Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan — 9/15/2021
Summary
This is the Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan, completed on the U.S. Department of Education template for the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. The template states that the ARP ESSER Fund provides nearly $122 billion to States and that each State educational agency (SEA) must submit its plan or an explanation by June 7, 2021. The cover page lists Eliezer Ramos Parés, Esq. as the printed name of the authorized representative and a date of 9/15/2021, and the award number field is blank. A table of contents lists sections on the State's status and needs, safely reopening schools, planning for the use of ARP ESSER funds, and supporting LEAs.
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Cite this document
“Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan — 9/15/2021.”
Original at www.ed.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/department-of-education-pdf-www-ed-gov-1a322f08de/
, SHA-256 ba0083bf047d4e877e2a9d0ba94778b399eb140757d01db45e6aee9cf5f3b9d9.Full text
Introduction
The American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (“ARP ESSER”)
Fund, authorized under the American Rescue Plan (“ARP”) Act of 2021, provides nearly $122
billion to States to support the Nation’s schools in safely reopening and sustaining safe operations
of schools while meeting the academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs of students
resulting from the coronavirus disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) pandemic. It is particularly important
that ARP ESSER funding will enable States and local educational agencies (“LEAs”), and more
directly schools, to support students who have been most severely impacted by the COVID-19
pandemic and are likely to have suffered the most because of longstanding inequities in our
communities and schools that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. Department of Education (“Department”) is committed to working in partnership with
States so that these unprecedented resources are quickly put to work to ensure students have
sustained access to in-person instruction and that the resources are used to provide the effective
support students need as they persist through and recover from the impacts of the COVID-19
pandemic. The thoughtful and timely use of these funds will have a lasting impact on our Nation’s
schools and help to address the inequities in resources, services, and opportunities available to our
students.
This template presents an opportunity for States to share their plans for the use of ARP ESSER
funds with the public. The Department must approve a State educational agency’s (“SEA’s”) plan
in order to make the State’s remaining ARP ESSER allocation available for use. Please note that
the Department intends to issue ARP ESSER reporting requirements separately.
Instructions
Each SEA must provide descriptions and other information that address each requirement listed
below. An SEA may use this template or another format as long as every item and element is
addressed in the SEA’s response. Throughout this document, questions that refer to an SEA’s ARP
ESSER funding are referencing the total allocation to be received by the SEA, including that which
it allocates to its LEAs.
Each SEA must submit to the Department by June 7, 2021, either: (1) its ARP ESSER plan or (2)
the State requirements that preclude submission of the plan by that date and a date by which it will
be able to submit its complete ARP ESSER plan.
To submit the SEA’s plan, please email the plan to your Program Officer at [State].OESE@ed.gov
(e.g., Alabama.OESE@ed.gov).
In order to ensure transparency, the Department will post each plan on the Department’s website
when it is received and will indicate each plan’s approval status.
This template also allows States to fulfill the requirement of the Coronavirus Response and Relief
Supplemental Appropriations (“CRRSA”) Act ESSER II 6-month reporting requirement in section
313(f) of the CRRSA Act.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 2
Cover Page
Grantee and Contact Information
ARP ESSER PR Award Number (e.g., S425U2100XX):
SEA Contact: Guillermo R. López
Telephone: (787) 773-3053
Email address: lopezdg@de.pr.gov
By signing this document, I agree to each of the assurances listed in Appendix C and
further assure that:
To the best of my knowledge and belief, all information and data included in this plan
are true and correct.
Chief State School Officer or Authorized Representative (Printed
Name)
Eliezer Ramos Parés, Esq.
Signature of Authorized SEA Representative Date:
(b) (6) 9/15/2021
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 3
Table of Contents
Public Education in Puerto Rico .................................................................................................................... 6
A. Describing the State’s Current Status and Needs ............................................................................ 8
1. Progress and Promising Practices ..................................................................................................... 8
2. Overall Priorities ............................................................................................................................. 11
3. Identifying Needs of Underserved Students ................................................................................... 14
4. Understanding the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic .................................................................. 21
5. School Operating Status.................................................................................................................. 24
B. Safely Reopening Schools and Sustaining their Safe Operations .................................................. 27
1. Support for LEAs.............................................................................................................................. 27
2. Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plans .......................................... 38
C. Planning for the Use and Coordination of ARP ESSER Funds......................................................... 40
1. SEA Consultation ............................................................................................................................. 40
2. Coordinating Funds ......................................................................................................................... 46
D. Maximizing State-Level Funds to Support Students ...................................................................... 60
1. Academic Impact of Lost Instructional Time................................................................................... 60
2. Evidence-Based Summer Learning and Enrichment Programs ....................................................... 70
3. Evidence-Based Comprehensive Afterschool Programs ................................................................. 72
4. Emergency Needs ........................................................................................................................... 75
E. Supporting LEAs in Planning for and Meeting Students’ Needs .................................................... 76
1. LEA Plans for the Use of ARP ESSER Funds ..................................................................................... 76
2. LEA Consultation ............................................................................................................................. 81
3. Describe how the SEA will support and monitor its LEAs ............................................................... 84
4. Describe the extent to which the SEA will support its LEAs in implementing additional strategies
for taking educational equity into account.................................................................................... 85
F. Supporting the Educator Workforce.............................................................................................. 87
1. Supporting and Stabilizing the Educator Workforce ...................................................................... 87
2. Staffing to Support Student Needs ................................................................................................. 92
G. Monitoring and Measuring Progress ............................................................................................. 94
1. Capacity for Data Collection and Reporting .................................................................................... 94
2. Monitoring and Internal Controls ................................................................................................... 95
Appendix A: School Operating Status and Instructional Mode Data Template.......................................... 97
Appendix B: Reporting Language Included in the Grant Award Notification (“GAN”) ............................... 99
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 4
Appendix C: Assurances ............................................................................................................................ 100
Appendix D: GEPA ..................................................................................................................................... 102
Appendix E: Stakeholders Input ................................................................................................................ 106
Appendix F: PRDE's Academic recovery plan ............................................................................................ 130
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 5
Public Education in Puerto Rico
The Department of Education of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (“PRDE”) or (“the
Department”) was organized under Article V, Section 6 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth
of Puerto Rico (“the Commonwealth”).
On July 15, 1999, the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico enacted Law Number 149,
“Ley Orgánica del Departamento de Educación Pública de Puerto Rico”, as amended by Law
Number 85-2018 1 “Ley de Reforma Educativa de Puerto Rico del 29 de marzo de 2018”. This
law established Puerto Rico’s public policy in the education field and created a public education
system focused mainly on the students. In addition, it established free selection school and
educational voucher program, among others.
PRDE is the responsible entity for the planning and administration of all public elementary,
secondary and some post-secondary education throughout Puerto Rico. The Secretary of Education
is appointed by the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
The Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDE) is a unitary system serving as both the state
educational agency (SEA) and a local education agency (LEA). The PRDE oversees one island-
wide education system. From the SEA perspective, PRDE’s Central Level develops policies and
guidelines, provides materials and technical assistance, engages in oversight and monitoring and
provides leadership to all schools and the seven (7) Regional Education Offices (OREs, per its
acronym in Spanish). From the LEA perspective, PRDE provides direct services to schools and
ensures the implementation of SEA level policies.
PRDE’s has 860 (K-12) public schools, including 4 public charter schools, that serve 271,685
students. PRDE also provides higher education, vocational, career technical courses, and
alternative adult programs. PRDE’s organization is composed of one central administrative office
and seven educational regions, each of which are led by a Regional Superintendent.
The Commonwealth is currently facing a severe fiscal, economic and liquidity crisis, due to
multiple factors, including, significant governmental deficits, a 15-year long recession, high
unemployment rates, population declination, and high levels of debt and pension obligations.
These challenges have depleted the Commonwealth’s tax base such that its revenues no longer
cover essential funding for other essential services such as PRDE.
The Legislature approved, by joint resolution, the allocation of $2,342,589,000, charged to the
General Fund of the State Treasury, for ordinary operating expenses of the PRDE for fiscal year
2021-2022. This allocation resulted in a decrease of $152.4 million or 6% when compared to the
general budget approved in FY 2020-2021.
COVID-19 related Federal Education Stabilization Funds, provide critically needed fiscal
resources to support the safe reopening of schools, the maintenance of on-going educational
programs, and the provision of evidence-based learning loss initiatives. Without this federal
1
https://www.de.pr.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ley-85-2018-enmendada.pdf
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 6
assistance, and the deep and disruptive cuts to education program, these funding have been
necessary, due to the weakened ability of the Commonwealth to appropriately fund PRDE's ability
to maintain state support during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and
associated economic slowdown.
The American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER)
Fund, authorized under the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021, will provide nearly $2.9
billion to Puerto Rico to ensure a significant return of students in the modality of in-person
instruction and maintain safe operations while meeting the academic, social, emotional, and mental
health needs of students resulting from the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Moreover,
these funds will help to address long-standing inequities in our communities and schools that were
exacerbated by the pandemic so that we can ensure that the students most severely affected by the
pandemic are provided with the opportunities, resources and support they need as they recover
from its impacts.
This document is intended to share PRDE’s overall plan for the use of ARP ESSER funds with the
public and the United States Department of Education (USDOE). PRDE considers this application
to be a living document as needs and priorities may develop over the lifespan of the American
Rescue Plan.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 7
A. Describing the State’s Current Status and Needs
The Department recognizes the extraordinary efforts made by States, LEAs, and educators to
support students during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this section, SEAs will describe the
progress they have made, the priorities and student needs guiding their ARP ESSER funding
decisions, and their current and projected operating status.
1. Progress and Promising Practices: Provide your assessment of the top 2-3 strategies
that have been most effective in supporting the needs of students in your State
during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for students most impacted by the
COVID-19 pandemic. Please include, if applicable, how your State will submit and
encourage its LEAs to submit lessons learned and best practices to the
Department’s Safer Schools and Campuses Best Practices Clearinghouse so that
they can be shared with other States and LEAs.
The Government of Puerto Rico coordinated with the Puerto Rico Department of
Education (PRDE) and other island-wide agencies, efforts to provide the necessary
support to students that were most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Below,
are included the top strategies that resulted the most effective in supporting
student’s needs.
Provided Affordable and Accessible Internet Services. Low-income households
in Puerto Rico counted on federal aid that granted discounts on internet service
during the pandemic starting on May 12, 2021.
Through the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, eligible families were
granted monthly discounts on internet service, ranging from $50 to $75 and up to
$100 in a singular discount for the purchase of electronic equipment. Through this
program, families were granted better resources for access to education. Eligible
households and consumers were able to subscribe to the Emergency Broadband
Benefit Program and receive a discount or monthly subsidy on the cost of internet
service as provided by more than eight participating internet providers.
Devices for students and teachers, and Professional Development. On July
2020, a total of 159,330 computers were distributed, including 18,000 tablets,
132,330 laptops and mobile carts.
From the month of May 2020 through August 2021, PRDE offered Professional
Development for software program usage, digital lesson plan design, and
integration of technology, among other topics.
Devices allowed for the implementation of redesigned learning strategies to provide
a rich and innovative learning experiences with technology for students. The
acquisition of electronic books, tablets and other technological devices helped
teachers anticipate their support to the needs of each student and allowed teachers
to structure learning plans at a faster pace according to their needs.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 8
2. Overall Priorities: Provide your assessment of the top 2-3 issues currently facing
students and schools across your State as a result of or in response to the COVID-
19 pandemic including, to the extent possible, data illustrating why these are the
most critical and/or most widespread issues facing schools and students.
The pandemic ushered in a set of challenging learning conditions across the island.
These circumstances created unique needs for educators and students, while
exacerbating existing inequalities. The following issues listed below surfaced as the
priorities:
Addressing unfinished learning through asset-based acceleration strategies.
The loss of in-person instruction made it difficult for some students to make
expected academic gains. In many cases, teachers were unable to maintain
traditional pacing guide schedules, resulting in students lacking exposure to
essential concepts that serve as building blocks in subsequent academic years.
In order to increase student engagement and accelerate learning in response to the
pandemic, students need access to high-quality, culturally sustaining and
revitalizing instruction.
Distance learning has created conditions where many students from historically
underserved communities are falling further behind because schools lack the
resources to adequately engage with families. The inconsistent access to high-
quality instruction will continue through 2021-22 as some families will continue
with the distance learning option and some others with the hybrid learning option.
During distance learning last year and according to the available data, 52% of the
students were disengaged during the months of February thru May. During that
period, 39% of the students enrolled at the end of the year never connected to MS
Teams sessions, while 13% connected less than 25% of the enrolled time.
The Educational Regions have struggled with online attendance, inconsistent work
submissions, and inconsistent engagement. While schools have been working
diligently to keep students engaged through various means, such as by providing
targeted PD to teachers on strategies to engage students through on-line teaching,
the concern is that the students have not received the quality of education they
would in a normal year due to COVID-19 related absences, lack of engagement,
etc. Efforts to reach those most at-risk have already been under way during the
2020-21 academic year and continued through the Educational Summer program.
PRDE identified a total of 24,000 students with the highest risk factors to fail.
Through the Regional Education Offices, PRDE was able to contact approximately
21,000 of those students and provided academic assistance through the Educational
Summer Program. The decrease in enrollment between August 2020 and 2021,
along with those students who were disengaged during distance learning are
missing valuable learning, which could exacerbate learning loss.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 11
This priority includes investing in strategies and supports that strengthen
instructional practices and lead to positive post-secondary outcomes. This entails
an investment in programs that provide relevant learning experiences for students
that build off from their strengths, identities, and interests.
In general, PRDE had an enrollment decrease of around 16,000 (5.5%). For the
Primary level, preschool grades (PK and K) contributed to19% of the decrease in
enrollment with just over 3,000 students, while grades 1st through 8th accounted for
58% with an approximate loss of 9,400 students, being 2nd grade the one with a
higher contribution at an 11%. At the Secondary Level, the net drop in enrollment
was 16%, as 10th grade enrollment increased by 5%. At this level, the grade with
the highest impact was 9th grade, representing a 12.5% loss of the total enrollment,
or approximately 2,000 students. Full-time Special Education Classroom students
decreased by a net factor of nearly 6%, as Secondary Level students in this
population increased by 3%.
Due to widespread school closures related to the novel Coronavirus disease
(COVID-19), USDE waived the statewide assessment 3 for the 2020 and 2021
school years.
Collected data demonstrates the impact of the pandemic on students and schools,
including an approximate decrease of 600 students in Technological Institutes; 117
schools offering 66 specialized CTE courses were paused and modified during the
2020-2021 school year, as a result of lack of in-person instruction. All required
course workshop hours could not be provided, due to the pandemic, and instead,
PRDE had to modify courses by requesting students to complete their learning
sessions through the Work Based Learning (WBL) strategy. At the end of the
academic year, students submitted a portfolio as evidence that WBL was properly
performed.
Supporting the academic, social emotional, and health needs of students and
educators. Achievement gaps in Puerto Rico have decreased persistently for
approximately 5 years 4. School building closures, extended quarantines, and
disrupted learning environments are expected to widen those gaps. While this is not
a new challenge, the pandemic has served to highlight existing gaps in student
achievement and opportunities. PRDE will provide statewide interim assessments
by subject, in order to establish baseline data of student achievement. These interim
assessments at 10-week intervals are imperative for PRDE to focus its funding on
an academic strategy for both elementary and middle grades.
3
PR Covid19 Waiver approved and PR Covid19 Waiver approved 2021 year
4
PRDE measures student academic achievement through a standardized test “Measurement and Evaluation for the
Academic Transformation of Puerto Rico”, hereinafter known as META-PR. This test is aligned to agency-approved
content standards and grade expectations and measures content proficiency in the subjects of Spanish, math, English
as a second language, and science. All 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 11th grade students participate, except science,
which is administered only in 4th, 8th, and 11th grade. Data regarding achievement gap is available at. PERFIL ESCOLAR
2019-2020 (dde.pr)
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 12
In addition to supporting the academic component, PRDE recognizes that many
students are facing a multitude of traumatic stressors resulting from the pandemic,
such as the illness or loss of friends or family. PRDE was able to identify that more
than 500 5 students had lost a family member during 2020-2021, due to the illness
of COVID-19.
According to increased numbers 6 of child abuse, neglect reports, food and income
insecurities have been identified as additional traumatic stressors for students. Their
basic needs – including food, rest, emotional safety and sense of belonging – must
be met before effective learning can occur. This hierarchy of needs applies equally
to adults in the school setting. Social and emotional learning (SEL) and mental
health are best addressed with a collaborative approach of building relationships
with students and caring for the well-being of everyone in the school community
during summer programming and the traditional school year. SEL helps support
student mental health needs by fostering a sense of safety and security, building
positive relationships with others and providing equitable support to learning. The
combined impact is a strengthened school community.
Unfortunately, students and families are facing higher incidences of crises during
the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the most recent needs assessment
performed by the PRDE’s Social Worker Program (PTSE, per its acronym in
Spanish), approximately 68,000 students have been identified to be in need of
support by the school’s social worker in the 2021-2022 academic year, either due
to an emotional, mental or behavioral situation.
The impact of COVID-19 has the potential to exacerbate these numbers. The longer
students are quarantined and isolated, there is a higher risk of exposure to more
traumatizing, negative experiences such as abuse, neglect, and violence. It is
imperative that PRDE take a proactive approach to address the mental health and
well-being of students and staff.
Staffing shortages and a lack of capacity in school and regions. These shortages
include teachers and professional support staff, specialized staff, school mental
health professionals, substitute teachers, paraprofessionals, school nurses, and other
school administrators and leaders.
Over the course of the years, the PRDE has taken proactive steps to address
educator recruitment and retention challenges; however, the pandemic has
exacerbated some of the challenges in this area. Therefore, understanding the
pandemic’s true impact on the education workforce will be paramount.
5
Data was collected during a recent statistics report generated by the PRDE’s School Social Worker Program.
6
PRDE's School Social Worker Program - 2021 social well-being needs assessment
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 13
3. Identifying Needs of Underserved Students: Describe your State’s 2-3 highest
priority academic, social, emotional, and/or mental health needs for the remainder
of the 2020-2021 school year (if applicable) and for the 2021-2022 school year
related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on each of the following student
groups:
i. Students from low-income families,
i. Students from each racial or ethnic group (e.g., identifying disparities and
focusing on underserved student groups by race or ethnicity),
ii. Gender (e.g., identifying disparities and focusing on underserved student
groups by gender),
iii. English learners,
iv. Children with disabilities (including infants, toddlers, children, and youth
with disabilities eligible under the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (“IDEA”)),
v. Students experiencing homelessness,
vi. Children and youth in foster care,
vii. Migratory students, and
viii. Other groups disproportionately impacted by the pandemic that have been
identified by the SEA (e.g., youth involved in the criminal justice system,
students who have missed the most in-person instruction during the 2019-
2020 and 2020-2021 school years, students who did not consistently
participate in remote instruction when offered during school building
closures, and LGBTQ+ students).
To the extent possible, this description should include data on indicators such as
estimates of the academic impact of lost instructional time, 7 chronic absenteeism,
student engagement, and social-emotional well-being.
Complete the table below, adding rows as necessary, or provide a narrative
description.
As of the writing of the Puerto Rico State Plan, there is limited state-level data
available. Therefore, as quantitative data becomes available (e.g., state
assessment results, WIDA, interim assessments, certified 2021 student
enrollment data (due on September 2021), among other), PRDE has used
information gathered from surveys, needs assessments performed by regional
offices and the limited state-level data that PRDE has available at this moment.
PRDE conducted five (5) surveys and a focus group round table discussion to
gather stakeholder perspective regarding the highest priorities in order to target
strategies to support all students, especially those most impacted by the pandemic.
As evidenced by the data collected from the surveys and focus groups, there is
consensus concerning the supports needed the most by all groups and subgroups.
Because, as it is known, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all students, and
7
For the purposes of the plan, “academic impact of lost instructional time” refers to “learning loss” experienced by
students as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as referenced in the ARP Act and the CRRSA Act.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 14
some trends have been identified on all subgroups, PRDE is including below a
general description of these challenges.
Lost instructional time. During the pandemic, many students did not have
immediate access to internet services in order to connect to their remote learning.
Students in foster homes, were not able to connect to their online learning for
almost four (4) months, due to lack of accessibility of laptops and to internet
connectivity. It was not until July 2020, that PRDE initiated the distribution of
computers, that included 18,000 tablets and 132,330 laptops.
An additional 117 schools offering 66 specialized CTE courses were paused
during the 2020-2021 school year. As a result of the lack of in-person instruction,
required workshop or lab hours could not be fulfilled. PRDE modified courses by
requiring students to complete their learning sessions through the Work Based
Learning (WBL) strategy. At the end of the academic year, students submitted a
portfolio as evidence that WBL was dully performed.
Students within the Juvenile and Correctional facilities, participated of
educational modules. Teacher collected the completed modules and proceeded on
doing corrections and assigning grades. During the 2020-2021 school year, and
in compliance with the Public Policy for the Regular Education Program and
Adult Program, educational services were offered virtually. The PRDE Alternate
Education Program highlighted that, both students and teachers, experienced a
process of adaptation during this period of time. Initially, students showed
resistance. At certain times the internet system failed, therefore, teachers had to
distribute instructional material in paper.
This led to a one-size-fits-all approach, which does not effectively support our
schools, students, or educators. PRDE must uniquely respond to schools and
classroom needs. Each and every child has unique unfinished learning and has
experienced different learning models throughout the pandemic. Each and every
educator needs specific and targeted professional learning to support their content
areas and academic disciplines, as well as training to support accelerated learning
and instruction.
