Interim Final Requirements from the U.S. Department of Education:

LEA ARP ESSER Plan Meaningful Consultation

“COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on the Nation’s education system. In addition to disrupting teaching and learning, it has exacerbated existing inequities in our schools and school districts. Every aspect of student life has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic: students’ classes and courses of study have been interrupted and/or delayed and students’ social, emotional, and mental health have been negatively impacted by the isolation and anxiety of living through a pandemic and quarantine along with the additional associated stresses placed on their families. As students and teachers continue to return to full-time in-person education, they will have important insights into how schools should approach prevention and mitigation of COVID-19, and into what may be needed to support student success. For this reason, in developing their ARP ESSER plans, LEAs will be required to meaningfully consult with students; families; school and district administrators (including special education administrators); and teachers, principals, school leaders, other educators, school staff, and their unions. Additionally, an LEA is also required to engage in meaningful consultation with each of the following, to the extent present in or served by the LEA: Tribes; civil rights organizations (including disability rights organizations); and stakeholders representing the interests of children with disabilities, English learners, children experiencing homelessness, children in foster care, migratory students, children who are incarcerated, and other underserved students. An LEA’s decisions about how to use its ARP ESSER funds will directly impact the students, families, and stakeholders in their school district, and thus the LEA’s plans must be tailored to the specific needs faced by students and schools within the district. These diverse stakeholders will have significant insight into what prevention and mitigation strategies should be pursued to keep students and staff safe, as well as how the various COVID-19 prevention and mitigation strategies impact teaching, learning, and day-today school experiences. With regard to addressing the academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs of all students, particularly those most impacted by the pandemic, we believe that it is critical that LEAs solicit and consider the input of students and their families to identify their most pressing needs. Close coordination with Tribes is critical to effective support for Native American students, so LEAs need to consult Tribes, as applicable. In addition, the Department understands educators and students’ families will have important insights into and observations of students’ academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs garnered from their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stakeholders will similarly have critical insights into how best to address the academic impact of lost instructional time that LEAs are required to address with at least 20 percent of their ARP ESSER funds. For all of these reasons, through this consultation, LEAs will be better positioned to fully plan to use ARP ESSER funds to adequately respond to the needs of all students, particularly those most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Please note who you engaged, as applicable, and the strategies used to engage those groups (ex. public meeting, request for comments, survey, etc.).

Any additional information related to the public engagement you would like to share:

Supplemental Responses

We have, and will continue to engage, our stakeholders through the following programs, many of which have been in place for a number of years.

-Community Forums

-Parent Advisory Group: Monthly

-Student Advisory Group: Monthly

-Teacher Forums

-Student Forums (High Schools)

-Early Literacy (K-2) Working Group

-Principal Meetings: Monthly

-School Board Meetings: Monthly

-Social Media Postings Soliciting Parent, Community, and Advocacy Group feedback

-District Web Site Postings Soliciting Parent, Community and Advocacy Group Input

-Meetings and interviews with Advocacy Groups

-Virtual Community Forum: 8/30/21

-Virtual Staff Listening Tour: 8/31/21

There are no Tribes located in Hamblen County. Our largest underserved group is our Hispanic/EL population (29%/14%). Their most influential advocacy group, HOLA Lakeway, has a number of members who are Hamblen County Schools employees and we have worked closely with them on the development of this plan. They advocate for all of our Hispanic students and families, especially those who are ELs and SWDs.

We have no SWD advocacy groups or disability rights organizations in the county. The most active organization in our region is STEP (tnstep.org) which has a regional office in Greenville. We did interview the executive director, Karen Harrison, who provided valuable input for our consideration and implementation.

The public forums and School Board Meetings have been essential to receiving quality stakeholder input. The discussions between members of the community, board members, and district staff have been invaluable in formulating policies and guidelines that address stakeholder concerns and needs for the coming school year. Our approach in soliciting feedback for ARP ESSER was to talk to as many people in our community as possible rather than depending on a blanket survey. We have reached out to the community in general on our web site and on social media and received some feedback. We will continue to do so as we move through the next school year.