Health and Safety Plans

The ARP Act and U.S. Department of Education rules require LEAs receiving ARP ESSER funding to develop Health and Safety Plans that include the following components:

1. How the LEA will, to the greatest extent practicable, support prevention and mitigation policies in line with the most up-to-date guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the reopening and operation of school facilities in order to continuously and safely open and operate schools for in-person learning;
2. How the LEA will ensure continuity of services, including but not limited to services to address the students' academic needs, and students' and staff members' social, emotional, mental health, and other needs, which may include student health and food services;
3. How the LEA will maintain the health and safety of students, educators, and other staff and the extent to which it has adopted policies, and a description of any such policy on each of the following safety recommendations established by the CDC:
   1. Universal and correct wearing of masks;
   2. Modifying facilities to allow for physical distancing (e.g., use of cohorts/podding);
   3. Handwashing and respiratory etiquette;
   4. Cleaning and maintaining healthy facilities, including improving ventilation;
   5. Contact tracing in combination with isolation and quarantine, in collaboration with the State and local health departments;
   6. Diagnostic and screening testing;
   7. Efforts to provide vaccinations to school communities;
   8. Appropriate accommodations for children with disabilities with respect to health and safety policies; and
   9. Coordination with state and local health officials.

LEAs also must solicit and consider public comment when developing and revising the Plan.

Yes. PDE developed a Health and Sa​fety Plan template (Word) that is posted on the website and within the LEA's ARP ESSER grant application in eGrants.

An LEA's current plan can be utilized as long as it is updated to include the elements unique to the ARP ESSER requirements.

The Health and Safety plan requirement is in effect until the LEA finalizes its closeout of the ARP ESSER grant with PDE. Closeout of the grant is signified by the submission of the Final End Year Report (FER) and PDE’s acceptance of the FER. LEAs under Late Liquidation cannot closeout until the activities have been completed for their requested contract/project, they submit their FER to PDE and PDE reviews and accepts it.

Each LEA will upload in eGrants its Health and Safety Plan along with the webpage URL where the plan is located on the LEA's website.

By July 30, 2021, the LEA should submit in eGrants its preliminary, unapproved Health and Safety Plan, signifying when the board meeting for approval will occur, and the URL where the approved plan will be posted on the LEA's public website. Then, upon approval by the LEA's governing body, the LEA will submit the final approved Health and Safety Plan and URL no later than September 1, 2021.

NOTE: The July 30 deadline applies only to school districts and charter schools that received federal Title I-A funds in FY 2020-2021 and that intend to apply for and receive ARP ESSER funding.

ARP ESSER requires that LEAs review their plans at least every six months during the entire period of the LEA's ARP ESSER grant. LEAs also must review and update their plans whenever there are significant changes to the CDC recommendations for K-12 schools. Like the development of the plan, all revisions must be informed by community input and reviewed and approved by the governing body prior to posting on the LEA's publicly available website.

No. The LEA should submit the URL to the webpage where the current, and all future Health and Safety Plans, is located. That way PDE and the public always have access to the most current version of the LEA's Health and Safety Plan.

Yes. School districts and charter schools that received federal Title I-A funds in FY 2020-2021 and that intend to apply for and receive ARP ESSER funding must develop, post, and submit a Health and Safety Plan and the associated URL to PDE in eGrants by July 30, 2021, regardless when the LEA's ARP ESSER application is submitted.