Chronic Absenteeism. Even before the pandemic, Puerto Rico’s vulnerable
students were more likely to be chronically absent, a key risk factor in shaping
students’ opportunity to learn. For 2020-2021, “All Students” absenteeism rate
was up for 3%, when compared to previous year; being the absenteeism rate in a
10% average for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Student engagement. In general, PRDE had an enrollment decrease of around
16,000 (5.5%). However, it is important to highlight that PRDE’s 2021-2022
enrollment data is not yet certified, until the process is fulfilled in September
2021. This decrease in enrollment is yet to be updated once the certification is
completed by the PRDE.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 15
4. Understanding the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Describe how the SEA will
support its LEAs in identifying the extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
on student learning and student well-being, including identifying the groups of
students most impacted by the pandemic. Where possible, please identify the data
sources the SEA will suggest its LEAs use in thoughtfully diagnosing areas of need,
including data on the academic, social, emotional, and mental health impacts of lost
instructional time.
PRDE is supporting school educational regions and schools in identifying the
extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning and student
well-being.
PRDE disaggregates the above-referenced data (sections A.2 and A.3) by
educational school region and schools and shares this data with our educational
school regions to help them understand the impact of the pandemic on their
communities and students.
PRDE will support its educational school regions by providing and encouraging
multiple avenues for data analysis. It will encourage its school educational regions
to analyze different types of data such as attendance, discipline, grades, formative
and summative assessment results, among others, to identify groups who might
have suffered the most during the pandemic.
PRDE is investing in supporting the use of and access to high-quality interim
assessments to support schools’ efforts to continue close monitoring of student
progress and targeted interventions. PRDE is also making available a variety of
professional learning sessions and supports for both school leaders and educators
on assessing and accelerating student learning.
Student well-being. To help schools identify and respond to the impact of the
pandemic on student well-being, PRDE will support schools by performing initial
screenings, identifying students at-risk for mental health concerns, and addressing
students’ mental and behavioral health needs.
An interdisciplinary socio-emotional team will assist teachers through this process.
The socioemotional assessments will not only allow for collection of useful
information for teachers, but also serves to strengthen relations between students
and teachers, which often occur in the context of face-to-face education and that
are necessary for the development of socio-emotional skills of our students.
In addition to the socioemotional assessments, qualitative data such as counselor
visits, social workers input and teacher relations will be analyzed to help determine
the highest areas of needs among students, including student mental health and
behavior.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 21
PRDE will also support school educational regions in identifying the extent of the
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning in a number of ways.
Due to widespread school closures related to the novel Coronavirus disease
(COVID-19), USDE waived the statewide assessment for the 2020 and 2021 school
years. As part of our approved assessment waivers requested for statewide
assessments, PRDE required all K-12 schools to report information about non-
summative assessments administered in tested grades at the end of the 2020-2021
school year.
PRDE has also developed and made available a variety of tools and resources to
support schools in building multitiered systems of support, strong policies and
procedures for handling aspects of loss of instruction.
PRDE will use the information collected to target island-provided supports,
technical assistance and oversight through annual monitoring and oversight
activities.
To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students with disabilities,
PRDE has developed guidelines and protocols to assist in identifying any skill loss,
lack of adequate progress, learning loss, or the emergence of new needs that
students may have experienced.
Later, during the 2021-2022 school year, PRDE will also examine how learning in
remote, hybrid, and in-person environments affected outcomes including, but not
limited to:
• Student academic achievement and growth on available assessment data;
• Academic growth;
• Attendance;
• Spanish Language Proficiency gains
Data Collection and Analysis. PRDE will also continue to expand its collection
and communication of available student data. PRDE’s data collection and reporting
system will be leveraged to provide parents/guardians, school and educational
school regions leaders, and the public with available data on how students are
achieving and progressing. This data system is not limited to test result data and
includes detailed information on student enrollment, attendance, course
completion, and graduation as well as school climate.
Collection of these data elements will directly support PRDE’s efforts to better
understand the pandemic’s impact on school communities and identify appropriate
actions to meet the academic, social emotional, and physical health and safety needs
of students.
Guidance for prevention on COVID-19 in schools. Faced with the public health
emergency due to the 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19), the PRDE
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 22
has established prevention guidance to provide schools the necessary strategies for
the safe operation of schools during the pandemic. The guidance is based on the
guidelines of the Centers for the Control and Prevention of Diseases (CDC) and the
recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), among others.
The prevention strategies presented in the guide aim to achieve a safe operation of
schools under strict health prevention and mitigation measures to reduce the risk of
virus transmission SARS-CoV-2 on school sites while serving the educational
needs of students, children and youth, including those receiving services from the
Special Education Program.
Accelerated Learning through a SMARTS Integrated System of Support. To
achieve the accelerated learning, PRDE will implement the SMARTS (Students,
Measurable, Accelerated, Relevant, Teachers, and Socioemotional and health)
Integrated System of Support.
The SMARTS Integrated System of Support will be used as a structure of
continuous planning and responding to address student and teacher’s needs. The
cycle will also support the most impacted groups of students with an individual
academic improvement plan, if necessary.
Through this strategy PRDE will provide a systematic process and technical support
for school communities to make key decisions and establish a mindset that will lead
to strategic vision, needs assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring, and
adjusting, with each element integrated systemically.
Key components within the associated SMARTS Integrated System of Support
will include operational and system conditions, social and emotional wellness,
academics, and scaffolded supports.
Local Assessments. To assist education school regions and schools in gaining early
and important insights into the impact of COVID-19 on student learning, PRDE
provided a statewide interim assessment in order to have a baseline data on student
achievement. Every 10 weeks, PRDE will be able to identify, in which subject, the
student’s performance is most affected. These interim assessments are imperative
for PRDE to focus its funding on an academic strategy for both elementary and
middle grades.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 23
5. School Operating Status: It is essential to have data on how students are learning in
order to support the goals of access and equity, especially for student groups that
have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Describe the
current status of data collection on operational status and mode of instruction of all
schools in your State. This description must include:
i. A description of to what extent, and how frequently, the State collects now
and will collect in the future data for all schools in your State on:
a. Mode of instruction: The number of schools in your State
that are offering fully remote or online-only instruction; both
remote/online and in-person instruction (hybrid model);
and/or full-time in-person instruction;
b. Enrollment: Student enrollment for all students and
disaggregated for each of the student groups described in
A.3.i-viii for each mode of instruction; and
c. Attendance: Student attendance for all students and
disaggregated for each of the student groups described in
A.3.i-viii for each mode of instruction.
Mode of Instruction: During the 2020-2021 academic year, all schools in
the Puerto Rico Department of Education operated remotely (virtual) due to
the COVID-19 pandemic. As of March 1, an order was issued for the
gradual opening of schools, allowing approximately 75% of schools to
resume face-to-face education. This guideline was reversed during the
month of April due to the increase in positive cases of COVID-19, causing
a return to remote (virtual) education for the rest of the academic year.
For the new academic year, all 860 schools were given the option to provide
in-person, hybrid or full virtual instruction for the 2021-2022 academic year
for the 261,485 students that are enrolled as of today. Onsite instruction is
traditional instruction where a student attends full-time (100%) of their time
on campus; 770 schools are opting for this alternative, while 31 schools are
providing a virtual option, in which students attend full-time off-site (either
synchronous or asynchronous) and utilize technology resources for
instruction. The last option for schools is a hybrid model where 59 schools
are providing its students a combined virtual and on-site instruction and
utilize a combination of resources. This data was collected on September 8,
2021.
The state included a data collection process to capture the mode of
instruction for each student. This data will be collected twice a week on the
number of students who are on-site or virtual. Therefore, the map below
will periodically be updated. To see a current status for mode of instruction,
please press the following link:
https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiMmZiOGNjNDUtYjMyYi00Zm
UxLTkwYWQtOGEzMjYyNGViZDgxIiwidCI6IjRjYjY3NTUwLTkzMm
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 24
YtNGUzMS05MmM5LTQxYzNjNjlkMDEzMSIsImMiOjZ9&pageName
=ReportSection1e8754f5e54a26d7dff0
Enrollment: Enrollment data is collected from the Student Information
System (SIE, per its acronym in Spanish) during the enrollment window.
However, PRDE certifies the enrollment data by September of each year.As
of today, a total of 261,485 students have enrolled in the public education
system.
Attendance: PRDE has available the attendance data for the 2020-2021
school year. During distance learning last year and according to the
available data, 52% of the students were disengaged during the months of
February thru May. During that period 39% of the students enrolled at the
end of the year never connected to MS Teams sessions, while 13%
connected less than 25% of the enrolled time.
ii. The data described in A.5.i.a. and b. using the template in Appendix A (and
to the extent available, the data described in A.5.i.c.) for the most recent
time period available. Please note that this data can be submitted separately
within 14 calendar days after a State submits this plan. The SEA must also
make this data publicly available on its website as soon as possible but no
later than June 21, 2021, and regularly provide updated available
information on its website. The Department will periodically review data
listed in A.5.i on SEA websites.
PRDE will make data publicly available on the PRDE website at: Perfil
Escolar2020-2021 (dde.pr)
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 25
iii. To the extent available, a description of the planned operational status and
mode of instruction for the State and its LEAs for Summer 2021 and for the
2021-2022 school year.
In the summer of 2021, PRDE determined to provide in-person instruction
to the majority of the 24,000 students that were at risk of failing their grades.
With the support of the Educational Regions, PRDE was able to contact
approximately 21,000 of those students and provided in-person academic
assistance through the Educational Summer Program.
In the 2021-22 school year, all schools were given the option to provide in-
person, hybrid or full virtual instruction, depending on their local needs or
when COVID-19 cases are identified at the schools.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 26
B. Safely Reopening Schools and Sustaining their Safe Operations
The Department recognizes that safely reopening schools and sustaining their safe operations
to maximize in-person instruction is essential for student learning and student well-being, and
especially for being able to address the educational inequities that have been worsened by the
COVID-19 pandemic. In this section, SEAs will describe how they will support their LEAs in
this vital area.
1. Support for LEAs: Describe how the SEA will support its LEAs in safely returning
to in-person instruction and sustaining the safe operation of schools. This
description must include:
i. How the SEA will support its LEAs implementing, to the greatest extent
practicable, 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 to effectively
maintain the health and safety of students, educators, and other staff;
PRDE has developed and made publicly accessible a series of guides to
manage COVID-19 within the school community, including teachers and
parents. 10
Recently, on July 2021, the Puerto Rico Department of Health, also issued
a prevention guidance for schools K through 12. 11
The PRDE aims to initiate the transition to face-to-face classes gradually,
considering protection of students, teachers and school staff. It is essential
that schools open their doors as soon as possible safely and that they remain
open to take advantage of the benefits of face-to-face classes and social-
emotional support services that are offer. In order for schools to start this
opening process, PRDE considers important to systematically adopt and
implement measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, both in schools and
in the community. That is, all members from the community, students,
families, teachers, and staff members take steps to protect themselves and
others where they live, work, study and entertain themselves. Success in
preventing COVID-19 in schools is related to preventing transmission in
the community at large.
10
Teacher’s manual for the reopening of school’s facilities on the academic year 2021-2020: https://de.pr.gov/wp-
content/uploads/2021/08/cambio-aceptados-manual-para-el-maestro-final-2-7.pdf
Parent’s manual for the reopening of schools’ facilities on the new academic year 2021-2022:
https://de.pr.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/cambios-aceptados-manual-para-padres-3.pdf
11
Puerto Rico Department of Health – COIVD-19 prevention guidance for schools K-12:
http://www.salud.gov.pr/Documents/Guia%20para%20la%20prevenci%c3%b3n%20de%20COVID-
19%20en%20escuelas%20K-12.pdf
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 27
The consistent and combined implementation of these different prevention
strategies in the K-12th grade schools is supported by the following
fundamental concepts:
• K-12 schools should be the last venues to close after exhausting all
other preventive measures in the community and the first to reopen
when be safe to do so.
• K-12 schools should implement recommended physical distancing
but should not exclude students from classroom instruction if school
structures do not allow to implement the optimal distance between
them.
• Removal of any of the preventive measures must be done one at a
time, combined with close monitoring of increases or outbreaks of
COVID-19 cases. To the extent possible, schools should organize
their students into cohorts (groups that stick together all day) during
face-to-face instruction so that there is little or no interaction
between groups.
• Face-to-face instruction should be prioritized over extracurricular
activities, including sports and school events, to minimize the risk
of transmission in schools and protect face-to-face classes.
• The low susceptibility and incidence of COVID-19 among the
youngest children in relationship with adolescents suggests that
younger students (for example, elementary grade students) are likely
to have less risk of transmission in the school during face-to-face
classes than older students (middle school and higher).
• Families of students at highest risk of becoming seriously ill
(including those with special medical needs), or who live with
people at high risk, must have the option of accessing virtual classes,
beyond the education modality offered at the school.
Despite careful planning and consistent implementation of prevention, there
may be situations that call for the temporary closure of a school or parts of
a school (such as a class, a cohort, or a grade) for classes face-to-face. These
decisions will be made jointly by the officials of the Health Department and
the PRDE, after careful consideration of various factors and with an
emphasis on ensuring the health and well-being of students, their families,
teachers and school staff. In such cases, schools should do their best to
continue classes through synchronous remote learning or home activities.
As mentioned on section A.1 of this state plan, PRDE has worked with the
Puerto Rico Department of Health to host massive vaccination campaign
for staff, students, and school communities across the island. With the
authorization to administer the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to children who
are at least 12 years of age, the PRDE has approximately 46,000 students
(eligible for vaccination) that have completed their vaccination doses. The
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 31
goal is to increase the number of fully vaccinated people on school
campuses and in school communities.
ii. Any Statewide plans, policies, estimated timelines, and specific milestones
related to reopening and operation of school facilities, including any
mechanisms the SEA will use to track, monitor, or enforce their
implementation;
PRDE has also developed additional prevention and mitigation support
strategies to effectively maintain the health and safety of students,
educators, and other staff as school facilities continue to reopen.
School staff vaccinations. The Central Government coordinated a
statewide, cross-agency effort to make vaccines available to all interested
education and school support staff. Approximately 95% of in person
educators and school staff throughout the island have already completed the
vaccination series.
Puerto Rico central government launched a vaccine registration system and
developed a series of logistical processes and forms. Thanks to the
teamwork of three government agencies, the Department of Health, the
Department of Transportation and the Office of Innovation and Information
Services of Puerto Rico a vaccination credential against COVID-19 was
launched (VACU ID, per its acronym in Spanish). This mechanism will
allow agencies to track, monitor, or enforce the vaccination process.
In order to have access to the VACU ID, the person must have the complete
dose series, as appropriate to the manufacturer of the vaccine, and must
register their information in the electronic application made available for
this purpose.
Student Monitoring system. PRDE has also made available a monitoring
system to identify students with any signs and symptoms of COVID-19,
influenza and mycoplasma in schools. On August 24, 2021, PRDE shared
its protocol for School Directors and Nurses to complete and identify any
possible cases. It will be carried out in schools that offer face-to-face classes
on a regular and interlocking schedule.
School nurse support. PRDE provided, and will continue to provide,
school nurses throughout its schools to maintain and monitor health services
for students aimed at prevention, preparedness and response to the
challenges PRDE will continue to face as a consequence of the coronavirus
pandemic during the 2021-2022 school year. Nurses will be responsible for
the:
• Organization and management the evaluation processes of students,
according to the identified needs.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 32
• Referring students, in those that health situations have been
identified, to the assigned health service provider.
• Collaboration on the development of a student intervention plan that
includes the study plan when the student returns to attend school.
• Offering guidance to students, parents or guardians, teaching and
non-teaching staff, on the health services offered by the Program and
the established public policies.
• Visiting students' homes with school support staff when necessary.
• Following up and helping the school director with health situations
that may cause a risk of outbreak and transmission of diseases among
the school population, according to the policies established by PRDE.
Healthy Environments at Classrooms. PRDE will invest ARP funds to
create classrooms that meet standards for accessibility and safety, both
considered fundamental for teaching and learning. PRDE will dispose
contaminated furniture to limit contamination of mold, fungus, and rust that
build up during the lockdown. PRDE will provide students and teachers
appropriate desks, that are free of mold or any rust residues.
In addition, PRDE will be addressing ventilation issues within classrooms.
Natural ventilation through operable windows can be an effective and
energy-efficient way to supplement air-conditioning (HVAC) systems by
providing outside air ventilation, cooling and thermal comfort when
conditions permit (e.g., temperature, humidity, outdoor air pollution levels,
precipitation). Windows that open and close properly can enhance
occupants' sense of well-being and feeling of control over their
environment. In order to improve air ventilation for the health and safety of
students, faculty, and staff, PRDE will replace and update windows that are
not properly functioning.
However, for most part of the year, Puerto Rico's climatic conditions require
that outdoor air be cooled to provide acceptable thermal comfort for
students, faculty, and staff, requiring the addition or replacement of air-
conditioning (HVAC) systems. PRDE will use ARP ESSER funds to
purchase or replace outdated HVAC systems that meet standards identified
by the EPA. According to the Department’s regulation at 34 CFR §
75.616(c), PRDE will also comply by using the services of a certified
electrical engineer, licensed by the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
Technicians College of Puerto Rico.
PRDE will determine through an assessment, which schools require to
update their HVAC systems and power substations. The acquisition process
will consider the costs necessary to install the HVAC system, and repairs
necessary to improve the school's energy consumption (i.e. power
substations).
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 33
In order to ensure compliance with social distancing inside our classrooms,
PRDE has applied many strategies to accommodate students and teachers
in one place. However, PRDE has identified that some classrooms simply
cannot accommodate a reasonable minimum of students. Therefore, PRDE
is identifying schools with classroom spaces that need to be extended or
modified. PRDE considers this a remodeling activity that is necessary to
prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19. Once a rigorous
assessment is properly performed, PRDE will use ARP ESSER funds to
perform school facility improvements allowing PRDE to create a learning
environment that could better sustain social distancing.
iii. To what extent the SEA and its LEAs consult with Federal, State, and local
health officials. This description should include, if available, whether the
SEA and its LEAs have received support for screening testing from their
State or local health department based on funding awarded by the CDC; and
The Puerto Rico Department of Health in collaboration with central
government is providing screening testing to all the population. These are
held throughout the island and are available at different locations in order
to become as reachable as necessary.
An example of a recent screening testing calendar is included below:
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 34
As of August 23, 2021, 79.9% of the eligible population of Puerto Rico has
at least one dose of the vaccine, and two million of the population has the
total doses.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 35
The Puerto Rico Department of Health continues with its massive
vaccination campaign and publicly announces its weekly calendar notifying
all the island wide locations where vaccination is being applied.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 36
iv. Any guidance, professional learning, and technical assistance opportunities
the SEA will make available to its LEAs.
As mentioned above, at section B.1(i), PRDE has developed and made
publicly accessible a series of guidelines for schools’ community, teachers
and parents reach a safely reopening of schools and sustain their safe
operations to maximize in-person instruction.
In addition to the guidelines that have been made publicly available, PRDE
held a summit for educational leaders during August 1-4, 2021. PRDE
invited to this summit all school directors, leaders of the Regional
Educational Office (ORE, per its acronym in Spanish), regional
superintendents, school superintendents, assistant superintendents, and
teacher facilitators.
The fundamental purpose of the Summit was to provide technical assistance
and high-level professional development in the effective implementation of
changes conducive to a safe return to in-person instruction, academic
achievement and continuous improvement of the school organizational
culture. The professional development sections were provided by public and
private entities that presented their innovative ideas and alternatives to
strengthen and develop changes in participant learning through the
following core issues:
• Instructional loss
• Data analysis
• Implementation of mitigation plans
• Integration of technology in the school community
• Socio-emotional learning
• Emphasis on services for students with disabilities
• Use and management of virtual platforms
• Community agreement or school partners
• Staff empowerment
• Accelerated learning
• Management and supervision skills
• Transformational leadership for change in the academic
environment.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 37
2. Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plans: Describe
how the SEA will ensure that its LEAs that receive ARP ESSER funds meet the
requirements in section 2001(i) of the ARP Act and the requirements relating to the
ARP ESSER funds published in the Federal Register and available at
https://oese.ed.gov/offices/american-rescue-plan/american-rescue-plan-
elementary-and-secondary-school-emergency-relief/ (ARP ESSER requirements)
to either: (a) within 30 days of receipt of the funds, develop and make publicly
available on the LEA’s website a plan for the safe return to in-person instruction
and continuity of services, or (b) have developed and made publicly available on
the LEA’s website such a plan that meets statutory requirements before the
enactment of the ARP Act, including:
i. How the SEA will ensure that each LEA plan includes, or will be modified
to include, the extent to which it has adopted policies and a description of
any such policies on each of the strategies listed in table B1;
ii. How the SEA will ensure that each LEA plan describes how it will ensure
continuity of services including but not limited to services to address the
students’ academic needs, and students’ and staff social, emotional, mental
health, and other needs, which may include student health and food services;
iii. How the SEA will ensure that the LEA periodically reviews, no less
frequently than every six months for the duration of the ARP ESSER grant
period (i.e., through September 30, 2023), 14 and revises as appropriate, its
plan, and how the SEA will ensure that the LEA seeks public input, and
takes such input into account on (1) whether revisions are necessary and, if
so, (2) the revisions to the plan; and
iv. Describe, to the extent the SEA collects it, information about LEA
implementation, to the greatest extent practicable, of each element of the
most up-to-date CDC guidance listed in table B1 and its LEAs’ needs for
support and technical assistance to implement strategies consistent, to the
greatest extent practicable, with relevant CDC guidance.
