Strategies for Using American Rescue Plan Funding to Address the Impact of Lost Instructional Time

Addressing lost instructional time starts with the goal of providing all students equal access to safe, high quality, in-person learning. To achieve this goal, school, health, and community partnerships will help to ensure the physical health and safety of families and students so that they feel safe and supported returning to in-person learning.

According to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2021 School Survey conducted at the end of the last school year, Black, Asian, and Latino public school students continued to return to in-person instruction at a far slower rate than their white peers. Even as schools increasingly offered in-person learning options between January and May of 2021, students of color only showed less growth over the months in enrolling in full-time in-person instruction in comparison with white students.