Washington schools have $1.5 billion to spend — where will it go?

When schools shut down at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Congress put aside just over $13 billion in grant money for state educational agencies.

Second and third rounds of funding were approved in December 2020 and March 2021.

But roughly half of the $2.6 billion allocated for schools here in Washington hasn’t been claimed yet, data published by the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction from last month shows.

Soundside host Libby Denkmann sat down with Dahlia Bazzaz, education reporter for The Seattle Times, to figure out where that money is going.

Before the pandemic, only 7% of Washington state’s education funding came from federal funds, so this $2.6 billion is a huge influx of cash. Congress hasn't put a ton of restrictions on how this money can be spent, but 20% of the final package had to be set aside for "learning loss" or academic recovery programs.

So far, the funds from the first two rounds have been spent on reopening schools and backfilling staff, along with immediate operational needs that schools have.

"We saw that in the limited data that the state gives us, the majority of these funds were spent on salaries and salaries related to health services," Bazzaz said. "So this could be things like nurses who are coming in — staffing them up more in school buildings — people who monitor isolation rooms, do contact tracing, and some people were hired specifically to help guide the district spending of these federal funds. It was a huge administrative load for school districts to get this much money."

Some districts, like Seattle Public Schools, have used the money to fill budget gaps from previous years, Bazzaz said. So far, Seattle Public Schools has spent 15.6% of the $93 million it received in federal funding.

The extent to which Washington school districts have used the federal money at their disposal varies.

Issaquah and Lake Washington school districts — which received the least amount of funding at $4.5 million and $7.6 million, respectively — have already spent down most of the money. Meanwhile, Federal Way and Kent school districts, which respectively received $52.6 million and $63.5 million, have yet to spend any of the money, according to the most recently available data from July.

"When you have a really small amount of federal funding from this aid package, including districts like Issaquah and Lake Washington, it's pretty easy to figure out how to spend these funds," Bazzaz said. She added that across the country, school districts are attempting to meet federal spending deadlines by prioritizing funding packages that expire the soonest.

As for districts that haven't spent any of the funds, "that could be planned spending that just hasn't hit the books yet," Bazzaz said.

The federal funds are allocated on a reimbursement basis, so districts have to first spend the money, then claim it with the state.

After the one-time funds are spent, there’s no guarantee schools will see another round of federal pandemic relief.