(Students from MSAD 17 participating in outdoor learning funded by the Maine’s Whole Student Pandemic Response’s Rethinking Responsive Education Ventures program)

The page showcases programs created with Federal Emergency Relief Funding and elevates the voices of the educators and students they support.

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) has launched a new webpage to showcase how the Maine DOE used federal emergency relief funding to invest in Maine’s Whole Student Pandemic Response. The effort highlights the initiatives the DOE created with federal funding and the impact on students, educators, schools, and communities. View the new webpage here.

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) prioritized a Whole Student Approach using federal emergency relief funding to help students, educators, and schools respond and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The DOE’s Whole Student Approach was developed in partnership with educators, administrators, parents, students, and educational organizations. It seeks to create vibrant school environments where all students are safe, healthy, supported, engaged, challenged, and prepared. Together, these six tenets form the foundation for students’ success in school, life, careers, and as citizens of our great state.

The DOE has invested federal emergency relief funding in efforts to bolster literacy, provide hands-on outdoor learning opportunities, expand engaging project-based learning, bring interdisciplinary computer science education to every Maine school and grade level, expand pre-k, support student and educator wellbeing, ensure safe and healthy schools, and so much more.

The new landing page on the Maine DOE website features descriptions of the programs the Maine DOE created with Federal Emergency Relief Funding and stories from educators, students, and schools showcasing the impact of the programs and the continued efforts to support schools with the lingering impacts of the pandemic. The webpage includes details on the total Federal Emergency Relief Funding received by the Maine DOE and links to a federal relief funding dashboard featuring reimbursements made to school administrative units (SAUs) for their pandemic-related investments.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Maine Department of Education received $1,066,223,868 in Federal Emergency Relief Funding from 2020-2021. This funding allowed the DOE and schools across the state to address the impact of the pandemic, bring virtual education to students, and safely reopen schools. The allocated funding is still being used to address pandemic-related learning loss, including ongoing initiatives like the Maine Literacy Grant announced by Governor Mills in early 2024.

DOE will continue to update Maine’s Whole Student Pandemic Response page with new projects and stories about how the Emergency Relief Funding continues to be used to support students, schools, and educators in Maine. We will also feature how schools and SAUs have used the funding they received.

If you have a story of how your school or SAU used Federal Emergency Relief Funding, please share it here. We’d love to feature your efforts.

American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) funding supports Maine’s Whole Student Pandemic Response efforts.