PRDE has made publicly available all information regarding the procedures
and policies adopted to ensure the safe return to in-person instruction on its
webpage: https://de.pr.gov/ prior to the 2020-2021 school year and
continuously has updated the guidance as necessary, as recently as in July
2021.
Through the webpage, PRDE includes health and safety guidelines,
information on the school models being implemented, relevant data reports,
resources for staff and families, and announcements shared with staff and
the community. Regional Educational Offices (OREs, per its acronym in
14
ARP ESSER funds are subject to the Tydings amendment in section 421(b) of the General Education Provisions
Act, 20 U.S.C. 1225(b), and are therefore available to SEAs and LEAs for obligation through September 30, 2024.
Review and revisions of these plans, if necessary, are not required during the Tydings period.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 38
Spanish) and schools were notified of the safe return to in-person instruction
and continuity of services for this new academic year.
PRDE will also make publicly available the ARP ESSER State Plan and the
use of ARP ESSER funds. PRDE is prioritizing student and staff needs to
facilitate a successful return to in-person instruction, including the
continuity of social emotional support and access to counseling services.
Our State Plan assurances have been duly signed and have provided the
Department with the link where the public can readily find data on school
operating status and the URL of our website where the public can find the
PRDE State Plan.
As a way to ensure that the PRDE periodically reviews the ARP ESSER
grant period, and revises the plan as needed, PRDE will adapt the use of its
Early Warning System. On a quarterly interval, the Early Warning System
is used to monitor the implementation and compliance of work plans,
including, but not limited to ensuring funds are being expended in a timely
manner.
In addition to the use of the Early Warning System, PRDE performs
monitoring procedures. PRDE’s monitoring process focuses on meeting
program quality as well as compliance with federal requirements, providing
oversight of fiscal and programmatic aspects of work plans, and ensuring
the continuity of services including, but not limited to services to address
the students’ academic needs, and students’ and staff social, emotional,
mental health, and other needs, which may include student health and food
services.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 39
C. Planning for the Use and Coordination of ARP ESSER Funds
The Department recognizes that seeking input from diverse stakeholders is essential to
developing plans for the use of ARP ESSER funds that are responsive to the needs of students,
families, and educators. In this section, SEAs will describe their plans for consultation and for
coordinating the use of ARP ESSER funds with other resources to meet the needs of students.
1. SEA Consultation: Consistent with the ARP ESSER requirements, describe how
the SEA engaged in meaningful consultation with stakeholders, and incorporated
input into its plan, including, but not limited to:
i. students;
ii. families;
iii. Tribes (if applicable);
iv. civil rights organizations (including disability rights organizations);
v. school and district administrators (including special education
administrators);
vi. superintendents;
vii. charter school leaders (if applicable);
viii. teachers, principals, school leaders, other educators, school staff, and their
unions; and
ix. stakeholders representing the interests of children with disabilities, English
learners, children experiencing homelessness, children and youth in foster
care, migratory students, children who are incarcerated, and other
underserved students.
The description must include how the SEA provided the public the opportunity to
provide input in the development of the plan, a summary of the input (including
any letters of support), and how the SEA took such input into account.
Surveys. PRDE distributed online surveys related to the ARP ESSER plan to all
stakeholders. The survey asked respondents to identify most pressing needs
currently facing students and schools in their area; what lessons could be learned
from the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic to improve the K-12 education
system; and what they saw as spending priorities for Puerto Rico’s ARP ESSER
funds. In response, the PRDE received:
5,944 questionnaires from parents, teachers, students from the 8th grade and 12th
grade, representatives of civil organizations, stakeholders representing children
with disabilities, Spanish learners, children experiencing homelessness, children in
foster care, and incarcerated children.
Another 11,442 surveys were answered by students from 1st grade and 7th grade, 2
surveys were answered by non-for-profit organizations, and 559 surveys were
answered by school leaders, superintendents, and charter school leaders.
While PRDE attempted to receive input from all stakeholder groups, none was
received related specifically to unions.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 40
As a result of these surveys, PRDE was able to identify students from the 1st grade
through 7th grade that they felt they learned the least in their English and Math
subjects. (see appendix E, for survey results)
On the social-emotional aspect, 57% of the participants, preferred to study at home,
because they were afraid to get infected with COVID-19. (see appendix E, for
survey results)
From the parents, teachers and students of the 8th grade through 12th grade, PRDE
was able to gather their top priorities for the 2021-2022 academic year. (see
appendix E, for survey results)
• This group of stakeholders identified that it is necessary to facilitate schools
with data, along with the analysis of the data.
• Another top priority is to provide social emotional support to the students,
and school personnel.
• Continue with the distribution and access to technological devices.
• Provide accelerated learning strategies or activities to deal with learning loss.
• Distribution of learning materials for educators.
Focus Group. From the beginning of the pandemic, PRDE has maintained focus
on collaboration and consultation with many stakeholder groups. In anticipation of
a third federal relief package and to develop a recovery plan with meaningful
consultation, the PRDE facilitated a School Leader focus group meeting on August
5, 2021 to determine needs of students, families, and educators due to the impact
of COVID-19.
Representatives of school leaders were asked to identify the greatest needs for
students, families and educators. They were also provided a list of possible focal
areas, from which the PRDE could prioritize support, including use of federal relief
funds.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 41
As a result of the focus group meeting, PRDE was able to identify the following
top priorities:
• Improve working conditions, as to salary increase, providing school materials,
human resources recruitment, and improving school infrastructure.
• Continue providing effective strategies during distance learning as to
distribution of laptops, internet devices, providing summer learning to students
that are at a greater risk of failing, and continue providing technical assistance
to educators.
• Provide after school and/or tutoring services to students that are at risk of
failing.
• Regarding the social emotional support, focus group participants mentioned the
need to facilitate data and analysis to better assist school personnel and students.
As a summary of the input received from stakeholders, PRDE identified that it was
overwhelmingly aligned to the stated prioritization and needs around learning
acceleration and mental health.
Ongoing Consultation. PRDE is conducting and will continue to conduct ongoing
meaningful engagement with stakeholders.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 42
PRDE requested its School Educational Regions (ORE’s) to provide a list of what
they understand would be the most relevant initiatives to address the academic
acceleration and social emotional needs. Below some of the initiatives that were
presented by the OREs:
- Create a mobile app for students to exchange, publish and store information
in different formats and topics, with the purpose of sharing useful and reliable
information and that in turn serves to support the student allowing it to
complete self-learning and learn from its peers. The use of this app will be in
collaboration and interrelationship among community members, content is
supervised, mediated and monitored by expert teachers in the different
subjects. 15
- Develop six (6) multidisciplinary technological centers (CTM, per its
acronym in Spanish) in alliance with the municipalities within our region. The
CTM project aims to use technology combining a hybrid education to address
the student’s academic gaps and provide them with a continuous and safe
educational environment. Through this initiative, our ORDE could offer
equitable and accessible access to computers and internet service to students
and members of the school community. The CTM center would as a study
and technology center. 16
- Provide school directors a specialized support through specialists in the field
of education and administration. It is necessary to extend the integration of
the services offered, educational strategies and resources for five to six
consecutive school years in order for them to effective. The ORE has
identified the need to purchase equipment and materials, teacher salaries to
carry out the school extended day, teacher’s assistant, security guards, office
clerks and part-time administrative assistant. 17
- Create centers, known as Centers for Academic and Social-Emotional
Strengthening for Students, Families, and the Community. Centers would
offer learning support and address socio-emotional needs during afterschool
hours. The ORE could design the structures for the targeted interventions
through differentiation of instruction and offer the services to guarantee and
address the particular needs of our students. 18
15
ORE Caguas – best strategies to address academic acceleration
16
ORE Mayaguez – best strategies to address academic acceleration
17
ORE Ponce – best strategies to address academic acceleration
18
ORE Arecibo – best strategies to address academic acceleration
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 43
- Improve both the emotional and educational well-being of students. Integrate
and collaborate with teachers and parents who are the ones who interact
directly with students. Create an infrastructure department to support OMEP
in dealing with minor or emergency improvements in schools at the ORE.
Provide support on Saturdays, through the arts and sports. Offer practical
tools and methods to help teachers and parents with the educational and
emotional development of students with autism problems, which has been
strongly affected by social distancing due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Create
alliances with companies to offer workshops and "coaching" to teachers by
professionals on educational issues, and that these workshops include
materials, diagnostic tests and development plan. Offer a strategic plan that
will impact the 1st, 7th, and 9th grades. Speak over self-esteem and personal
development to high school students. 19
- Create educational laboratories, strategically located in close proximity to
communities. Students seeking to improve their English language skills can
visit these laboratories after school. Each municipality would have at least 1
laboratory, with another laboratory added for every 12 schools. The
laboratories would offer self-learning modules on the basic, intermediate, and
advanced levels. 20
- Provide students distance tutoring in the subject of Spanish (K-3rd grade) and
Math (6th through 8th grades) through the in-person and virtual modalities.
Tutoring would be offered as an afterschool service. In order to address the
student’s social emotional needs, the ORE could perform activities
(workshops, literature, movies) allusive to managing emotions (anxiety, fear,
sadness, and frustration). 21
The Department will continue to develop a comprehensive set of strategies for the
ARP ESSER funds in the coming months using feedback from ongoing
engagement and consultation with the US Department of Education. PRDE will
utilize established networks to expand and deepen engagement with the advisory
groups, partners, and the public to assess PRDE’s progress toward developing a
plan that reflects the needs of our communities. Staff will capture public input and
consider recommendations as the plan is finalized.
19
ORE San Juan – best strategies to address academic acceleration
20
ORE Bayamón – best strategies to address academic acceleration
21
ORE Humacao – best strategies to address academic acceleration
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 44
Online Public Comment Period. PRDE has also posted a draft of its ARP ESSER
plan on the PRDE website for any member of the public to provide feedback from
September 10th – 20th, 2021. As of the date this state plan was submitted to USDE,
PRDE has received 70 comments.
PRDE analyzed comments received, and has identified that 34% of the comments
stated the urgency to improve school’s infrastructure and classroom conditions,
including the purchase of 21st Century technology for the classrooms.
Another 23% of the comments stated that PRDE needs to reinforce the academic,
psychological and health support within schools due to the pandemic of COVID-
19, as to providing the alternative of mode of instruction, screening testing, and
reducing school hours.
A 11% of comments stated the urgency to increase salary and provide additional
incentives to the school personnel due to the work performed during the pandemic.
This was followed by a 9% of the comments which stated that PRDE needs to
provide teachers better instructional materials.
Stakeholder input taken into account. The input received will inform how PRDE
will prioritize the use of ARP ESSER funds as it plans for the return of students to
its school campuses and the implementation of educational opportunities to
reengage students and accelerate learning to increase student achievement. It is
important to highlight that through this state plan, PRDE’s intention is to promote
a safe and healthy learning environment for students and staff and to assess learning
loss mitigation strategies. PRDE’s plan was shaped by all of these stakeholder’s
interactions; those main themes are reflected throughout this document.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 45
psychological and health personnel, including the purchase of health and
safety items for schools, and regional offices.
As of August 30, 2021, PRDE has expended $39.5 million and encumbered
$59.4 million of the $349.1 million ESSER I award.
Nurses. PRDE completed the recruitment of nurses to perform physical
evaluation in the school community, both for students and for the faculty.
These personnel will be in charge of making referrals, preparing a
prevention and action plan against possible COVID-19 infections.
*404 Nurses from August 2020 to June 30, 2021.
Funding - $12.8M
*429 Nurses from August 2021 to June 30, 2022.
Funding - $15.6M
Population to be impacted: Students. Specifically, the 59,630 students who
were identified with chronic health conditions, following the needs
assessment conducted utilizing the student health profile for the 2020-2021
and 2021-2022 school year.
As a planned use of these funds, PRDE is in the process of completing an
auction to purchase the materials that are necessary for nurses to carry out
their tasks effectively.
Funding - $2.6M
Development of educational materials for the school year. The PRDE
teachers will develop educational materials for the upcoming semester as
we adapt to the reality of distance education. The structure of the materials
includes a variety of digital resources such as: presentations with interactive
content, practice activities, assignments, evaluations and supplementary
material such as links and multimedia.
Funding - $242k
Distance Education System. A Distance Education System will be
acquired so that PRDE can provide digital content for primary courses. This
sub-initiative will impact a total of 276,413 students and 23,698 teachers.
Funding - $35M
Mobile app. A mobile app will be developed to help the PRDE provide
better support to parents, students and teachers addressing the new
academic challenges.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 47
Funding - $976k
Online courses. The purpose of this sub-initiative is to hire resources to
help optimize the revision, updating, design, and creation of online courses.
The initiative includes the hiring of resources that will update 100% of the
online courses, the hiring of 1,404 teachers that will offer the online courses,
the hiring of technical support and the purchase of necessary technological
equipment for the administration of the online courses.
Funding - $9.8M
Purchase of paper for printing educational materials at the school level.
Purchase of paper to print the documents necessary for distance education,
due to the lack of technological resources that were available during the
beginning of the school year. This provides schools with necessary
resources to provide printed modules for students, as needs are identified.
A total of 9,125 boxes of paper were purchased for all schools in the public
system.
Funding - $256k
Online Campus. The initiative seeks to offer an Online Campus (Moodle)
as the space in which 50,000 teachers and administrative personnel, 89,438
students from 9th to 12th grade and 29,062 parents can find trainings,
certification courses (webinar), and online professional development,
among other similar functions.
The initiative also includes the hiring of technical support personnel and the
necessary technological equipment for the implementation of the project.
Funding - $281k
Online Planning Platform. This sub-initiative proposes the enhancement
and improvement of a platform that will help in the online planning of
teachers for all the subjects offered, so that they can demonstrate their work
and the strategies implemented with their students during the distance
education.
Funding - $ 602k
Digital Books. This sub-initiative proposes the purchase of licenses to
access digital books on the following subjects matters: Spanish,
Mathematics, English, Science and Social Studies, both for the regular
academic program and for the special education academic program.
Funding - $9.1M
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 48
Technological equipment for PRDE's essential administration
personnel. Purchase of devices or other technological equipment to
maintain the Administration of the Department to assure essential services
are met. Type of equipment to be purchased: 3,400 DELL Latitude 3500
laptops. The laptops will be distributed as follows:
1) 50 laptops per Regional Office= 350 laptops
2) 3 laptops per school= 2,571 laptops
3) 479 laptops for Central Level
Funding - $3.2M
Disinfection and cleaning of PRDE schools and buildings. For deep
cleaning and sanitation of schools. Acquisition of materials needed for
cleaning 856 schools. Purchase of 3,219 wall thermometers stations in order
to maintain the safety measures required by taking the temperature of school
staff and others.
Funding - $20.8M
Equipment and materials for food distribution. This initiative is to
support cafeterias in maintaining social distance in schools. They will
implement a "grab and go" system for the distribution of food. The changes
to keep social distancing will require the acquisition of materials and
equipment as follows:
• Frying pans - 200 units
• Hot cabinets - 380 units
• Ice machines - 840 units
• Plastic bags - 2,000 boxes
• Plastic boxes - 5,040 units
• Beach coolers - 2,000 units
• One door fridge - 119 units
• Two door fridge - 119 units
• Milk coolers -119 units
School cafeterias that will participate: 840
Projection of services: 150,000 services of food per day
Funding - $9.4M
Private Schools Allocation. Funds Reserved for private schools, which
will be awarded based on the need of each participating school.
*Budget is based on the Proportional Share of the full enrollment according
to available data 2018-19.
Funding - $74.1M
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 49
Office Telephone and VoIP. This initiative seeks to reestablish the
telephone infrastructure of the PRDE by developing a system of VoIP which
will improve communications and avoid disruptions throughout the PRDE.
This will allow our regional offices, Central Level and schools to
communicate with each other during distance education offerings. This will
also benefit the coordination of special education and other similar services.
Funding - $4M
Interactive Screens for Occupational Schools (CTE). Purchase of 490
interactive screens to be installed in Occupational Schools, in order to make
accessible distance education offering to CTE students.
Funding - $2.8M
Backpacks for students. PRDE intends to prepare students for the return
to face-to-face classes by acquiring backpacks, notebooks, school supplies
and lunch boxes. The lunch boxes and backpacks will have a different color
for each grade and the materials they will carry inside will depend on the
specific needs of the grade.
This initiative will impact 272,621 students from kinder to twelfth grade.
Funding - $12.8M
Emergency Backpacks. The initiative aims to acquire 31,228 backpacks
containing emergency materials that will be located in the schools and in
the administrative offices of the DEPR. Backpacks will include personal
protective equipment to handle an emergency in these times of COVID 19.
This initiative initially contemplated 8,445 backpacks; however, the lead of
the initiative identified the need to acquire 22,783 additional backpacks.
Funding - $4.9M
Joined Academic Network (JANET). JANET is a pilot project that
delivers fast, real-time, and secured educational intranet encrypted signal to
8,892 students in the municipalities of Guánica, Guayanilla and Yauco, as
a response to the ongoing pandemic crisis in these schools that show
disproportionate impact from other schools of PR.
Funding - $9.9M
Internet Vouchers. This initiative proposes a subsidy of $50 for internet
vouchers for students and teachers in need, starting in June 2021 and ending
in December 2021. The initiative will impact approximately 30% of the
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 50
students and teachers of the PRDE (based on the active enrollment as of
May 2021: 27,479 teaching staff and 81,553 students from kindergarten
through twelfth grades).
The objective of this project is to ensure that PRDE teaching staff and PRDE
students (who do not qualify under other subsidies) to have adequate and
reliable access to broadband internet needed to participate in virtual and/or
hybrid education programs during the COVID-19 health emergency. The
project consists of a subsidy for the payment of broadband internet service.
A monthly credit of $50 per family will apply from June through December
2021 (summer session and the SY 21-22 first semester), up to a maximum
of $350 per family for the term set for the subsidy. Qualified teaching staff
will need to go directly to the companies registered and authorized by the
Puerto Rico Department of the Treasury (PRDT) and the Puerto Rico
Telecommunications Bureau. Each applicant will choose the service of their
choice, among the authorized suppliers.
PRDE will provide the PRDT a list of teaching staff and students qualified
for this initiative. That is, the PRDT evaluates and submits the invoices to
the PRDE and the PRDE issues the payment order to PRDT, who will
disburse the subsidy directly to the supplier that the qualified teacher or
student selected.
Funding - $49.2M
Virtual Appointments System - PRDE Complaints Procedure and
Provisional Remedy Unit (Special Education). This initiative proposes an
online system for requesting appointments virtually. With this initiative the
people that requires the services of PRDE's Complaints Procedure and
Provisional Remedy Unit, can request the appointment at their convenience
online. The virtual appointments will allow the Unit to address and resolve
the requests, limiting in-person appointments as a measure to combat the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The Complaints Procedure and Provisional Remedy Unit is in charge of
guiding, receiving and evaluating complaints, receiving and evaluating
provisional remedies forms, issuing copies of approval or objection letters,
referrals for doping tests, solving service problems, creating complaint files,
among others. During the month of April 2021, the Unit received 27,328
requests for provisional remedies and 463 complaints. From January 2021
to the end of April 2021, 226 walk-ins were received at the offices and 1,089
phone calls were also received. This initiative will help the PRDE to provide
appointments in an organized way without the need for in person
appointments or phone calls.
Funding - $46k
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 51
Training of Educational Leaders for Academic Recovery. The Summit
Plan of Educational Leaders for Academic Recovery (COVID-19) seeks to
offer a five-day training workshop to promote academic and socio-
emotional recovery, and to promote the implementation of all public
policies, regulations, protocols of safety and security for the 2021-2022
school year to continue combating the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to
support regional leadership in the development of innovative solutions or
reducing academic slide as a result of COVID-19 instructional disruptions.
Funding - $1.5M
Charter School Vimenti. The initiative seeks the acquisition of equipment
and materials that assist this Charter School to combat the COVID-19
pandemic. Some of the materials that they will acquire are: acrylic
protection dividers, face shields, disinfectant spray and antibacterial soaps.
Funding - $117k
Essential Competencies. Hire 72 teachers to design the guide of essential
competencies for each grade and subject, design the personalized plan for
academic recovery, establish a protocol for assisting students with greater
lag and for guiding teachers and families in the use of these tools.
Funding - $245k
Payment of Provisional Remedy Services for Students Participating in
the Special Education Program. PRDE's Complaints Procedure and
Provisional Remedy Unit administers the Provisional Remedy mechanism,
which was created as an alternative to offer certain related, supplementary
and support services to students, including those in special education who
are entitled to therapy, evaluation and assistant services, but that cannot be
offered at the moment by PRDE's Special Education Program.
The Special Education Program, for reasons attributable to the COVID-19
pandemic, has seen the need to refer more students to the Provisional
Remedy Unit due to the closure of school facilities, lack of specialists,
increase in students served, prohibition of group therapies, among others.
Because of the reasons mentioned above, the budget assigned to this unit
for the payment of services is not enough and there are currently 470
invoices submitted that have not been paid due to lack of funds.
The PRDE under this initiative intends to pay 470 pending invoices for
therapy, evaluations and assistance services provided to the students
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 52
participating in the Special Education program during the pandemic
situation.
Funding - $8.4M
Materials and Equipment to Process Teacher Certification Requests.
The initiative aims to acquire 12 computers, 1 printer and other equipment
and office supplies necessary to process in a more quickly and efficiently
way the requests of certifications from teachers that are made through a
recently acquired platform to meet the needs that have arisen from the
COVID-19 pandemic and to decrease the in-person interactions. Teachers
need these certificates because they establish their functions as teachers in
the PRDE and it is a requirement with which they must comply to exercise
their functions within the PRDE.
