Michigan schools had billions in federal pandemic aid to spend: How much is left?

With less than two weeks left for schools to spend billions in federal pandemic relief funds, most of that money has been spent, said officials from the Michigan Department of Education.

A state dashboard tracking funding shows about $300 million in unspent funds left from the third and final round of COVID relief funding, called ESSER III. But Kevin Walters, supervisor of grants, contracts and school support with the Michigan Department of Education, said much of that $300 million is already tied up to be spent, it just needs to be drawn by the school districts.

And, Walters said, the majority of districts in Michigan don't have any money left to spend.

"Over 50% of our districts that received the funds have spent every penny already," he said.

What have schools used the money for?

Michigan schools received $5.6 billion in federal pandemic relief aid in multiple rounds of funding.

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According to the state dashboard, 50% went to staff salaries and benefits, which could mean it was spent on incentivizing staff to stay at a district or hiring new staff to help target instruction in areas where students needed help. Nearly 6% of the funds went to capital projects, likely building improvements or specific improvements — including to air quality — within school buildings.

Walters said nearly 58% of the third round of funding has gone to efforts to stem learning loss suffered during the pandemic — federal law required that at least 20% of the funds needed to be spent on learning loss.

"We're very proud of that," he said. "We know in looking at how districts spent their funds, we know that they have spent those by and large in providing instruction and addressing learning loss, which is great."

The Michigan Department of Education is tracking the spending on its COVID-19 spending dashboard .

Contact Lily Altavena: laltavena@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan schools had billions in federal pandemic aid to spend: How much is left?