concerns/issues, develop individual plans, and monitor growth and progress. Students will be administered Reading Inventory, Math Inventory, xSEL, and Panorama SEL Survey at least 2 times during the servicing period to progress monitor students’ performance and determine growth levels.

Addressing Learning Loss

A local educational agency that receives funds under this section shall reserve not less than 20 percent of such funds to address learning loss through the implementation of evidence-based interventions, such as summer learning or summer enrichment, extended day, comprehensive afterschool programs, extended school year programs, or other evidence-based interventions, and ensure that such interventions respond to students’ academic, social, and emotional needs and address the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus on the student subgroups described in section 1111(b)(2)(B)(xi) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311(b)(2)(B)(xi)), students experiencing homelessness, and children and youth in foster care.

Total Allocation Amount: $38,737,912.00

20% Reserved minimum for Learning Loss: $7,747,582.40

The District has allocated $19,879,010 (well above the 20% required amount) to address the learning losses suffered by students.

All 20 schools will receive at least two additional FTEs that will include interventionists to provide targeted instruction with prescribed interventions to recover learning loss. In addition to the 2 additional FTEs for each school we have allowed for 10 more positions to adequately cover our larger schools with these positions. The total cost for a three year period has been estimated using estimates (salaries and fringes were calculated using an estimated salary of $54,000 with fringes of $24,145. We have 20 schools [($78,145 x 2) x 20 = $3,125,800/yr) + 10 extra positions for larger school staffing $781,450. Some of this cost has been budgeted in previous ESSER funds. The amount budgeted to ESSER III for these positions at this time is ($2,449,865). Instructional supplies and software that is being purchased for these programs is budgeted in the amount of ($2,646,814). [Common instructional technology tools will be provided District wide: Edmentum Tools (Exact Path / Study Island / Reading Eggs) - $209,496.00, Dreambox - $10,500.00, Math 180 - $257,721.00, Read 180 - $628,428.00, Fountas and Pinnel Digital Classroom - $523,848.00, NearPod - $23,300, Teacher Created Materials - $105,840.00, Instructure - $28,792.00. Included in this plan are software costs for Math 180 and Read 180 for all students’ grades 3rd - 12th for a three-year period and Exact Path & Study Island renewals.]

Additional academic programs designed to address Learning loss: (Previously coded to Category 10 - Summer Learning and Supplemental Afterschool Programs) and (Category 11 - Addressing Learning Loss Among Students) the District has established an Academic Enhancement Program that will continue for the next three years to provide additional instructional time for students to recover the learning loss that they experienced during school closures. The District has added additional part time positions at all 20 schools to provide the needed support for students. These positions include Part-time classroom assistants to help with small group learning, Technology coaches to provide guidance and professional development as needed to ensure accurate use of daily programs and equipment. The district has put together a comprehensive plan to both enhance and monitor our students’ achievement. Our cost estimates are based on adding up to 10 part time positions for our large HSs / 6 for small HSs & large MSs / 4 for small MSs and ELs. We've estimated 92 potential part time positions working 25 hours / week @ $35/hire plus fringes. Our estimated cost for salaries and fringes is $2,336,108/yr (three-year estimate $7,008,324). This entire amount is included in our ESSER III budget. We have allocated $6,381,188 of the ESSER III funds to our AEP Afterschool program for salaries and fringes to pay existing staff for extra hours during the school year over a three-year period. Another $1,032,819 in salaries and fringes are allocated for the Summer AEP program workers. We implemented programs in all of our schools during the 2020-2021 school year and these programs will continue, including sites for our virtual students, to give them the extra support they need. Our Afterschool Program staff includes approximately 340 employees (19 Administrators / 190 Teachers / 19 Nurses / 57 TAs/ 19 Custodians / 19 SROs / Bus Drivers) covering the 19 schools we are conducting programs in. Our Summer Enrichment Program in three of our High Schools and four of our Middle Schools this past summer included staff of approximately 100 including Directors / Teachers / TAs / Nurses/ SROs / Custodians and Bus Drivers. This program will continue for the next three years and costs are included in this plan. We also conducted Summer Academic Enhancement Programs in our elementary schools which included staff of approximately 150. Those programs will also continue for the next three years and the costs have been estimated using the actual costs from this past year as our baseline. These costs are based on our actual costs incurred to date for those programs. We have also included $300,000 for additional contract SRO services for all of the schools to cover both of our AEP programs. ($100,000/yr for 3 years) and $60,000 for AEP supplies ($20,000/yr for 3 years).

Activities for other ARP ESSER Funds

The LEA must describe how it will expend its remaining ARP ESSER funds in the other allowable categories. Detailed categories are available on the ARP ESSER Spending Plan Categories webpage.

Activities authorized under the ESEA, the IDEA, the AEFLA, and the Perkins Act