The platform was developed to fulfill the purposes of maintaining social
distancing during the pandemic and the level of requests has been so high
that it requires the PRDE to acquire the necessary equipment to process
them in an agile, effective and efficient manner during the emergency.
Funding - $41k
Purchase of materials and equipment for psychologists. The PRDE hired
psychologists to provide early intervention services, supports, and related
services to special education students during the pandemic situation, with
other non- ESSER funds. The purpose of hiring these psychologists was to
address the students’ socio-emotional needs during distance education
schools’ offerings and as the PRDE prepares for reopening schools. To
achieve these goals and to address any pandemic related needs, the Special
Education Program has developed this initiative so that psychologists can
have the materials and equipment necessary to continue carrying out their
tasks effectively and for safeguarding the health and safety measures
required of these personnel.
Funding - $26.6M
Active Zone. The main objective of this initiative is to provide a kit of
physical education materials for home use with the purpose of continuing
with the physical education class while it is offered in virtual or hybrid
modality due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This initiative will also provide
a high-resolution technological equipment for the physical education class
while it is offered in virtual or hybrid modality.
Funding - $31.3M
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 53
Administrative % allocation. Payment of salaries for two administrative
assistants (transitory positions) that will be working full time directly with
the ESSER grant. They will provide support to the program personnel,
follow up to the leads of the initiatives and the reporting they must comply
with, and assistance during the overall implementation of the projected
activities of all initiatives. The PRDE will acquire two laptops, printers,
equipment, and supplies to carry out the administrative task of the ESSER
program, as needed. In addition, hire of professional services contractors
that will assist the ESSER program.
Funding - $1.3M
ESSER II (CRRSA Act)
Surveillance Coordinators. PRDE will hire 22 epidemiologists for the
control and reduction of COVID-19 cases in the school community, since
we will have professionals who will follow the monitoring of the contagious
virus and support school directors, nurses and administrative offices in the
decision-making.
Funding - $4.6M
DE INNOVA Learning Center. The purpose of this initiative is to provide
systemic instructional support through the continuity of training activities
through the INNOVA Moodle platform to achieve a reopening and training
service process, create a continuous service center in the area of
technological integration, design and condition regular classrooms with
equipment and learning spaces to facilitate the implementation of distance
learning strategies and empower all the regional educational offices.
Funding - $31M
Bonus for permanent, probatory and transitory employees working
during the COVID-19 emergency. The purpose of this initiative is to
compensate the staff who showed a high sense of responsibility during the
pandemic and supported the continuity of the services and the educational
process. The incentive will be of $5,000 to compensate the effort of 44,883
PRDE employees with permanent, probatory and transitory status.
Funding - $200M
Administrative Support for School Directors. The objective of this
initiative is to recruit 651 administrative assistants to support to the schools’
directors to implement contingencies and prevention strategies before
starting the next school year. This initiative will also provide support to
parents or guardians to attend their concerns and needs before the start of
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 54
presential or hybrid classes. These personnel will carry out periodic
inspections on school sites, in order to verify compliance with safety and
prevention measures needed to avoid the spread of the COVID-19.
Funding - $10.8M
Hiring Security Officers. The objective of this initiative is to hire three
security officers per school, impacting all public schools, totaling 2,568
security officers. These officers will be taking the temperature of all school
personnel, thus ensuring the compliance of social distancing and use of face
masks.
Funding - $89.6M
Hiring Maintenance Staff. This initiative aims to hire 1,536 maintenance
staff employees to keep areas safe for students and school personnel. The
purpose is to complete the periodical sanitation, in compliance with
COVID-19 protocols and updates set by CDC and the department of health
as a measure to combat and prevent the spread of the COVID-19.
Funding - $58.1M
Educational Summer. The Education Summer initiative has the purpose
of reinforcing students' academic skills, giving priority to the students who
may fail the grade in order to reduce failures by 80% due to the challenges
face during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project consists in hiring all
Educational and non-teaching staff from June 10, 2021 to July 28, 2021 to
offer dynamic, interactive and flexible learning environments and motivate
students to obtain the necessary skills and competences to increase
academic achievement.
The plan includes face-to-face and online modality of classes. Classes will
last 75 minutes, and each teacher will have 15 students per period for a 6-
hour day from Monday to Friday.
In addition, a bonus of $900 to 1,500 tutors who will offer individualized
help to students is contemplated.
Funding - $145.7M
Rehabilitation of PRDE’s Schools. The main objective of this initiative is
to guarantee that our students and personnel have a safe and healthy school
environment and infrastructure. The initiative seeks to rehabilitate spaces
and be able to safely reopen in-person education. Also, for PRDE’s schools’
buildings are in compliance with the health and distance education
guidelines and construction regulations.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 55
The initiative will include:
• deep cleaning of walls and ceilings
• repairing of cracks and dampness (due to the presence of rust)
• repair deformations
• correction of water filtration
• removal of mold, asbestos and lead paint
• painting of interior and exterior walls and ceilings
• inspections
• needs assessments
Funding - $193.5M
Acquisition of Technological Equipment to Support the Operations of
the School Food Authority. Acquisition of 146 computers to provide
services in approximately 700 school dining rooms currently operating.
The school food authority is an agency ascribed to the PRDE and this
initiative will assist the agency to be prepared and able to respond
effectively to the challenges faced as a result of the pandemic and the
increase in administrative jobs like the procurement processes,
reconciliation of drivers, required reports, etc.
Funding - $306k
System for Continuous Monitoring of Academic Recovery. The
objective of this initiative is to develop standardized assessment instruments
and a test system for basic subjects (science, Spanish, social studies, English
and math) that will help the PRDE to obtain quantitative and qualitative data
collection, and analyze the data collected from the different 4 instruments.
Thus, PRDE will test their students, monitor the progress of school
populations and obtain the necessary data to make adjustments to the action
plans aligned with academic recovery. After each test, modules with
specific lessons are applied to attend the areas of academic lag.
Funding - $27.6M
Retroactive Premium Pay. The objective of this initiative is to compensate
schools’ food authority personnel who showed a high sense of responsibility
with their actions and supported the continuity of services and the
educational process, offering them an incentive for the work done during
the pandemic and the risk of getting COVID-19 during their daily work.
The incentive will be of $5,000.00 for all 3,968 employees.
Funding - $21.7M
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 56
Student Information System Platform (SIE). Through this initiative,
PRDE will acquire a platform that provides the mechanism to register
students’ attendance both in present and remote learning. Also, to identify
students using a code identification card to register attendance
electronically and promote location monitoring while using school
transportation services; and provide efficient and modern communication
between student parents and school staff.
Funding - $10M
Acquisition of Chairs and Tables for School Food Authority.
Acquisition of tables and chairs for the PRDE’s school food authority. Food
services will be offered to students in a presential, uninterrupted and safe
way in the face of the COVID-19 public health emergency. The school
dining rooms need tables and chairs that facilitate the necessary disinfection
process to offer the services to the students, since most of the tables and
chairs in the school dining rooms are made of material not resistant to
constant disinfections. Also, due to the closure of the school dining room
after the pandemic, the chairs and tables have been deteriorated with mold,
moth and fungus.
The initiative includes the following acquisitions: 10,000 tables and 62,208
chairs (72 chairs per school dining room).
Funding - $8.5M
Remedial After School Program. The initiative proposes an after-school
program with 2 additional hours (3:00pm to 5:00pm) from Monday through
Thursday during the school year 2021-2022 for all schools.
In addition, occupational schools will work with the required soft skills
according to the specialty, using the equipment and materials available in
the workshop.
Funding - $303.8M
Hiring of School Transportation Routes. The objective of this initiative
is to guarantee the transportation of students living in poverty, with
additional impediments and / or limitations despite the restrictions imposed
to maintain social distance. Through this initiative, we will ensure that
students arrive to the classroom when their itinerary requires it. Also, ensure
students who require in-site therapies, they can continue attending them,
and ensure that the students of the occupational program can attend their
classes.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 57
Funding - $106.5M
Leasing Agreement. The objective of this initiative is to lease facilities to
relocate students and school staff from schools that were impacted by the
earthquakes in the south part of the island. This will allow to begin the in-
person classes during the school year 2021-2022 and to ensure the proper
social distancing and prevention measures required during the COVID-19
pandemic.
Funding - $1.3M
MIPE. PRDE will launch a new version of its Special Education System
(MIPE, per its acronym in Spanish) that will allow the program to
effectively complete student’s registration process, electronically fill the
student’s Individualized Educational Program (PEI, per its acronym in
Spanish), issue Child Count certifications, dashboards, among other
essential features.
Funding - $5.1M
Industrial psychologist. The PRDE will hire 38 psychologists that will
apply psychological principles and research methods to improve the overall
work environment, including performance, communication, professional
satisfaction and safety within the administrative offices, School Educational
Regions, and schools.
Funding - $2.5M
ii. To what extent ESSER I and ESSER II funds have been awarded to LEAs
and, if funds have not yet been made available to LEAs, when they will be.
In addition, please provide any available information on the total dollar
amounts of ESSER I and ESSER II funds that have been obligated but not
expended by the SEA and its LEAs, including whether the SEA is able to
track LEA obligations.
As a unitary SEA-LEA system, PRDE has made all ESSER I and ESSER
II funds received available for the LEA allowable uses.
As of August 30, 2021, PRDE has expended $39.5 million and encumbered
$59.4 million of the $349.1 million ESSER I award.
As of August 16, 2021, PRDE has expended $1 million and encumbered
$75 million of the $1.320 million ESSER II award.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 58
iii. In supporting LEAs as they plan for the safe return to and continuity of in-
person instruction and for meeting the academic, social, emotional, and
mental health needs of students resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic,
the extent to which the SEA is also using other Federal funding sources
including but not limited to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
of 1965 (“ESEA”), IDEA, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
(“WIOA”), funding for child nutrition services, and McKinney-Vento
Homeless Assistance Act, and the funds to support the needs of students
experiencing homelessness provided by section 2001(b)(1) of the ARP
Act. 22
PRDE plans to maximize the use of all federal funds awarded to address the
academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs of all students while
fulfilling the requirements of all grant programs as a unitary system.
ESSER funds will be used to supplement the use of ESEA, IDEA, and
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act funds to provide additional
supports to students disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19
pandemic. These supports include, but are not limited to, afterschool
programs, deepen tutoring, and wraparound services to address students’
social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health needs.
ESSER funds will also be used to supplement child nutrition funds to
continue to provide all students with school meals. After a rigorous analysis
of the situation and the available alternatives, the School Food Authority
(AEA), using the waivers granted by the USDA, modified the way of
offering the food services from a congregated to a non-congregated manner.
In other words, to maintain the recommended social distancing, the food
services that the AEA has offered during this emergency were in the “Grab
and Go” or “Pack and Go” modality. In this modality, food was offered to
participants in disposable utensils, in front of the school gate, or in a place
identified by the school director.
WIOA funds will continue to be used to provide non-traditional students
with career readiness programs.
22
Please note that the needs of students experiencing homelessness must be addressed (along with the other groups
disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic) through the use of the ARP ESSER SEA reservations and
the required LEA reservation for the academic impact of lost instructional time; the funding provided to support the
needs of students experiencing homelessness by section 2001(b)(1) of the ARP Act is in addition to the supports and
services provided with ARP ESSER funds.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 59
D. Maximizing State-Level Funds to Support Students
The Department recognizes that States have an extraordinary opportunity to address the
disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on underserved students through the ARP
Act’s required State set-asides to address the academic impact of lost instructional time,
provide summer learning and enrichment programs, and provide comprehensive afterschool
programs. In this section, SEAs will describe their evidence-based strategies for these
resources.
1. Academic Impact of Lost Instructional Time: Describe how the SEA will use the
funds it reserves under section 2001(f)(1) of the ARP Act (totaling not less than 5
percent of the State’s total allocation of ARP ESSER funds). The description must
include:
i. A description of the evidence-based interventions (e.g., providing intensive
or high-dosage tutoring, accelerating learning) the SEA has selected, and
the extent to which the SEA will evaluate the impact of those interventions
on an ongoing basis to understand if they are working;
PRDE’s students and educators have been greatly impacted by the
pandemic and related events, which have exacerbated existing inequalities.
This has been demonstrated by data and the needs identified in previous
sections of this plan.
As PRDE turns to address these issues, with the support of the American
Rescue Plan, there is both a need of urgent action while also considering a
multi-year plan and a well-thought-out approach.
PRDE will reserve at least the respective amount of funding for each
intervention in the section, including at least 5% of the state’s total
allocation of ARP ESSER funds for evidence-based interventions to address
the academic impact of lost instructional time. The services provided will
target vulnerable students most impacted by the pandemic.
However, it is important to highlight that through the ongoing consultation
that PRDE plans to follow, this state plan is considered a live document. All
strategies, here included (section D), are subject to modifications, if our
school community such requires it. In addition, PRDE may identify and
develop other strategies to help support the students. Any other strategy, not
included in this state plan, will be presented to USDE for approval and
proceed with an amendment process of the Puerto Rico’s ARP ESSER State
Plan.
Multi-year plan. To effectively implement the evidence-based
interventions, PRDE will develop, through collaborative network, a
coherent plan, adequately supported and designed for long-term impact.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 60
When an academic, social emotional or health component is planned with
the goal of creating a cycle of continuous improvement, opportunities are
created to assess ongoing needs, experiment with new evidence-based
strategies allowing PRDE to make necessary adjustments. As a result of this
sustainable and continuous growth cycle, PRDE fully intends to support
students in achieving accelerating learning rates so that students are meeting
grade and/or content level standards.
Over the course of this multi-year plan, and based on PRDE’s review of
data, stakeholder input and implementation of evidence-based practices,
PRDE will support schools with accelerating student learning to address
learning loss needs and close performance gaps. These will be addressed
through an acceleration cycle, and will include:
High-Impact tutoring. PRDE will use ARP ESSER funds to expand and
extend the tutoring services that are being currently provided by the
University of Puerto Rico. The Professional Development and University
Relationship Institute in collaboration with the University of Puerto Rico
(UPR) is offering tutoring services for students from the 3rd and 12th grade.
The purpose of this program is to provide innovative and relevant
educational experiences to the student, resulting in better academic
achievement, within the following subjects: English, mathematics, Spanish,
social studies and science.
Tutoring service is currently being provided in the distance modality, from
Monday to Thursday, through the Moodle platform of Microsoft Teams.
Students can request the service through www.tutoriasde.upr.edu. PRDE
plans on expanding these services to all student population, and extend it
through 2024.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 61
During the first phase, tutoring services will be provided by the UPR
students and teachers from the Puerto Rico Department of Education. The
tutorial model consists on providing services to a small group, so that
students receive a personalized service and the skills in need of each student
can be effectively addressed. Each group will be made up of 5 to 10 students
accompanied by a designated tutor. The activities and teaching strategies
have been designed by an interdisciplinary group of experts in content,
technology and family issues and psychosocial support, in the hands of a
group of coordinators who are teachers of the humanities, education, social
sciences and general studies faculties of the UPR - Río Piedras Campus.
High quality instructional materials. A full suite of optional, high-quality,
innovative instructional materials including long term scopes and
sequences, unit plans, unit assessments, daily lesson plans, student
activities, and additional supports for the most affected students.
Accelerated learning, requires that students consistently receive grade-level
materials, tasks, and assignments, campus experiences, along with
appropriate scaffolds that make the work accessible in order to close the
most critical gaps.
HyFlex Classrooms. Providing high-quality instructional materials
includes equipping classrooms with 21st century technology. PRDE
understands the educational importance of technology. The COVID-19
pandemic has highlighted the overdue need to integrate technology into
regular educational process. Integration of well-designed technology allows
teachers to enrich the overall learning experience for all students. For this
reason, PRDE will invest ARP funds to equip classrooms still lacking a
dashboard with projector and touch screens. The basic configuration of a
HyFlex classroom supports the ability for both in-person students and
remote students alike to interact and actively participate in class.
Healthy environments at Classrooms. Research 23 shows there is a direct
link between children's health and performance and their physical
environment, including students' exposure to toxic environmental factors.
Unfortunately, many classrooms across the island fail to meet the minimum
standards of providing appropriate air ventilation, dry, mold or rust-free
furniture.
PRDE will therefore, invest ARP funds to create classrooms that meet
standards for accessibility and safety, both considered fundamental for
23
The organization of Center for Green Schools, recently issued an overview titled, Green school buildings are better
for teachers and students | Center for Green Schools of existing research related to health and the learning
environment at schools. The document states that school buildings create an environment where students and
teachers are more comfortable, less prone to illness and more focused on teaching and learning. The quality of
school facilities is often overlooked as a major factor in students’ scholastic performance. However, school buildings
are not only the setting for learning, they can also help or hinder the learning process.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 62
teaching and learning. PRDE will dispose contaminated furniture,
presenting mold, fungus, or rust build up during the lockdown. PRDE will
provide students and teachers appropriate desks, that are free of mold or any
rust residues.
In addition, researchers 24 observed a 5% decrease in “power of attention”
in poorly ventilated classrooms. Natural ventilation through operable
windows can be an effective and energy-efficient way to supplement air-
conditioning (HVAC) systems by providing outside air ventilation, cooling
and thermal comfort when conditions permit (e.g., temperature, humidity,
outdoor air pollution levels, precipitation). Windows that open and close
properly can enhance occupants' sense of well-being and feeling of control
over their environment. In order to improve air ventilation for the health and
safety of students, faculty, and staff, PRDE will replace and update
windows that are not properly functioning.
However, for most part of the year Puerto Rico's climatic conditions require
that outdoor air be cooled to provide acceptable thermal comfort for
students, faculty, and staff, requiring the addition or replacement of air-
conditioning (HVAC) systems. PRDE will use ARP ESSER funds to
purchase or replace outdated HVAC systems that meet standards identified
by the EPA. According to the Department’s regulation at 34 CFR §
75.616(c), PRDE will also comply by using the services of a certified
electrical engineer, licensed by the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
Technicians College of Puerto Rico.
PRDE will use the ARP ESSER funds to perform the assessment at schools
and determining improvements necessary in our HVAC systems and
schools' energy substations. The acquisition process will consider the costs
necessary to install the HVAC system, and repairs necessary to improve the
school's energy consumption (i.e. power substations).
In order to ensure compliance with social distancing inside our classrooms,
PRDE has applied many strategies to accommodate students and teachers
in one place. However, PRDE has identified that some classrooms simply
cannot accommodate a reasonable minimum of students. Therefore, PRDE
is identifying schools with classroom spaces that need to be extended or
modified. PRDE considers this a remodeling activity that is necessary to
prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19. Once a rigorous
assessment is properly performed, PRDE will use ARP ESSER funds to
24
With similarly poor CO2 levels and ventilation rates in school buildings, students have been observed to experience
greater fatigue, impaired attention span, and loss of concentration (Chatzidiakou et al., 2012); poorer performance
on tests of concentration (Dorizas et al., 2015a); and lower levels of focus among university students during lectures
(Uzelac et al., 2015).
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 63
perform school facility improvements allowing PRDE to create a learning
environment that could better sustain social distancing.
Professional learning. Professional development and technical assistance
for educators, leadership, and school health professionals to address the
academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs of students.
In order to empower educators, school support staff, and school leaders to
develop skills and implement creative and evidence-based strategies to
improve instructional practices, PRDE will offer incentives to those
educators, school support staff, and school leaders, when they attend to
professional development trainings, focusing on topics directly related to
addressing the academic impact of lost instructional time, summer learning,
and enrichment programs, after school programs or any other related to
community violence.
PRDE will offer an additional incentive to educators, school support staff,
and school leaders that were able to reach the school's goal. Each school
will be provided a baseline data and the improvements that should be
established as a goal in order to receive the incentive.
Extended school day. PRDE will extend its Extended Academic
Enhancement initiative, (RAE, per its acronym in Spanish) as an academic
recovery strategy. The purpose is to offer an extended-hour program that
focuses on math, science, Spanish, English, social studies, fine arts or
physical education, school health, and occupational programs (as needed).
The supervised study program will emphasize reading comprehension skills
in Spanish and English using the STEAM educational approach that
encourages integrated learning of the disciplines. Schools that do not
PROVIDE extended hours services through other federal programs for the
same purposes (i.e. 21st Century) will participate in this project.
Summer learning programs. A strategic planning process to design and
align summer learning program to extend instructional time with high-
quality, innovative instructional materials, curriculum-aligned, and
enrichment options for students.
Student Growth Incentive. PRDE recognizes that our students have
struggled academically during this pandemic, and have also been impacted
socially and emotionally. Due to the deep understanding PRDE has of this
situation, it has developed and put forth strategies, initiatives, and practices
that will support all students impacted by COVID-19 in closing those
academic gaps, working diligently as a team to also provide the support
needed to work with the social-emotional and health component. As part
of the initiatives', PRDE will recognize the effort of students in improving
their academic achievement, taking ownership, responsibility and interest
in their own academic progress. This monetary recognition will be given at
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 64
the end of the school year to the participating students who demonstrate
growth.
PRDE plans on using ARP ESSER funds to implement this merit program
for students, which also serves as additional motivation during these
troubled times, for our most impacted and at need students.
Students interested in participating from this incentive, would need to enroll
in the Student Growth Incentive Program. They must meet certain
criteria to successfully complete the program, such as raising their
performance one grade level in any of the core subjects (Spanish, English,
math or science). Generally, a student must be performing at least one grade
level below their current status to qualify. PRDE will pair their prior year
baseline data in order to measure improvement achieved at the end of each
year in the multi-year plan.
These students will receive continuous social, emotional, academics, and
scaffolded supports through the SMARTS Integrated System of Support,
further explained in this state plan.
