As school leaders welcomed students back to the classroom for the 2021-22 school year, they began to determine how to spend the more than $190 billion in federal COVID relief dollars for K-12 including the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund. (Find out how much your state is getting here.)

Today, school leaders are probing how they can spend money to support the unique needs of at-risk and low-income students, students with disabilities, English language learners, racial and ethnic minorities, and systems-involved youth.