The PRDE's Planning, Transformation and Performance Auxiliary
Secretariat (SAPTRE, per its acronym in Spanish) will provide oversight
over the implementation of this program.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 65
Social, emotional, and mental health supports. Hire or contract school
mental health staff or the implementation of programs targeted at mitigating
social, emotional, and mental health impacts of COVID-19. School mental
health staff (including counselors, social workers, psychologists, and other
mental health professionals) have the necessary skills to build capacity
within the school environment to meet the social, emotional, and mental
health needs of students to support academic growth and prepare students
to be career-ready adults.
PRDE has identified that schools do not provide the space or office for our
social, emotional and health professionals to provide their services and
meeting with standard privacy requirements. Therefore, PRDE will use
ARP ESSER funds to renovate or remodel schools' facilities, considered
necessary for PRDE to respond to the traumas caused by the COVID-19
pandemic. Through these renovations or remodeling, PRDE will create the
adequate space for our students to receive the social emotional and health
support needed.
The SMARTS (Students, Measurable, Accelerated, Relevant, Teachers,
and Socioemotional and health) Integrated System of Support is
embedded within the multi-year plan. This will include operational and
system conditions, social and emotional wellness, academics, and
scaffolded supports. Through the SMARTS Integrated System of Support,
PRDE will address the academic, social emotional and health needs of all
students.
Key components within the associated SMARTS Integrated System of
Support will include operational and system conditions, social and
emotional wellness, academics, and scaffolded supports.
The multi-year planning cycle is necessary for PRDE to provide effective
support. The steps and process of planning, intervention, evaluation,
assessment, and readjustment create the foundations for fidelity of
implementation and sustainable improvement. The SMARTS system of
support continues through 2024 when the goals of ARP ESSER III funds
are met.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 66
The goal of the planning phase is to diagnose student’s unfinished learning
of the prerequisite content knowledge and skills, as well as the social,
emotional, and mental health needs. PRDE will collaborate with schools to
identify the areas or subjects that student need the most support. This will
lead to a relevant planning of intervention, necessary to properly address
the most impacted students.
During the intervention phase, teachers, psychologist, social workers,
nurses, counselors, educational therapist, educational therapist, and other
school personnel will provide the necessary support to the students in need.
Intervention will be targeted to the individual student and provided by the
appropriate personnel or professional. In order to ensure targeted
interventions, PRDE will provide all schools with appropriate accelerated
learning resources, high quality curricula, and all additional necessary tools,
including data collection protocols.
PRDE will evaluate the impact of each of these interventions, with
qualitative data, including stakeholder feedback, in order to assist schools
in determining next steps.
Other quantitative metrics will include those that indicate changes to the
learning environment such as results of school climate surveys, hours of
mental health services provided, and percent of students receiving social
emotional support.
Evaluation of these interventions will occur annually during the multi-year
cycle. If the intervention worked, PRDE will proceed with the cycle and
address additional needs, as these where identified; if not, PRDE will
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 67
readjust the intervention in order to effectively provide its students the
support needed.
During the assessment phase, a wide variety of rich data collected during
the previous phases will be collected and analyzed. This allows PRDE to
identify areas of strength and areas in need of improvement within and
across programs and divisions.
The Island of Puerto Rico is composed of seven unique and extremely
diverse educational regions. Therefore, the readjustment phase of the cycle
will empower each region to modify practices according to the unique needs
of the students, staff, and community, to meet on going and changing needs.
Over the course of the next three years, the SMARTS Integrated System of
Support will be systematically implemented, to address student and
educator needs in a strategic and targeted manner, as well as create a culture
of growth and continuous improvement.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 68
ii. How the evidence-based interventions will specifically address the
disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on certain groups of students,
including each of the student groups listed in question A.3.i.-viii. When
possible, please indicate which data sources the SEA will use to determine
the impact of lost instructional time; and
Student groups who were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 will
be prioritized for learning loss interventions based on their needs identified
by student data and through the analysis performed in the multi-year cycle.
Student data will include, but not be limited to, diagnostic data, statewide
assessment data, student attendance data, quantitative and qualitative
student performance data, and school climate data.
PRDE will provides additional support for students with disabilities,
Spanish language learners, economically disadvantaged students, students
experiencing homelessness, and students struggling in the traditional
classroom setting through multiple federal and state programs and will
supplement these supports with ARP ESSER-funded interventions, through
the SMARTS Integrated System of Support.
These interventions include a comprehensive summer program targeting
these subgroups of students and mobile and community outreach to provide
academic supports and wraparound services within the communities of
need. Funds will be prioritized to provide evidence-based interventions for
underperforming students of identified subgroups based on complex area
data to address academic, social, emotional and mental health needs.
PRDE will continue to provide students with devices to ensure equitable
access to all learning opportunities and to ensure students have the resources
necessary to be successful in school. This will require PRDE to invest
resources in systems to ensure student safety, monitor device utilization,
and maintain software and hardware.
Distance Learning will be leveraged to increase the opportunity to facilitate
learning of challenging content and courses, especially for students in rural
areas where accessibility may be limited.
iii. The extent to which the SEA will use funds it reserves to identify and
engage 1) students who have missed the most in-person instruction during
the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years; and 2) students who did not
consistently participate in remote instruction when offered during school
building closures.
In addition to the aforementioned strategies in reengaging students to in-
person learning, PRDE will reach out to families and students who were
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 69
disengaged, chronically absent or at risk of failing during the 2020-2021
school year. These students are at greater risk of learning loss due to their
lack of participation in online learning and may need intensive student
supports to accelerate learning.
During distance learning last year and according to the available data, 52%
of the students were disengaged during the months of February thru May.
During that period 39% of the students enrolled at the end of the year never
connected to MS Teams sessions, while 13% connected less than 25% of
the enrolled time.
PRDE will provide essential counseling services to help students with
social, emotional, and behavioral support as they readjust to in-person
learning on school premises. Engaging family members of students who
were chronically absent will allow for a joint effort in identifying the
supports both the students and their families need to facilitate student
success. Comprehensive supports are especially vital for students in middle
school who are not only struggling with engagement, but are also
transitioning from one school to another and adjusting to the cognitive and
physical changes of adolescence.
2. Evidence-Based Summer Learning and Enrichment Programs: Describe how the
SEA will use the funds it reserves under section 2001(f)(2) of the ARP Act (totaling
not less than 1 percent of the State’s total allocation of ARP ESSER funds) for
evidence-based summer learning and enrichment programs, including those that
begin in Summer 2021, and ensure such programs respond to students’ academic,
social, emotional, and mental health needs. The description must include:
i. A description of the evidence-based programs that address the academic,
social, emotional, and mental health needs of students (e.g., providing
intensive or high-dosage tutoring, accelerating learning) the SEA has
selected, and the extent to which the SEA will evaluate the impact of those
programs;
PRDE will utilize no less than one (1) percent of the state’s total allocation
of ARP ESSER funds for summer learning and enrichment programs for
Summer 2022.
Summer 2021 was primarily funded with CRRSA ESSER funds. However,
PRDE intends to continue with the summer learning programs over the
course of the multi-year cycle.
The purpose of the Education Summer initiative is to reinforce students'
academic skills, giving priority to those students who may fail the grade in
order to reduce failures by 80% due to the challenges face during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 70
PRDE will hire and contract all the Educational and non-teaching staff
necessary to offer dynamic, interactive and flexible learning environments
and motivate students to obtain the necessary skills and competencies to
increase academic achievement. The Educational Summer initiative
includes face-to-face and online modality of classes.
PRDE will monitor student data to evaluate the effectiveness of the summer
learning and enrichment programs implemented. Student data includes, but
is not limited to, diagnostic data, student attendance data, quantitative and
qualitative student performance data, and student feedback.
Evaluation of these interventions will occur annually during the multi-year
plan. If data determines the success of the intervention, PRDE will proceed
with the cycle and address additional needs, as these where identified. If
data determines the intervention is an area in need of improvement, PRDE
will readjust as needed, in order to effectively provide students with
necessary supports.
ii. How the evidence-based programs will specifically address the
disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on certain groups of students,
including each of the student groups listed in question A.3. i.--viii. When
possible, please indicate which data sources the SEA will use to identify
students most in need of summer learning and enrichment programs; and
Student groups who were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 will
have prioritized enrollment for summer learning and enrichment programs
based on their needs as identified by student data and the multi-tiered
system of support. Student data includes, but is not limited to, diagnostic
data, statewide assessment data, student attendance data, quantitative and
qualitative student performance data, and school climate data.
PRDE will prioritize summer programs for students who are academically
behind, students in transition grades (incoming kindergarten, elementary to
middle, middle to high, and high school to college or career), and students
who are identified with engagement challenges due to the pandemic.
Specialized student support programs will be offered to students as
appropriate. These summer programs target students with disabilities,
Spanish language learners, students experiencing homelessness, and
students struggling in the traditional classroom setting.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 71
iii. The extent to which the SEA will use funds it reserves to identify and
engage 1) students who have missed the most in-person instruction during
the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years; and 2) students who did not
consistently participate in remote instruction when offered during school
building closures.
PRDE has communicated with families and students who were disengaged,
chronically absent or at risk of failing during the 2020-2021 school year.
These students are at greater risk of learning loss due to their lack of
participation in online learning and may need intensive student supports to
accelerate learning during the summer.
PRDE will provide essential counseling services during the summer to help
students with social, emotional, and behavioral support as they transition to
in-person learning in schools.
However, PRDE recognizes that extended summer learning is not sufficient
for students who have lost significant instructional time due to absenteeism;
thus, learning loss mitigation for students who are disengaged and behind
grade level academically will require a multi-year approach to address their
academic, social, emotional, and behavioral needs to ensure student
success.
3. Evidence-Based Comprehensive Afterschool Programs: Describe how the SEA
will use the funds it reserves under section 2001(f)(3) of the ARP Act (totaling not
less than 1 percent of the State’s total allocation of ARP ESSER funds) for
evidence-based comprehensive afterschool programs (including, for example,
before-school programming), and ensure such programs respond to students’
academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs. The description must
include:
i. A description of the evidence-based programs (e.g., including partnerships
with community-based organizations) the SEA has selected, and the extent
to which the SEA will evaluate the impact of those programs;
PRDE will utilize no less than one (1) percent of the state’s total allocation
of ARP ESSER funds for comprehensive afterschool programs. PRDE will
extend its Extended Academic Enhancement initiative, (RAE, per its
acronym in Spanish) as an academic recovery strategy. The purpose is to
offer an extended-hour program that includes the following subjects: math,
science, Spanish, English, social studies, fine arts or physical education,
school health, and occupational programs (as needed).
The supervised study program will emphasize reading comprehension skills
in Spanish and English using the STEAM educational approach that
encourages integrated learning of the disciplines. Schools that do not
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 72
qualify for extended hours services through other federal programs for the
same purposes (ie. 21st Century) will participate in this project.
ARP ESSER funds will also be used to continue, expand, or enhance these
offerings for complex student cases. Through a multidisciplinary team,
schools will provide additional support to students experiencing chronic
absenteeism, health issues, discipline problems, or low academic
achievement.
To provide the individualized support, afterschool programs will be held
within community learning centers, outside school structures, or even at
home if necessary.
Schools will identify students that need the most support, either academic,
social emotional, or health. The data that has been gathered will be then be
provided to the Regional Multidisciplinary Team through a formal referral,
and together with the host school, will proceed with collaborative
development of the student’s intervention plan.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 73
PRDE will monitor student data to evaluate the effectiveness of the
comprehensive afterschool programs. Student data includes, but is not
limited to, diagnostic data, student attendance data, quantitative and
qualitative student performance data, and student feedback.
Evaluation of these interventions will occur annually during the multi-year
cycle. If data determines success of the intervention, PRDE will proceed
with the cycle and address additional needs, as these where identified. If
data determines the intervention is an area in need of improvement, PRDE
will readjust the intervention in order to effectively provide its students with
the necessary support.
ii. How the evidence-based programs will specifically address the
disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on certain groups of students,
including each of the student groups listed in question A.3.i.-viii. When
possible, please indicate which data sources the SEA will use to identify
students most in need of comprehensive afterschool programming; and
Student groups who were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 will
be prioritized for comprehensive afterschool programs based on their needs
as identified by student data and the multi-tiered system of support.
Additional support will be provided to students experiencing chronic
absenteeism, health issues, discipline problems, or low academic
achievement.
Student data includes, but is not limited to, diagnostic data, statewide
assessment data, student attendance data, quantitative and qualitative
student performance data, and school climate data.
Currently, students with disabilities, Spanish language learners,
economically disadvantaged students, and enrolled students identified for
comprehensive support and improvement prioritized eligibility for
afterschool programs funded by federal funds. The use of ARP ESSER
funds will allow PRDE to prioritize all students who need additional support
iii. the extent to which the SEA will use funds it reserves to identify and
engage 1) students who have missed the most in-person instruction during
the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years; and 2) students who did not
consistently participate in remote instruction when offered during school
building closures.
PRDE will communicate with families and students who were disengaged,
chronically absent or at risk of failing during the 2020-2021 school year.
These students are at greater risk of learning loss due to their lack of
participation in online learning and may need intensive student supports to
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 74
accelerate learning through comprehensive afterschool programs, either at
school or through the multidisciplinary intervention team at the community
centers.
4. Emergency Needs: If the SEA plans to reserve funds for emergency needs under
section 2001(f)(4) of the ARP Act to address issues responding to the COVID-19
pandemic, describe the anticipated use of those funds, including the extent to which
these funds will build SEA and LEA capacity to ensure students’ and staff’s health
and safety; to meet students’ academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs;
and to use ARP ESSER funds to implement evidence-based interventions.
PRDE plans to reserve funds to address any emergency needs that may result from
the COVID-19 pandemic. ESSER funds are currently being used to build capacity
to ensure the health and safety of students and employees is tended to appropriately;
meet students’ academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs; and
implement evidence-based interventions to mitigate learning loss. Funds will also
be used to ensure the continuity of educational services should the impact of the
pandemic worsen.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 75
E. Supporting LEAs in Planning for and Meeting Students’ Needs
The Department recognizes that the safe return to in-person instruction must be accompanied
by a focus on meeting students’ academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs, and by
addressing the opportunity gaps that existed before – and were exacerbated by – the pandemic.
In this section, SEAs will describe how they will support their LEAs in developing high-quality
plans for LEAs’ use of ARP ESSER funds to achieve these objectives.
1. LEA Plans for the Use of ARP ESSER Funds: Describe what the SEA will require
its LEAs to include in LEA plans consistent with the ARP ESSER requirements for
the use of ARP ESSER funds, how the SEA will require such plans to be made
available to the public, and the deadline by which the LEA must submit its ARP
ESSER plan (which must be a reasonable timeline and should be within no later
than 90 days after receiving its ARP ESSER allocation). The LEA plans must
include, at a minimum:
i. The extent to which and how the funds will be used to implement prevention
and mitigation strategies that are, to the greatest extent practicable, in line
with the most recent CDC guidance, in order to continuously and safely
operate schools for in-person learning;
ii. How the LEA will use the funds it reserves under section 2001(e)(1) of the
ARP Act (totaling not less than 20 percent of the LEA’s total allocation of
ARP ESSER funds) to address the academic impact of lost instructional
time through the implementation of evidence-based interventions, such as
summer learning or summer enrichment, extended day, comprehensive
afterschool programs, or extended school year programs;
iii. How the LEA will spend its remaining ARP ESSER funds consistent with
section 2001(e)(2) of the ARP Act; and
iv. How the LEA will ensure that the interventions it implements, including but
not limited to the interventions under section 2001(e)(1) of the ARP Act to
address the academic impact of lost instructional time, will respond to the
academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs of all students, and
particularly those students disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19
pandemic, including students from low-income families, students of color,
English learners, children with disabilities, students experiencing
homelessness, children and youth in foster care, and migratory students.
As a unitary system, PRDE will fulfill the ARP ESSER requirements of
both the SEA and LEA. The PRDE will implement the mitigation strategies
described in section B.1.i and the interventions to mitigate learning loss
described in section D as the SEA and LEA.
Faced with the public health emergency due to the 2019 coronavirus disease
pandemic (COVID-19), the PRDE has established a prevention guidance to
provide schools the necessary strategies for the safe operation of schools
during the pandemic. The guidance is based on the guidelines of the Centers
for the Control and Prevention of Diseases (CDC) and the recommendations
of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), among others. The
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 76
prevention strategies presented in the guide aims to achieve a safe operation
of schools under strict health prevention and mitigation measures to reduce
the risk of virus transmission SARS-CoV-2 on school sites while serving
the educational needs of students, children and youth, including those
receiving services from the Special Education Program.
PRDE proactively collaborates with the Puerto Rico Health Department and
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on guidance for our
schools, and central level.
In preparation for the return of more students to in-person learning, the
PRDE will continue to diligently monitor developments related to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Regardless of the level of transmission of COVID-19 in the community, the
CDC has highlighted the consistent and combined implementation of
different strategies to prevent its transmission in schools and continue
offering face-to-face classes safely. The nine (9) essential prevention
strategies are:
• Get vaccinated as soon as you are eligible
• Universal, correct and mandatory use of masks
• Maintain physical distancing
• Use of tests for early identification of cases, clusters and outbreaks
• Improve classroom ventilation
• Hand washing and respiratory hygiene
• Stay home when you are sick and get tested for COVID-19
• Contact tracing in combination with isolation and quarantine measures
• Cleaning and disinfection of school buildings
Despite careful planning and consistent implementation of prevention, there
are situations in which the temporary closure of a school or parts of a school
(such as a class, a cohort, or a grade) for classes face-to-face proceeds.
These decisions will be made jointly by the officials of the Health
Department and the PRDE, after careful consideration of various factors
and with an emphasis on ensuring the health and well-being of students,
their families, teachers and school staff. In such cases, schools should do
their best to continue classes through synchronous remote learning or home
activities.
To improve ventilation, schools must increase fresh air circulation from the
outside. Fresh air intake reduces contaminants in closed spaces. PRDE’s
guidance also states to use window fans, with child restraint systems, to
increase the effectiveness of open windows. The fan should be fixed in a
window to remove potentially contaminated air and allow fresh air to enter.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 77
In those cases where windows don't function properly, PRDE will proceed
on replacing those in order to improve classroom's air ventilation.
As mentioned on section A.1 of this state plan, PRDE has worked with the
Puerto Rico Department of Health to host massive vaccination campaign
for staff, students, and school communities across the island. With the
authorization to administer the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to children who
are at least 12 years of age, the PRDE has approximately 46,000 students
(eligible for vaccination) that have completed their vaccination doses. The
goal is to increase the number of fully vaccinated people on school
campuses and in school communities.
PRDE has made publicly available all information regarding the procedures
and policies adopted to ensure the safe return to in-person instruction on its
webpage: https://de.pr.gov/ prior to the 2020-2021 school year and
continuously has updated the guidance as necessary, as recently as in July
2021.
In relation to how the unitary system will use the funds it reserves under
section 2001(e)(1) of the ARP Act to address the academic impact of lost
instructional time through the implementation of evidence-based
interventions, such as summer learning or summer enrichment, extended
day, comprehensive afterschool programs, or extended school year
programs; PRDE will do so by extending those initiatives described in
section D.1.i and ii.
However, it is important to highlight that through the ongoing consultation
that PRDE plans to follow, this state plan is considered a live document. All
strategies, here included (section E), are subject to modifications, if our
school community such requires it. In addition, PRDE may identify and
develop other strategies to help support the students. Any other strategy, not
included in this state plan, will be presented to USDE for approval and
proceed with an amendment process of the Puerto Rico’s ARP ESSER State
Plan.
Through a collaborative network and coherent plan, PRDE will effectively
implement the abovementioned evidence-based interventions.
Schools will be part of the planning of the multi-year cycle. Having a
continuous improvement mindset, opportunities will be constantly created
to assess ongoing needs, trying new strategies, and making necessary
adjustments. PRDE fully intends to support students in achieving
accelerated learning rates so that students are meeting grade and/or content-
level standards.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 78
The coherent plan will begin with the review and analysis of data,
community input and research on evidence-based practices to address lost
instructional time and close performance gaps.
Regional Educational Offices and Schools will be supported through the
following initiatives:
(Please note, details of these initiatives are included in section D.1.i)
• High-Impact tutoring
• High quality instructional materials
• HyFlex Classroom
• Healthy environments at Classrooms
• Professional learning
• Extended school day
• Summer learning programs
• Student Growth Incentive
• Social, emotional, and mental health supports
The SMARTS (Students, Measurable, Accelerated, Relevant, Teachers,
and Socioemotional and health) Integrated System of Support is
embedded in the multi-year plan. Through the SMARTS Integrated System
of Support, PRDE will be able to address the abovementioned student's
academic, social emotional or health needs.
As mentioned in section D.1.i, the multi-year planning cycle is necessary
for PRDE to provide effective support, by starting with the planning, that
will lead to the intervention, followed by an evaluation or monitoring of the
support provided, complete an assessment of the outcome, and readjust the
planning, accordingly. The SMARTS System of Support will continue
through 2024 when the goals of ARP ESSER III funds are met. Please refer
to section D.1.i, for specific details of the six phases included in the multi-
year cycle.
For the next three years, the SMARTS Integrated System of Support will
be used as a structure for continuous planning and responding to address
student and teacher’s needs. The cycle will also support the most impacted
groups of students with an individual academic improvement plan, if
necessary.
PRDE will evaluate the impact of each of these interventions, with
qualitative data, including stakeholder feedback, in order to assist schools
in determining next steps.
Other quantitative metrics will include those that indicate changes to the
learning environment such as results of school climate surveys, hours of
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 79
mental health services provided, and percent of students receiving social
emotional support.
Evaluation of these interventions will occur each year during the multi-year
cycle. If the intervention worked, PRDE will proceed with the cycle and
address additional needs, as these where identified; if not, PRDE will
readjust the intervention in order to effectively provide its students the
support needed.
Student groups who were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 will
be prioritized for learning loss interventions based on their needs identified
by student data and through the analysis performed in the multi-year cycle.
Student data will include, but not be limited to, diagnostic data, statewide
assessment data, student attendance data, quantitative and qualitative
student performance data, and school climate data.
PRDE will provides additional support for students with disabilities,
Spanish language learners, economically disadvantaged students, students
experiencing homelessness, and students struggling in the traditional
classroom setting through multiple federal and state programs and will
supplement these supports with ARP ESSER-funded interventions, through
the SMARTS Integrated System of Support.
These interventions include comprehensive summer programming targeting
these subgroups of students and mobile and community outreach to provide
academic supports and wraparound services within the communities of
need. Funds will be prioritized to provide evidence-based interventions for
underperforming students of identified subgroups based on complex area
data to address academic, social, emotional and mental health needs.
PRDE will continue to provide students with devices to ensure equitable
access to all learning opportunities and to ensure students have the resources
necessary to be successful in school. This will require PRDE to invest
resources in systems to ensure student safety, device-use monitoring, and
maintenance of software and hardware.
Distance Learning will be leveraged to facilitate the learning of challenging
content and courses, especially for students in remote rural areas where
offerings may be limited at the home school.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 80
2. LEA Consultation: Describe how the SEA will, in planning for the use of ARP
ESSER funds, ensure that, consistent with the ARP ESSER requirements], its LEAs
engage in meaningful consultation with stakeholders, including, but not limited to:
i. students;
ii. families;
iii. school and district administrators (including special education
administrators); and
iv. teachers, principals, school leaders, other educators, school staff, and their
unions.
The LEA must also engage in meaningful consultation with each of the following
to the extent present in or served by the LEA:
i. Tribes;
ii. civil rights organizations (including disability rights organizations); and
iii. stakeholders representing the interests of children with disabilities, English
learners, children experiencing homelessness, children and youth in foster
care, migratory students, children who are incarcerated, and other
underserved students.
The description must also include how the SEA will ensure that LEAs
provide the public the opportunity to provide input in the development of
the LEA’s plan for the use of ARP ESSER funds and take such input into
account.
Consultation efforts described in section C.1 applies to PRDE as a unitary
system.
Please refer to the abovementioned section for details over consultation
efforts. Survey results have been included in appendix E.
PRDE distributed online surveys related to the ARP ESSER plan to all
stakeholders.
5,944 questionnaires from parents, teachers, students from the 8th grade and
12th grade, representatives of civil organizations, stakeholders representing
children with disabilities, Spanish learners, children experiencing
homelessness, children in foster care, and incarcerated children.
Another 11,442 surveys were answered by students from 1st grade and 7th
grade, 2 surveys were answered by non-for-profit organizations, and 559
surveys were answered by school leaders, superintendents, and charter
school leaders.
While PRDE attempted to receive input from all stakeholder groups, none
was received related specifically to unions.
From the beginning of the pandemic, PRDE has maintained focus on
collaboration and consultation with many stakeholder groups.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 81
As a summary of the input received from stakeholders, PRDE identified that
it was overwhelmingly aligned to the stated prioritization and needs around
learning acceleration and mental health.
As a SEA, PRDE requested its School Educational Regions (ORE’s) to
provide a list of what they understand would be the most relevant initiatives
to address the academic acceleration and social emotional needs. Results of
this SEA consultation were included in section C.1 of this document for it
responded to our SEA consultation.
PRDE will conduct ongoing meaningful engagement with stakeholders.
The Department will continue to develop a comprehensive set of strategies
for the ARP ESSER funds in the coming months using feedback from
ongoing engagement and consultation with the US Department of
Education.
PRDE has also posted a draft of its ARP ESSER plan on the PRDE website
for any member of the public to provide feedback from September 10th –
20th, 2021. As of the date this state plan was submitted to USDE, PRDE
has received 70 comments.
All comments received were analyzed. PRDE identified that 34% of the
comments stated the urgency to improve school’s infrastructure and
classroom conditions, including the purchase of 21st Century technology for
the classrooms.
Another 23% of the comments stated that PRDE needs to reinforce the
academic, psychological and health support within schools due to the
pandemic of COVID-19, as to providing the alternative of mode of
instruction, screening testing, and reducing school hours.
A 11% of comments stated the urgency to increase salary and provide
additional incentives to the school personnel due to the work performed
during the pandemic.
This was followed by a 9% of the comments which stated that PRDE needs
to provide teachers with better instructional materials.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 82
The input received will inform how PRDE will prioritize the use of ARP
ESSER funds as it plans for the return of students to its school campuses
and the implementation of educational opportunities to reengage students
and accelerate learning to increase student achievement.
It is important to highlight that through the ongoing consultation that PRDE
plans to follow, this state plan is considered a live document. All strategies,
here included (section D and E), are subject to modifications, if our school
community such requires it. In addition, PRDE may identify and develop
other strategies to help support the students. Any other strategy, not
included in this state plan, will be presented to USDE for approval and
proceed with an amendment process of the Puerto Rico’s ARP ESSER State
Plan.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 83
3. Describe how the SEA will support and monitor its LEAs in using ARP ESSER funds.
The description must include:
i. How the SEA will support and monitor its LEAs’ implementation of
evidence-based interventions that respond to students’ academic, social,
emotional, and mental health needs, such as through summer learning or
summer enrichment, extended day, comprehensive afterschool programs, or
extended school year programs – including the extent to which the SEA will
collect evidence of the effectiveness of interventions employed;
ii. How the SEA will support and monitor its LEAs in specifically addressing
the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on certain groups
of students, including each of the student groups listed in question A.3.i.-
viii; and
iii. How the SEA will support and monitor its LEAs in using ARP ESSER
funds to identify, reengage, and support students most likely to have
experienced the impact of lost instructional time on student learning, such
as:
1. Students who have missed the most in-person instruction during the
2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years;
2. Students who did not consistently participate in remote instruction when
offered during school building closures; and
3. Students most at-risk of dropping out of school.
In order to support and monitor schools in implementation of evidence-
based interventions that address disproportionate impact of the pandemic
on groups of students, the department will continue to collect disaggregated
data to include, but not limited to, data from interim and annual statewide
assessments, attendance, discipline, social worker reports, and a variety of
surveys related to school climate and social emotional aspects.
PRDE will analyze the abovementioned data from the student's groups who
most likely have experienced the impact of lost instructional time on student
learning, including each of the student groups listed in question A.3.i.-viii.
PRDE is investing in supporting the use of and access to high-quality
interim assessments to support schools’ efforts to continue close monitoring
of student progress and targeted interventions. PRDE will continue
integrating training on how ESSER funds may be used to implement
interventions that respond to students’ needs.
External Monitoring: PRDE is currently working with a procurement
competitive process to select an adequate external vendor to perform
monitoring and program review professional services.
For ESSER I, II, and III funds, as an additional internal control, PRDE will
contract a firm with experience in auditing, monitoring and/or program
review of federal grants, to have an external point of view and experts on
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 84
the filed evaluating the procedures performed related to these emergency
grants. Both parties (PRDE and the external evaluator) will agree to
perform a risk analysis in order to prioritize the evaluation of
implementation of these federal programs at schools and PRDE offices
(LEA and SEA levels).
Once a representative sample of schools and initiatives are selected, desk
monitoring and visits to locations will take place. After visits and desk
monitoring are completed, PRDE will request the noncompliance reports
and identification of findings, to follow-up and ensure the Corrective Action
Plans (CAP) required are implemented or followed, accordingly. The
vendor and PRDE SEA level program will follow up to the CAP.
4. Describe the extent to which the SEA will support its LEAs in implementing
additional strategies for taking educational equity into account in expending ARP
ESSER funds, including but not limited to:
i. Allocating funding both to schools and for districtwide activities based on
student need, and
ii. Implementing an equitable and inclusive return to in-person instruction. An
inclusive return to in-person instruction includes, but is not limited to,
establishing policies and practices that avoid the over-use of exclusionary
discipline measures (including in- and out-of-school suspensions) and
creating a positive and supportive learning environment for all students.
Educational equity means that every student has access to the educational
resources and rigor they need at the right moment in their education across
race, gender, ethnicity, language, disability, sexual orientation, family
background, and/or family income, including socioeconomic status.
Different communities, families and students experience the effects of the
pandemic in different ways, requiring schools to in turn differentiate
responses based on need.
It is for this reason that schools and their academic, social emotional and
health personnel are required to provide detailed student information, in
order for PRDE to register it by student subgroup and better identify their
specific needs. To the extent possible, the detailed description should
include the academic impact of lost instructional time, chronic absenteeism,
student engagement, and social-emotional well-being.
Through the specific and detailed student data, including student discipline
and suspension data, is that PRDE will be able to monitor, evaluate and
refine the strategies and interventions implemented.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 85
Extensive supports and services will be provided throughout the academic
year in order to reengage students in learning and to help them develop
appropriate behaviors and social-emotional competencies.
PRDE is committed to providing support to guide Regional Educational
Offices and schools toward the strategic and effective use of funds to ensure
students get the most learning advantage as schools fully recover from the
COVID-19 pandemic. Targeted and equitable use of resources is a
significant component of closing gaps in students' success among highest
needs students' groups.
Return to in-person learning. PRDE understands that in-person
instruction is very much needed. For this reason, for the new academic year,
all 860 schools were given the option to provide in-person, hybrid or full
virtual instruction for the 261,485 students that are enrolled as of today.
770 schools are opting for the onsite instruction (100% face-to-face
instruction), while other 31 schools are offering a virtual option, in which
students attend full-time off-site (either synchronous or asynchronous) and
utilize technology resources for instruction. And a remaining 59 schools are
providing the hybrid learning option, by providing students a combined
virtual and on-site instruction and utilize a combination of resources.
Policies and practices that avoid the over-use of exclusionary discipline
measures. PRDE included provisions in the Special Education
Contingency Plan (2020) for Special Education students with maladaptive
problem behavior. A student with maladaptive behavior is considered to be
those experiencing tantrums, spitting, scratching, pulling hair, getting
outside of the classroom, aggression, self-harm, among others.
For these students, the Auxiliary Secretariat of Special Education (SAEE,
per its acronym in Spanish) established that the Programming and Locating
Committee (COMPU, per its acronym in Spanish) identifies the triggers for
these behaviors. The Committee will establish a crisis management protocol
within the classroom and an instructional plan that can ensure student health
and safety. This provision is aligned to what the IDEA Act establishes: the
education of students with disabilities will take place, to the greatest extent
possible, in regular classrooms and that a more restrictive placement
alternative will only be considered when the impact of the disability is such
that, even with modifications, adaptations, supplementary and related
services the student is unable to progress academically.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 86
F. Supporting the Educator Workforce
The Department recognizes the toll that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on the Nation’s
educators as well as students. In this section, SEAs will describe strategies for supporting and
stabilizing the educator workforce and for making staffing decisions that will support students’
academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs.
1. Supporting and Stabilizing the Educator Workforce:
i. Describe the extent to which the State is facing shortages of educators,
education administration personnel, and other school personnel involved in
safely reopening schools, and the extent to which they vary by region/type
of school district and/or groups of educators (e.g., special educators and
related services personnel and paraprofessionals; bilingual or English as a
second language educators; science, technology, engineering, and math
(“STEM”) educators; career and technical education (“CTE”) educators;
early childhood educators). Cite specific data on shortages and needs where
available.
PRDE has identified multiple areas of shortages in the educator workforce
(teaching and student support) which are identified in Table F1. For this
analysis, shortage of full-time equivalent (FTE) is defined as the number of
educators whose credentials are not aligned with their current placement.
To determine shortage areas, teaching areas are ranked by the percentage of
courses with teachers lacking aligned credentials to the relevant subject
area, grade level or student population. Student support areas are ranked by
the percent of the statewide full-time equivalent positions currently filled
without the appropriate credential.
Complete the table below, changing or adding additional rows as needed,
or provide a narrative description.
Table F1.
Area Data on shortages FTE
and needs (full-time equiv. %)
Special educators and related 1,296 4.61
service personnel and
paraprofessionals
Bilingual educators 252 .85
English as a second 899 3.26
language educators
STEM educators 411 1.36
CTE educators* 16 Not available
Early childhood educators 53 .10
School counselors** 42 .11
Social workers** 64 .17
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 87
* Health and behavioral health professionals (Schools Counselors and Social workers). PRDE will
need to recruit additional personnel in order to effectively implement the SMARTS Integrated
System of Support that is embedded within the multi-year plan. PRDE will perform an assessment
in order to identify the specific number of counselors and social workers that are deemed necessary.
The assessment will not only cover the above FTE shortage, but also the additional number required
to effectively implement the SMARTS Integrated System of Support.
** Career Technical Education. The Career and Technical Program experienced an increase in
retirements of its occupational teachers due to the lack of skillful knowledge in technological
equipment. PRDE will perform an assessment to update the above number of FTE shortage reported
to USDE.
The above table provides data on identified shortages area at the PRDE. On
February 18, 2021, PRDE submitted to USDE the fiscal year 2019-2020
data over its Teacher Shortage Area.
However, additional information regarding non-teaching personnel that
would provide social, emotional and health support to students; and
administrative personnel that need to assigned to work at schools and
Educational Regional Offices is described below to provide more context
on workforce needs and ongoing efforts to address those concerns.
School Nurses. PRDE hired, and plans to continue recruiting school nurses
throughout its schools to maintain and monitor health services for students
aimed at prevention, preparedness and response to the challenges we
continue to face as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. For the
previous and current academic year, PRDE used ESSER I fund to recruit
nurses to perform physical evaluation in the school community, both for
students and for the faculty. However, PRDE expects that the service that
is being provided to our students, will continue to be in the foreseeable
academic years. PRDE plans to use ARP ESSER funds to recruit 429 school
nurses for the effective implementation of the SMARTS Integrated Support
System for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 academic years.
School Psychologists. PRDE hired, and plans to continue recruiting
psychologists to provide early intervention services, supports, and related
services to students during the pandemic situation. The purpose of hiring
psychologists is to address the students’ socio-emotional needs caused
during distance education schools’ offerings and continues to have during
the in-person instruction modality. Even though, PRDE has already
recruited psychologists for the previous and current academic year, PRDE
expects that the service that is being provided to our students, will continue
to be needed in the foreseeable academic years. PRDE plans to use ARP
ESSER funds to recruit 116 additional school psychologists to effectively
implement the SMARTS Integrated Support System for the 2022-2023 and
2023-2024 academic years.
Educational Therapist. During the planning phase of the SMARTS
Integrated System of Support, schools will be able to identify students who
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 88
are experiencing learning disorders, or attention problems that make
learning unusually difficult. Once a child’s learning challenges are
identified, an educational therapist will provide academic support to help
the student develop the skills he or she is missing, and on devising learning
strategies that build on her strengths and compensate for her weaknesses.
PRDE will use ARP ESSER III funds to recruit educational therapist needed
to effectively implement the SMARTS Integrated System of Support.
School leaders: School Directors, Assistant Director, Teacher leaders,
and other school staff. As evidenced in the data collected from the surveys
and focus groups, there is consensus concerning the supports that Directors
need at schools. As of today, PRDE has identified dozens of schools lacking
a School Director. Within the surveys, School Directors stated the urgent
need to recruit Assistant Directors, Teacher leaders, and other school staff
to assist them in performing academic and administrative tasks. The PRDE
Alternate Education Program also stated a need of Auxiliary Administrative
personnel for its Juvenile Institutions. PRDE will perform an assessment to
identify the specific need in each school in order to recruit necessary
personnel.
Administrative and Academic personnel at the Regional Educational
Offices (OREs, per its acronym in Spanish). As evidenced in the data
collected from the surveys and focus groups, there is consensus concerning
the supports that OREs need. Within the surveys, Superintendents stated the
urgent need to recruit additional Superintendents, Auxiliary
Superintendents, Academic and Special Education facilitators, IT
personnel, administrative personnel, Procurement personnel, and other
office personnel in order to assist them in performing the administrative
tasks. PRDE will perform an assessment to identify the specific need in each
ORE in order to recruit necessary personnel.
ii. Describe how the SEA will assist its LEAs in identifying the most urgent
areas of shortages or potential shortages, with particular plans for individual
LEAs facing the most significant needs (e.g., by avoiding layoffs, providing
high-quality professional learning opportunities, and addressing the impact
of stress or trauma on educators). Include a description of how other Federal
COVID-19 funding (e.g., ESSER and GEER funds under the CARES Act
and CRRSA Act) have already been used to avoid layoffs during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
PRDE will held an assessment in schools and at the Regional Educational
Offices to identify the most urgent areas of shortages or potential shortages.
Certification and Recertification. As a way to address areas of shortage
or potential shortages, the PRDE officially signed a partnership with the
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 89
University of Puerto Rico to offer opportunities to current teachers in grades
PreK-12 to earn graduate school credit hours - at no cost to them, and
achieve a certification or recertification in the area or subject it teaches.
PRDE plans to use ARP ESSER funds to extend this strategy to offer
courses in other universities and colleges.
PRDE's certification and recertification process is also a way on how PRDE
has used funding to avoid layoffs.
Professional Development Organizational System. On September 27,
2021 PRDE plans to launch the Professional Development Organizational
System, a platform envisioned to be used as a system for data driven
decision making, collection of targeted professional development
information, identifying personnel readiness and, target state provided
supports and technical assistance. In addition, the platform will provide a
variety of professional learning sessions and support to all school staff and
PRDE personnel on how to access and accelerate student learning. The
Professional Development platform will also allow self-service, interactive
training sessions with on-demand resources available to all educators and
administrative staff.
The Professional Development platform will allow PRDE to identify the
most urgent areas of shortages.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 90
iii. Describe the actions the SEA will take to fill anticipated gaps in certified
teachers for the start of the 2021-2022 school year and to what extent the
SEA will further support its LEAs in expanding the educator pipeline and
educator diversity while addressing the immediate needs of students
disproportionately impacted by the pandemic (e.g., recruiting teaching
candidates to provide high-dosage tutoring or implementing residencies for
teacher candidates).
Certification and Recertification. PRDE plans to use ARP ESSER funds
to extend this strategy (explained in detail above) to offer courses in other
universities and colleges.
Professional Development Organizational System. The Professional
Development Organizational System (explained in detail above) will
provide relevant data that will allow PRDE to identify anticipated gaps in
certified teachers before the academic year.
Retention strategy. PRDE plans to use ARP ESSER funds to provide a
one-time paid-leave license to qualified personnel that will help PRDE
address its most urgent areas of shortages or potential shortages. Those who
complete the certification or recertification process, through the one-time
paid-leave license, will be required to sign a 5-year commitment to teach
that particular subject matter in PRDE. This strategy also contributes to a
more professional workforce, which is so needed in the educational field.
Bonus and Salary increase for permanent, probatory and transitory
employees. PRDE also plans on using ARP ESSER funds to further
compensate staff who continues to shows a high sense of responsibility
during the pandemic and supports the continuity of the services and the
educational process.
However, thru the various consultation processes that were performed,
PRDE repeatedly identified the urgency to also address salary increase.
Therefore, this will be further analyzed and considered as an indirect
retention strategy. PRDE understands that further shortages may arrive if it
doesn’t address this need.
Both of these strategies will help PRDE on minimizing the effect we are
experiencing; more teachers and school personnel leaving the public
system.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 91
2. Staffing to Support Student Needs: Describe the extent to which the SEA has
developed or will develop strategies and will support its LEAs in increasing student
access to key support staff within school buildings, including school counselors,
special education personnel, nurses, social workers, and psychologists (e.g. hiring
additional personnel or freeing up these staff to focus on providing services to
students).
Is through a collaborative network and coherent plan, that PRDE will effectively
increase student access to key support staff within school buildings, including
school counselors, special education personnel, nurses, social workers, and
psychologists.
Schools will be part of the planning of a multi-year cycle that will allow PRDE to
achieve a continuous improvement mindset, create constant opportunities to assess
ongoing needs, trying new strategies, and making necessary adjustments.
The coherent plan will begin with the review and analysis of data, community input
and research on evidence-based practices to address lost instructional time and
close performance gaps.
Regional Educational Offices and Schools will be supported through the following
initiatives:
(Please note, details of these initiatives are included in section D.1.i)
• High-Impact tutoring
• High quality instructional materials
• HyFlex Classroom
• Healthy environments at Classrooms
• Professional learning
• Extended school day
• Summer learning programs
• Student Growth Incentive
• Social, emotional, and mental health supports
The SMARTS (Students, Measurable, Accelerated, Relevant, Teachers, and
Socioemotional and health) Integrated System of Support is embedded in the
multi-year plan. Through the SMARTS Integrated System of Support, PRDE will
be able to address the abovementioned student's academic, social emotional, or
health needs.
As mentioned in section D.1.i, the multi-year planning cycle is necessary for PRDE
to provide effective support, by starting with the planning, that will lead to the
intervention, followed by an evaluation or monitoring of the support provided,
complete an assessment of the outcome, and readjust the planning, accordingly.
The SMARTS System of Support will continue through 2024 when the goals of
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 92
ARP ESSER III funds are met. Please refer to section D.1.i, for specific details of
the six phases included in the multi-year cycle.
For the next three years, the SMARTS Integrated System of Support will be used
as a structure for continuous planning and responding to address student and
teacher’s needs. The cycle will also support the most impacted groups of students
with an individual academic improvement plan, if necessary.
PRDE will evaluate the impact of each of these interventions, with qualitative data,
including stakeholder feedback, in order to assist schools in determining next steps.
Other quantitative metrics will include those that indicate changes to the learning
environment such as results of school climate surveys, hours of mental health
services provided, and percent of students receiving social emotional support.
Evaluation of these interventions will occur each year during the multi-year cycle.
If the intervention worked, PRDE will proceed with the cycle and address
additional needs, as these where identified; if not, PRDE will readjust the
intervention in order to effectively provide its students the support needed.
Student groups who were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 will be
prioritized for learning loss interventions based on their needs identified by student
data and through the analysis performed in the multi-year cycle. Student data will
include, but not be limited to, diagnostic data, statewide assessment data, student
attendance data, quantitative and qualitative student performance data, and school
climate data.
PRDE will provides additional support for students with disabilities, Spanish
language learners, economically disadvantaged students, students experiencing
homelessness, and students struggling in the traditional classroom setting through
multiple federal and state programs and will supplement these supports with ARP
ESSER-funded interventions, through the SMARTS Integrated System of Support.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 93
G. Monitoring and Measuring Progress
The Department recognizes that transparency on how ARP ESSER funds are used and their
impact on the Nation’s education system is a fundamental responsibility of Federal, State,
and local government. In this section, SEAs will describe how they are building capacity at
the SEA and LEA levels to ensure high-quality data collection and reporting and to safeguard
funds for their intended purposes.
1. Capacity for Data Collection and Reporting: It is important for an SEA to
continuously monitor progress and make adjustments to its strategies, as well as
to support its LEAs in making adjustments to LEA strategies, based on impact.
Describe how the SEA will ensure its capacity and the capacity of its LEAs to
collect data on reporting requirements, including but not limited to the examples
of reporting requirements described in the SEA’s Grant Award Notification (listed
in Appendix B). Describe the SEA’s capacity and strategy to collect data from its
LEAs (disaggregated by student group, where applicable), to the greatest extent
practicable, including any steps the SEA will take to build its capacity in the
future (which may include the use of ARP ESSER and other Federal COVID-19
pandemic funds at the SEA and LEA levels), on issues that may include the
following:
i. Student learning, including the academic impact of lost instructional time
during the COVID-19 pandemic;
ii. Opportunity to learn measures (e.g., chronic absenteeism; student
engagement; use of exclusionary discipline; access to and participation in
advanced coursework; access to technology, including educator access to
professional development on the effective use of technology; access to
high-quality educators; access to school counselors, social workers,
nurses, and school psychologists; and results from student, parent, and/or
educator surveys);
iii. Fiscal data that is comparable across the State (e.g., per-pupil expenditures
at the LEA and school levels);
iv. Jobs created and retained (by position type);
v. Participation in programs funded by ARP ESSER resources (e.g., summer
and afterschool programs); and
vi. Other reporting requirements reasonably required by the Secretary (please
refer to Appendix B of this template; final requirements will be issued
separately).
PRDE will acquire a platform that provides the mechanism to register
students’ attendance both in present and remote learning. Also, to identify
students using a code identification card to register attendance
electronically and promote location monitoring while using school
transportation services; and provide efficient and modern communication
between student parents and school staff.
The new Student Information System will ensure PRDE's capacity and the
capacity of our schools to collect data on reporting requirements.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 94
In order to support and monitor schools in implementation of the
abovementioned evidence-based interventions, that will address
disproportionate impact of the pandemic on groups of students, PRDE will
continue to collect disaggregated data to include, but not limited to, data
from interim and annual statewide assessments, attendance, discipline,
social worker reports, and a variety of surveys related to school climate and
social emotional aspects.
It is for this reason that schools and their academic, social emotional and
health personnel are required to provide detailed student information, in
order for PRDE to register it by student subgroup and better identify their
specific needs. To the extent possible, the detailed description should
include the academic impact of lost instructional time, chronic absenteeism,
student engagement, and social-emotional well-being.
Through the specific and detailed student data, including student discipline
and suspension data, is that PRDE will be able to monitor, evaluate and
refine the strategies and interventions implemented.
Extensive supports and services will be provided throughout the academic
year in order to reengage students in learning and to help them develop
appropriate behaviors and social-emotional competencies.
PRDE will analyze the data from the student's groups who most likely have
experienced the impact of lost instructional time on student learning,
including each of the student groups listed in question A.3.i.-viii.
PRDE is investing in supporting the use of and access to high-quality
interim assessments to support schools’ efforts to continue close monitoring
of student progress and targeted interventions.
2. Monitoring and Internal Controls: Describe how the SEA will implement
appropriate fiscal monitoring of and internal controls for the ARP ESSER funds
(e.g., by updating the SEA’s plan for monitoring funds and internal controls under
the CARES and CRRSA Acts; addressing potential sources of waste, fraud, and
abuse; conducting random audits; or other tools). In this response, please describe
the SEA’s current capacity to monitor ARP ESSER; steps, if needed, to increase
capacity; and any foreseeable gaps in capacity, including how the SEA will provide
its LEAs with technical assistance in the anticipated areas of greatest need.
PRDE is currently working with a procurement competitive process to select an
adequate external vendor to perform monitoring and program review professional
services.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 95
For ESSER I, II, and III funds, as an additional internal control, PRDE will contract
a firm with experience in auditing, monitoring and/or program review of federal
grants, to have an external point of view and experts on the filed evaluating the
procedures performed related to these emergency grants. Both parties (PRDE and
the external evaluator) will agree to perform a risk analysis in order to prioritize the
evaluation of implementation of these federal programs at schools and PRDE
offices (LEA and SEA levels).
Once a representative sample of schools and initiatives are selected, desk
monitoring and visits to locations will take place. After visits and desk monitoring
are completed, PRDE will request the noncompliance reports and identification of
findings. PRDE will proceed on ensuring the Corrective Action Plans required are
implemented or followed, accordingly. The vendor and PRDE SEA level program
will follow up to the Corrective Action Plans.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 96
Appendix A: School Operating Status and Instructional Mode Data Template
Indicate the date or time period represented by the following data.
Click here to enter text.
Table 1
In the most recent time period available, how many schools in your State offered each mode of
instruction or learning model described below? Each row should account for all schools in your
State, so that, for each row, the sum of the numbers in the “offered to all students,” “offered to
some students,” and “not offered” columns is equal to the number in the “all schools” column.
Add or change rows as needed
Number of schools All schools Offered to all Offered to Not offered
students some students
Remote or online only 31 0 31 0
School buildings open with both 59 0 59 0
remote/online and in-person
instruction (hybrid)
School buildings open with full-time 770 0 770 0
in-person instruction
To the extent data are available, please complete the above table for 1) all schools in the State, and
2) separately for each instructional level (e.g., pre-kindergarten/elementary schools, middle
schools, high schools).
Below, PRDE is including data segregated by instructional level.
Number of schools All schools Remote or hybrid In-person
online only instruction
Primary Schools 605 16 45 544
Secondary Schools 153 6 9 138
Schools will all level 85 9 3 73
Below, PRDE is segregating from above the data from our eight (8) shared schools, six (6) Post-
Secondary Institutes, and three (3) Post-Secondary Vocational.
Number of schools All schools Remote or hybrid In-person
online only instruction
Shared Schools 8 0 2 6
Post-Secondary Institutes 6 0 0 6
Post-Secondary Vocational 3 0 0 3
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 97
Table 2
In the most recent time period available, what was the enrollment and mode of instruction for the
schools in your State?
Add or change rows as needed
Data included in this table was gathered from the active enrollment information. This information
is not considered the certified enrollment data of PRDE, for the enrollment certification for the
2021-2022 academic year is scheduled for September 2021.
Number of students Total Remote or Both Full-time in-
enrollment online only remote/online person
and in-person instruction
instruction
(hybrid)
Students from low- 203,170 5,671 13,011 184,488
income families
White, not Hispanic 733 25 45 663
Black or African 64 2 2 60
American, not
Hispanic
Hispanic, of any race 258,842 7,516 16,360 234,966
Asian, not Hispanic 38 1 1 36
American Indian or 116 1 9 106
Alaskan Native, not
Hispanic
Native Hawaiian or 16 0 5 11
Pacific Islander, not
Hispanic
Two or more races, Not collected Not collected Not collected Not collected
not Hispanic
Race/Ethnicity 0 0 0 0
information not
available
English learners* 392 13 30 349
Children with 79,482 1,913 4,795 72,774
disabilities
Students experiencing 16 0 7 9
homelessness
Children and youth in 55 1 3 51
foster care
Migratory students PRDE does not have any migratory students.
* In Puerto Rico, Spanish is the language of instruction, as well as the predominant language used in commerce and social
interaction. Spanish Learners (SL) in Puerto Rico is the group of students that is not fluent or is limited in the Spanish language in
reading, writing, speaking, listening, and parallels the English language learner (ELL) group in mainland states.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 98
Appendix B: Reporting Language Included in the Grant Award Notification (“GAN”)
As described in the Grant Award Notification (“GAN”), the SEA will comply with, and ensure
that its LEAs comply with, all reporting requirements at such time and in such manner and
containing such information as the Secretary may reasonably require, including on matters such
as:
• How the State is developing strategies and implementing public health protocols
including, to the greatest extent practicable, policies and plans in line with the CDC
guidance related to mitigating COVID-19 in schools;
• Overall plans and policies related to State support for return to in-person instruction and
maximizing in-person instruction time, including how funds will support a return to and
maximize in-person instruction time, and advance equity and inclusivity in participation
in in-person instruction;
• Data on each school’s mode of instruction (fully in-person, hybrid, and fully remote)
and conditions;
• SEA and LEA uses of funds to meet students’ social, emotional, and academic needs,
including through summer enrichment programming and other evidence-based
interventions, and how they advance equity for underserved students;
• SEA and LEA uses of funds to sustain and support access to early childhood education
programs;
• Impacts and outcomes (disaggregated by student subgroup) through use of ARP ESSER
funding (e.g., quantitative and qualitative results of ARP ESSER funding, including on
personnel, student learning, and budgeting at the school and district level);
• Student data (disaggregated by student subgroup) related to how the COVID-19
pandemic has affected instruction and learning;
• Requirements under the Federal Financial Accountability Transparency Act
(“FFATA”); and
• Additional reporting requirements as may be necessary to ensure accountability and
transparency of ARP ESSER funds.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 99
Appendix C: Assurances
By signing this document, the SEA assures all of the following:
1. The SEA will conduct all its operations so that no person shall be excluded from
participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under the ARP
ESSER program or activity based on race, color, national origin, which includes a
person’s limited English proficiency or English learner status and a person’s actual or
perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics; sex; age; or disability. These non-
discrimination obligations arise under Federal civil rights laws, including but not limited
to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of
1972, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of
1975. In addition, the SEA must comply with all regulations, guidelines, and standards
issued by the Department under any of these statutes;
2. The SEA will comply with all ARP Act and other ARP ESSER requirements and all
requirements of its Grant Award Notification, including but not limited to:
a. Complying with the maintenance of effort provision in section 2004(a)(1) of the
ARP Act, absent a waiver by the Secretary pursuant to section 2004(a)(2) of the
ARP Act; and
b. Complying with the maintenance of equity provisions in section 2004(b) of the
ARP Act, and ensuring its LEAs comply with the maintenance of equity provision
in section 2004(c) of the ARP Act (please note that the Department will provide
additional guidance on maintenance of equity shortly);
3. The SEA will allocate ARP ESSER funds to LEAs in an expedited and timely manner
and, to the extent practicable, not later than 60 days after the SEA receives ARP ESSER
funds (i.e., 60 days from the date the SEA receives each portion of its ARP ESSER
funds). An SEA that is not able to allocate such funds within 60 days because it is not
practicable (e.g., because of pre-existing State board approval requirements) will provide
an explanation to the Department within 30 days of receiving each portion of its ARP
ESSER funds (submitted via email to your Program Officer at [State].OESE@ed.gov
(e.g., Alabama.OESE@ed.gov)), including a description of specific actions the SEA is
taking to provide ARP ESSER funds to LEAs in an expedited and timely manner and the
SEA’s expected timeline for doing so;
4. The SEA will implement evidence-based interventions as required under section 2001(f)
of the ARP Act and ensure its LEAs implement evidence-based interventions, as required
by section 2001(e)(1) of the ARP Act;
5. The SEA will address the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on
underserved students (i.e., students from low-income families, students from racial or
ethnic groups (e.g., identifying disparities and focusing on underserved student groups by
race or ethnicity), gender (e.g., identifying disparities and focusing on underserved
student groups by gender), English learners, children with disabilities, students
experiencing homelessness, children and youth in foster care, and migratory students), as
required under section 2001(f) of the ARP Act, and ensure its LEAs address the
disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on underserved students (i.e.,
students from low-income families, students from racial or ethnic groups, gender, English
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 100
learners, children with disabilities, students experiencing homelessness, children and
youth in foster care, and migratory students), as required by section 2001(e)(1) of the
ARP Act; and
6. The SEA will provide to the Department: (1) the URL(s) where the public can readily
find data on school operating status and (2) the URL(s) for the SEA and/or LEA websites
where the public can find the LEA plans for a) the safe return to in-person instruction and
continuity of services required under section 2001(i) of the ARP Act, and b) use of ARP
ESSER funds. SEAs should consider ensuring a standardized URL format in all cases
(e.g., xxx.gov/COVIDplan).
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 101
Appendix D: GEPA
OMB Control No. 1894-0005 (Exp. 06/30/2023)
NOTICE TO ALL APPLICANTS
The purpose of this enclosure is to inform you needs. This provision allows applicants
about a new provision in the Department of discretion in developing the required
Educations General Education Provisions description. The statute highlights six types
Act ("GEPA") that applies to applicants for of barriers that can impede equitable access
new grant awards under Department or participation: gender, race, national origin,
programs. This provision is Section 427 of color, disability, or age. Based on local
GEPA, enacted as part of the Improving circumstances, you should determine
America's Schools Act of 1994 (Public Law whether these or other barriers may prevent
(P.L.) 103-382). your students, teachers, etc. from such access
to, or participation in, the Federally-funded
To Whom Does This Provision Apply? project or activity. The description in your
application of steps to be taken to overcome
Section 427 of GEPA affects applicants for
these barriers need not be lengthy; you may
new grant awards under this program. ALL
provide a clear and succinct description of
APPLICANTS FOR NEW AWARDS
how you plan to address those barriers that
MUST INCLUDE INFORMATION IN
are applicable to your circumstances. In
THEIR APPLICATIONS TO ADDRESS
addition, the information may be provided in
THIS NEW PROVISION IN ORDER TO
a single narrative, or, if appropriate, may be
RECEIVE FUNDING UNDER THIS
discussed in connection with related topics in
PROGRAM.
the application.
(If this program is a State-formula grant
Section 427 is not intended to duplicate the
program, a State needs to provide this
requirements of civil rights statutes, but
description only for projects or activities that
rather to ensure that, in designing their
it carries out with funds reserved for State-
projects, applicants for Federal funds address
level uses. In addition, local school districts
equity concerns that may affect the ability of
or other eligible applicants that apply to the
certain potential beneficiaries to fully
State for funding need to provide this
participate in the project and to achieve high
description in their applications to the State
standards. Consistent with program
for funding. The State would be responsible
requirements and its approved application, an
for ensuring that the school district or other
applicant may use the Federal funds awarded
local entity has submitted a sufficient section
to it to eliminate barriers it identifies.
427 statement as described below.)
What are Examples of How an Applicant
What Does This Provision Require?
Might Satisfy the Requirement of This
Section 427 requires each applicant for funds Provision?
(other than an individual person) to include in
The following examples may help illustrate
its application a description of the steps the
how an applicant may comply with Section
applicant proposes to take to ensure equitable
427.
access to, and participation in, its Federally-
assisted program for students, teachers, and (1) An applicant that proposes to carry
other program beneficiaries with special out an adult literacy project serving,
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 102
among others, adults with limited English extent possible equitable access to,
proficiency, might describe in its participation in, and appropriate educational
application how it intends to distribute a opportunities for individuals served.
brochure about the proposed project to Federally funded activities, programs, and
such potential participants in their native services will be accessible to all teachers,
language. students and program beneficiaries and other
PRDE personnel and staff.
(2) An applicant that proposes to develop
instructional materials for classroom use The PRDE does not discriminate under any
might describe how it will make the circumstance on the grounds of age, race,
materials available on audio tape or in color, gender, birth, religion, veteran status,
braille for students who are blind. political ideals, sexual orientation, gender
identity, social condition or background,
(3) An applicant that proposes to carry physical or mental incapacity; or for being
out a model science program for victim of aggression, harassment, or
secondary students and is concerned that domestic violence. This statement is widely
girls may be less likely than boys to enroll utilized in all the Agency’s procedures,
in the course, might indicate how it which include, hiring of personnel, human
intends to conduct "outreach" efforts to resources procedures, enrolment process, etc.
girls, to encourage their enrollment.
The PRDE is engaged to provide an equal
(4) An applicant that proposes a project to opportunity for all students and teachers,
increase school safety might describe the among others, to fully participate from
special efforts it will take to address Federally-funded project and/or activities.
concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and PRDE has a legal division with attorneys and
transgender students, and efforts to reach investigators, that work with all complaints
out to and involve the families of LGBT concerning Civil Rights. All cases are
students. investigated and viable ways for a fair
resolution in a timely manner are provided.
We recognize that many applicants may
already be implementing effective steps to Among PRDE’s efforts to comply with these
ensure equity of access and participation in provisions are the following:
their grant programs, and we appreciate your
cooperation in responding to the Holding program related
requirements of this provision. sessions/activities in Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) accessible
Puerto Rico Department of Education - and compliant facilities
General Education Provisions Act Printing materials in multiple
(GEPA): languages
Offering multi-lingual services for
Under the American Rescue Plan Elementary
participants and others as needed and
and Secondary School Emergency Relief
appropriate
Fund (ARP ESSER Fund), the PRDE is
Responsiveness to cultural
required to comply with the General
differences
Education Provisions Act (GEPA).
Fostering a positive school climate
Hereby, in carrying out its educational through restorative practices
mission, the PRDE will ensure to the fullest
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 103
Conducting outreach efforts and In addition, in designing the projects and
target marketing to those not likely to activities, PRDE address equity, including
participate students and teachers with disabilities. Every
Making program materials available
year, the Special Education Program staff,
in braille, via audiotapes, or by
providing interpretation services visit all school buildings in the search for
Providing assistive technology physical barriers and the findings are
devices to translate/make accessible reported in order for the corresponding
grant and program materials for Agency to promptly adapt structures and/or
participants requiring such provide special accommodations for people
accommodations (i.e. inclined planes, with disabilities. In addition, for students
communicators (Go Talk 9), FM
with visual impairments, PRDE ensures they
equipment, electronic Braille
notepads and programmed computers have the instructional materials and
that facilitate learning for students equipment adapted for them to fully join
who cannot read or are blind, printers, activities and instruction services. Depending
reading guides, equipment to expand on the disability, the IEP will describe the
font size and chairs adapted for accommodations needed for students to
lounges, wheelchairs). assure equal participation.
Using technologies to convey content
of program materials As for the dissemination of the grant
Using materials that include opportunities, PRDE will post the
strategies for addressing the needs of information in the webpage to inform all
all participants public. In addition, PRDE will ensure the
Development and/or acquisition and participation of students from all subgroups
dissemination of culturally relevant into charter schools.
and sensitive curriculum and
informational materials PRDE will require charter schools to comply
Use of transportation services that with all policies and procedures that address
include handicapped equal opportunities in all areas. An
accommodations orientation will be provided to all applicants,
Adapted Physical Education - A where this topic will be discussed. Finally,
diversified program of development PRDE will monitor compliance and will
activities, games, sports, and rhythms provide technical assistance to charter
tailored to the needs and interests of schools managers as needed.
students with disabilities who cannot
benefit from unrestricted
participation in vigorous Regular
Physical Education program
activities
Providing School nurses and social
work services
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 104
Estimated Burden Statement for GEPA Requirements
According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to
a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number.
Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 3 hours
per response, including time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources,
gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of
information. The obligation to respond to this collection is required to obtain or retain
benefit (Public Law 103-382). Send comments regarding the burden estimate or any other
aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to
the U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20210-4537
or email ICDocketMgr@ed.gov and reference the OMB Control Number 1894-0005.
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 105
Appendix E: Stakeholders Input
ENCUESTA DE PERCEPCIÓN PARA LA INVERSIÓN DE LOS
FONDOS DEL DEPR
5944 17:12 Closed
Responses Average time to complete Status
1. Elija el grupo de interés que mejor le representa
Estudiante 737
Padre o tutor 2521
Miembro de la comunidad 18
Maestro/a 2489
Personal Escolar 132
Director Escolar 32
Director o Representante de E… 2
Superintendente Regional 1
Superintendente Auxiliar 1
Facilitador Docente 1
Miembro de una Organizació… 0
Miembro de una Organizació… 0
Persona que representa los int… 10
Persona que representa los int… 0
Persona que representa los int… 0
Persona que representa los int… 0
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 106
2. ¿Está satisfecho con sus condiciones laborales?
Sí 462
No 2174
No aplica 32
3. Coloque en orden de prioridad las siguientes premisas desde la más importante
hasta la menos importante, en relación con su condición laboral
Rank Options
1 Salario
2 Bonificación/Compensación
3 Equipo/herramientas de trabajo
4 Beneficios marginales
5 Planta fisica
6 Desarrollo profesional
7 Otros
First choice Last choice
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 107
4. Según su experiencia, indique la EFECTIVIDAD de las siguientes estrategias para
apoyar las necesidades de los estudiantes durante lapandemia de CoVID-19 según
aplique
Sumamente efectiva Muy efectiva Efectiva Poco efectiva No efectivaDesconozco
sobre el particular
Asignación de equipo tecnológico (laptops, tabletas)
Acceso a Proveedores de Internet
Módulos didácticos por materias
Programados dirigidos al componente académico
Licencias instruccionales (libros digitales)
Asistencia técnica/apoyo provista a través del
Proyecto DE INNOVA (uso/manejo de los equipos /…
Asistencia técnica/apoyo provista a través de Nivel
Central
Asistencia técnica/apoyo provista a través de la ORE
Asistencia técnica/apoyo provista a través de la
escuela
Asistencia técnica/apoyo provista por una entidad u
organización externa al DEPR
Modalidad de educación a distancia
Verano Educativo
Apoyo socioemocional de los grupos
multidisciplinarios (sicólogo, trabajador…
Desarrollo profesional provisto a maestros y personal
de escuelas
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 108
5. Referente a la pregunta anterior, presente alguna estrategia que entiendadeba
ser considerada (1)
2240
Responses Latest Responses
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 109
6. A continuación, encontrará una lista de necesidades para el año escolar2021-
2022, en términos del impacto que ha causado la pandemia de CoVID-19.
Para cada una, indique si está muy deacuerdo, deacuerdo, es neutral, en
desacuerdo o muy en desacuerdo.
Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo Neutral En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo
Facilitar datos y análisis de los mismos al personal
docente y administrativo de la comunidad escolar,…
Bienestar social / emocional / mental de los
estudiantes
Bienestar social / emocional / mental de los
maestros/directores
Acceso y equipo de tecnología
Estratégias y actividades para atender la pérdida del
tiempo lectivo y acelerar el aprendizaje
Personal de apoyo adicional para apoyar la pérdida de
aprendizaje
Personal de apoyo adicional para apoyar en el
bienestar social /emocional / mental de los…
Apoyo académico a escuelas especializadas,
Montessori, vocacional/ocupacional u otras
Atención e integración de las familias para lograr éxito
académico
Crear alianzas comunitarias y con el sector privado
Iniciativa de mochilas con materiales didácticos, según
el nivel del estudiante
Uniformes escolares
Espejuelos
Materiales de instrucción para maestros
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 110
7. Referente a la pregunta anterior, presente alguna estrategia que entiendadeba
ser considerada (2)
1922
Responses Latest Responses
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 111
8. Según su experiencia, indique la EFECTIVIDAD de las siguientesestrategias para
atender la pérdida de aprendizaje
Sumamente efectiva Muy efectiva Efectiva Poco efectiva No efectiva Desconozco sobre
el particular
Proyectos de tutoría con tiempo extendido después
de escuela
Tutorías en la escuela
Tutorías de manera remota/a distancia
Tutorías de manera presencial
Tutorías en la casa
Programa extendido de escuela en los veranos
Programas de intervención académica durante el
periodo de clase
Programas de intervención individualizados
Programas de intervención enfocados a poblaciones
específicamente identificadas como estudiantes en…
Programas de intervención enfocado en las materias
donde estudiantes reflejan mayor necesidad
Adquirir materiales de instrucción basados en
evidencia para ayudar asistir en los esfuerzos de…
Desarrollo profesional por materias o áreas de
contenido para maestros, personal de escuelas,…
Orientaciónes o adiestramientos a padres, madres y
encargados, estudiantes y otros subgrupos
Programados didácticos
Sabatinos
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 112
9. Referente a la pregunta anterior, presente alguna estrategia que entiendadeba
ser considerada (3)
1574
Responses Latest Responses
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 113
10. ¿Que temas considera se deben cubrir durante actividades de desarrollo
profesional por materias, por programa o áreas de contenido para maestros,
personal de escuelas o personal no docente?
Latest Responses
"No se"
5935 "Como tener más psicología con los estudiantes"
"Actividades para trabajar en linea "
Responses
11. ¿Que temas considera se deben cubrir durante orientaciones o
adiestramientos a padres, madres, encargados, estudiantes y otros
subgrupos?
Latest Responses
"No se"
5937 "Dar talleres de computadora" "Habitos
de estudio, administracion del tiempo. "
Responses
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 114
12. Coloca en orden las siguientes premisas desde la más importante hasta la menos
importante en términos de su apoyo a las necesidadesde nuestra comunidad
escolar
Rank Options
1 Consideraciones de salud y se…
2 Proveer materiales didácticos …
3 Bienestar socioemocional: des…
4 Obtener datos que les permit…
5 Actividades de bienestar conc…
6 Bienestar socioemocional: ase…
First choice Last choice
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 115
Encuesta para estudiantes de nivel primario 1ero a 7mo
11442 02:31 Closed
Responses Average time to complete Status
1. Indica el grado que cursarás este año
1ro 1352
2do 1436
3ro 1516
4to 1669
5to 1638
6to 1842
7mo 1989
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 116
2. Durante la pandemia por COVID-19, ¿cuánto sientes que aprendiste?
Mucho 4834
Regular 4967
Poco 1641
3. ¿En qué clase aprendiste menos?
Español (adquisición de la len… 1351
Matemáticas 2685
Inglés 4881
Ciencias 876
Estudios sociales 1649
4. ¿En qué lugar te gusta recibir tus clases?
En casa 6521
En la escuela 4921
5. ¿En qué lugar te gusta recibir tutorías?
En casa 7298
En la escuela 4144
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 117
6. ¿Participaste del Verano Educativo?
Sí 937
No 10505
7. ¿Sientes que aprendiste en Verano Educativo?
Sí 856
No 81
8. ¿Quieres regresar a la escuela?
Sí 5776
No 5666
9. ¿Por qué no quieres regresar?
Tengo miedo de contagiarme 5362
No quiero estar lejos de mi fa… 492
Me preocupa estar cerca de p… 811
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 118
10. Marca las actividades que mejor te ayudaron durante la pandemia
Me entregaron iPad, laptop, c… 8215
Buscar los materiales en la esc… 2399
Clases por la computadora co… 8212
Ver los videos de la clase 3558
11. ¿Qué actividades te gustaría que se dieran durante el próximo año para
ayudarte a mejorar tus notas?
Recibir tutorías 3481
Recibir Verano Educativo 238
Estudiar desde casa 4620
Recibir en la escuela las activi… 2635
Other 468
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 119
2. ¿Está satisfecho con sus condiciones laborales?
Sí 175
No 371
3. Especifique porqué no está satisfecho
Latest Responses
371
"Necesidad de personal en la oficina"
"Mejoras de plantel escolar, necesidad de ayuda admin…
Responses
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 121
4. Según su experiencia, indique la EFECTIVIDAD de las siguientes
estrategias para apoyar las necesidades de los estudiantes durante la
pandemia de CoVID-19 según aplique
Sumamente efectiva Muy efectiva Efectiva Poco efectiva No efectiva
N/A
Asignación de equipo tecnológico (laptops, tabletas)
Acceso a Proveedores de Internet
Módulos didácticos por materias
Programados dirigidos al componente académico
Licencias instruccionales (libros digitales)
Asistencia técnica/apoyo provista a través del
Proyecto DE INNOVA (uso/manejo de los equipos /…
Asistencia técnica/apoyo provista a través de Nivel
Central
Asistencia técnica/apoyo provista a través de la ORE
Asistencia técnica/apoyo provista a través de la
escuela
Asistencia técnica/apoyo provista por una entidad u
organización externa al DEPR
Modalidad de educación a distancia
Verano Educativo
Apoyo socioemocional de los grupos
multidisciplinarios (sicólogo, trabajador…
Desarrollo profesional provisto a maestros y personal
de escuelas
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 122
5. Referente a la pregunta anterior, presente alguna estrategia que entienda
deba ser considerada
324
Latest Responses
"Coaching apoyo a la docencia en la materia durante …
Responses
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 123
6. A continuación, encontrará una lista de necesidades para el año escolar
2021-2022, en términos del impacto que ha causado la pandemia de
CoVID-19.
Para cada una, indique si está muy deacuerdo, deacuerdo, es neutral, en
desacuerdo o muy en desacuerdo.
Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo Neutral En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo
Facilitar datos y análisis de los mismos al personal
docente yadministrativo de la comunidad escolar, q…
Bienestar social / emocional / mental de los
estudiantes
Bienestar social / emocional / mental de los
maestros/directores
Acceso y equipo de tecnología
Estratégias y actividades para atender la pérdida del
tiempo lectivo y acelerar elaprendizaje
Personal de apoyo adicional para apoyar la pérdida de
aprendizaje
Personal de apoyo adicional para apoyar en el
bienestar social /emocional / mental de los…
Apoyo académico a escuelas especializadas,
Montessori, vocacional/ocupacional u otras
Atención e integración de las familias para lograr éxito
académico
Crear alianzas comunitarias y con el sector privado
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 124
7. Referente a la pregunta anterior, presente alguna estrategia que entienda
deba ser considerada
255
Responses Latest Responses
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 125
8. Según su experiencia, indique la EFECTIVIDAD de las siguientes
estrategias para atender la pérdida de aprendizaje
Sumamente efectiva Muy efectiva Efectiva Poco efectiva No efectiva N/A
Proyectos de tutoría con tiempo extendido después
de escuela
Tutorías en la escuela
Tutorías de manera remota/a distancia
Tutorías de manera presencial
Tutorías en la casa
Programa extendido de escuela en los veranos
Programas de intervención académica durante el
periodo de clase
Programas de intervención individualizados
Programas de intervención enfocados a poblaciones
específicamente identificadas comoestudiantes en…
Programas de intervención enfocado en las materias
donde estudiantes reflejan mayornecesidad
Adquirir materiales de instrucción basados en
evidencia para ayudar asistir en losesfuerzos de…
Desarrollo profesional por materias o áreas de
contenido para maestros, personal de escuelas,…
Orientación eso adiestramientos a padres, madres y
encargados, estudiantes y otros subgrupos
Programados didácticos
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 126
9. Referente a la pregunta anterior, presente alguna estrategia que entienda
deba ser considerada
245
Responses Latest Responses
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 127
10. ¿Que temas considera se deben cubrir durante actividades de desarrollo
profesional por materias o áreas de contenido para maestros, personal de
escuelas o personal no docente?
558 Latest Responses
"Estrategias innovadoras dirigidas a la utilización de e…
Responses
"Colaboración académica entre pares de una misma m…
"Evaluacion del aprendizaje de manera diferenciada Pl…
11. ¿Que temas considera se deben cubrir durante orientaciones o
adiestramientos a padres, madres, encargados, estudiantes y otros
subgrupos?
559
Latest Responses
"Tecnología para apoyo a los hijos"
Responses
"Impacto de las Comunidades de aprendizaje en el apr…
"Uso de la tecnologia para ayudar a mi hojo en la sala …
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 128
12. Coloca en orden las siguientes premisas desde la más importante hasta la menos
importante en términos de su apoyo a las necesidadesde nuestra comunidad
escolar
Rank Options
1 Bienestar socioemocional: des…
2 Obtener datos que les permit…
3 Consideraciones de salud y se…
4 Actividades de bienestar conc…
5 Proveer materiales didácticos …
6 Bienestar socioemocional: ase…
First choice Last choice
Puerto Rico ARP ESSER State Plan 129
Plan para la Recuperación Académica i
NOTIFICACIÓN DE POLÍTICA PÚBLICA
El Departamento de Educación no discrimina de ninguna manera por razón de edad, raza, color,
sexo, nacimiento, condición de veterano, ideología política o religiosa, origen o condición social,
orientación sexual o identidad de género, discapacidad o impedimento físico o mental; ni por ser
víctima de violencia doméstica, agresión sexual o acecho.
NOTA ACLARATORIA
Para propósito de carácter legal en relación con el Título VII de la Ley de Derechos Civiles de 1964;
la Ley Pública 88-352, 42 USC. 2000 et seq; la Constitución del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto
Rico y el principio de economía gramatical y género no marcado de la ortografía española, el uso
de términos facilitador docente, director, estudiante, tutor, encargado y cualquier uso que pueda
hacer referencia a ambos géneros, incluye tanto al masculino como al femenino.
Plan para la Recuperación Académica ii
CONTENIDO
JUNTA EDITORA ............................................................................................................................................ iii
COLABORADORES ......................................................................................................................................... iii
INTRODUCCIÓN ............................................................................................................................................. 1
SOBRE LAS BRECHAS Y EL REZAGO ACADÉMICO ........................................................................................... 2
Clarifiquemos conceptos ........................................................................................................................... 2
Causas de las brechas en el aprendizaje que incrementan el rezago académico ...................................... 2
Poblaciones vulnerables ............................................................................................................................ 3
Importancia de cerrar las brechas en el aprendizaje y disminuir el rezago académico ............................. 3
PANORAMA DEL REZAGO ACADÉMICO EN EL DEPARTAMENTO DE EDUCACIÓN ......................................... 4
ANÁLISIS DE LAS FORTALEZAS, DEBILIDADES, OPORTUNIDADES Y AMENAZAS DEL DEPR ANTE LAS
BRECHAS DE APRENDIZAJE Y EL REZAGO ACADÉMICO ............................................................................... 11
ÁREAS DE ENFOQUE .................................................................................................................................... 12
MONITOREO Y CONTROL DEL PROGRESO DE LOS PROYECTOS, LAS INICIATIVAS Y LAS INTERVENCIONES . 20
REFERENCIAS ............................................................................................................................................... 23
Plan para la Recuperación Académica iii
JUNTA EDITORA
Lcdo. Eliezer Ramos Parés
Secretario interino
Prof. Héctor J. Sánchez Álvarez
Subsecretario Asociado
COLABORADORES
Dr. Guillermo López Díaz
Subsecretario
Subsecretaría para Asuntos Académicos y Programáticos
Dra. Lydiana I. López Díaz
Directora Ejecutiva de la Docencia
Área de Planificación y Rendimientos
Dra. Beverly Morro Vega
Secretaria Auxiliar II
Área de Servicios Académicos
Prof. Carlos Yancy Crespo
Ayudante del subsecretario
Subsecretaría para Asuntos Académicos y Programáticos
Plan para la Recuperación Académica 3
Poblaciones vulnerables
Debido a la pandemia de COVID-19, todos los estudiantes necesitarán apoyos específicos para la
recuperación académica, es decir, cerrar brechas en el aprendizaje y el rendimiento para
disminuir el rezago académico. Las poblaciones más vulnerables son los estudiantes:
▪ bajo nivel de pobreza,
▪ con diversidad funcional,
▪ aprendices del español e inmigrantes,
▪ sin hogar fijo (homeless),
▪ en riesgo de fracaso o deserción escolar (por falta de apoyo familiar).
Importancia de cerrar las brechas en el aprendizaje y disminuir el rezago académico
Las brechas y el rezago académicos son problemas que afectan el progreso académico y social de
los estudiantes (Beniwal & Et al. 2018). Según la UNESCO (2021), es necesario “evitar una
catástrofe generacional”8. Además, señala que un año después del inicio de la pandemia del
COVID-19, “cerca de mitad de los estudiantes del mundo siguen afectados por el cierre parcial o
total de las escuelas”9. También afirman que “más de 100 millones de niños quedarán por debajo
del nivel mínimo de competencia en lectura como resultado de la crisis sanitaria”10.
Concertar acciones para cerrar las brechas en el aprendizaje y el rendimiento para disminuir el
rezago académico son muy importantes para los niños y jóvenes de hoy, ya que propician la
equidad y la justicia. Asimismo, es medular para que el DEPR garantice el derecho constitucional
a la educación. Este “trasciende los factores de enseñanza y aprendizaje e incide sobre otros
derechos de igual naturaleza, tales como la vida, la libertad y la propiedad. Además, dota a los seres
humanos de destrezas imprescindibles para una mejor calidad de vida, acceso a recursos y
oportunidades laborales”11.
8 UNESCO. (2021). Education: From disruption to recovery. Recuperado de https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse
9 Ibidem.
10 Ibidem.
11
Exposición de Motivo de la Ley núm. 85-2018, según enmendada, p. 2
Plan para la Recuperación Académica 12
ÁREAS DE ENFOQUE
La pandemia del COVID-19, así como otras emergencias de fuerza mayor, son, sin duda, un gran
dilema para el sistema educativo de Puerto Rico. Como consecuencia, los maestros y los
estudiantes han sustituido la enseñanza, el aprendizaje y la evaluación presencial por la
educación a distancia. Además, se han enfrentado al reto de depender de los dispositivos
tecnológicos para mantener el aprendizaje previo y continuar con los requisitos del currículo,
según el grado. Sin embargo, a un año del inicio de la pandemia, nos enfrentamos al impacto
que ha tenido en el aprovechamiento académico de los estudiantes. Su mayor secuela radica en
el aumento del rezago académico debido a las brechas de aprendizaje y de rendimiento
académico. Estas brechas, si bien afectan a todos los estudiantes, son más significativas en los
subgrupos de estudiantes de: bajo el nivel de pobreza, aprendices del español, inmigrantes,
participantes del Programa de Educación Especial y sin hogar fijo (Homeless).
El DEPR, en este “Plan para la Recuperación Académica”, identifica las áreas de enfoque que
permitirán diseñar, elaborar e implementar las acciones conjuntas y pertinentes que proveerán
el apoyo específico a cada grupo de interés del sistema educativo (estudiantes y sus familias,
maestros, directores de escuela, facilitadores docentes y superintendentes: regionales, de
escuelas y auxiliares). Esto ayudará a cerrar las brechas del aprendizaje y el rendimiento
académico para así disminuir el rezago académico. Las áreas de enfoque aquí presentadas
permitirán redirigir y focalizar los esfuerzos del DEPR con el propósito de organizar e implementar
los procesos de instrucción enfocados en cerrar las brechas y minimizar el rezago académico, al
maximizar los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje y de comunicación y apoyo con los
estudiantes, sus familias, los docentes, entre otros líderes educativos.
En esta sección, se presentan las acciones académicas y administrativas que se llevarán a cabo a
corto, mediano y largo plazo. Estas establecerán la ruta de acción para el desarrollo de proyectos,
iniciativas, estrategias académicas e intervenciones basadas en evidencia para cerrar las brechas
de aprendizaje y de rendimiento académico, y preparar a todos los estudiantes del país para
tener el éxito académico esperado.
Esta sección se divide en los puntos esenciales para atender los efectos de la pandemia del
COVID-19 y otros fenómenos que han sucedido en Puerto Rico:
1. Mejoría en la calidad de los datos – Enfoque en la recopilación y el análisis de datos que
permitan entender la situación actual desde distintas perspectivas para establecer planes
de trabajos alineados a estudios de necesidades actualizados.
2. Estrategias de intervención para la aceleración del aprendizaje – Planteamiento de una
diversidad de iniciativas sobre intervenciones académicas, como:
Plan para la Recuperación Académica 13
a. uso del tiempo en el verano para crear proyectos educativos enfocados en atender
las destrezas esenciales por materias y estudiantes que hayan fracasado,
b. establecimiento de programas de tutorías durante el verano y el año académico
2021-2022,
c. creación de campamentos enfocados en proyectos de aprendizaje y
enriquecimiento académico,
d. desarrollo de contenido curricular esencial (blueprints) en diversas modalidades,
e. uso de medios de comunicación como herramientas para el aprendizaje con una
estructura académica y de medición de resultados y
f. utilización de plataformas tecnológicas con contenido académico e interactividad
para el aprendizaje auténtico.
3. Desarrollo socioemocional y cuidado de la salud mental de los estudiantes –
Implementación de servicios educativos y de salud enfocados en presentar estrategias
para la resiliencia y el desarrollo de destrezas y actitudes esenciales para el éxito
académico, tales como: motivación, esfuerzo, persistencia, tomar riesgos intelectuales,
colaboración, empatía y metacognición.
4. Apoyo a la docencia – Implementación de un proceso de desarrollo profesional enfocado
en la praxis junto a un proceso de rendición de cuentas basados en el mentoring-coaching.
Estos adiestramientos estarán enfocados en la práctica de enseñar, basados en las
estrategias académicas identificadas para los procesos de atención del rezago académico,
en las herramientas tecnológicas a utilizar para el proceso de enseñanza, en el uso de
distintas modalidades de enseñanza y en prácticas educativas basadas en evidencia para
la recuperación académica al considerar:
a. La identificación y el desarrollo del contenido esencial por grado y materia.
b. El fortalecimiento de las destrezas previas para el desarrollo del contenido
esencial de cada grado y materia.
c. El proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje enfocados en destrezas de pensamiento
crítico y creativo.
d. La integración de las Bellas Artes y la Educación Física como medios para potencial
el aprendizaje del contenido esencial y el desarrollo socioemocional de los
estudiantes (Well-rounded education).
5. Atención e integración de las familias para el éxito académico – Selección de distintos
medios para atender las necesidades de las familias en función de los mejores intereses
de sus hijos; nuestros estudiantes.
6. Alianzas comunitarias y con el sector privado – Creación de alianzas para promover el
desarrollo de las competencias del siglo XXI para dotar a nuestros estudiantes de las
Plan para la Recuperación Académica 14
destrezas imprescindibles para el progreso académico, mejorar su calidad de vida, tener
acceso a recursos y a oportunidades laborales.
Plan para la Recuperación Académica 22
EL DEPR invita al personal docente en las escuelas, las ORE y las oficinas centrales a utilizar este
modelo para dirigir todos sus esfuerzos para el mejoramiento continuo de los procesos y las
actividades que se llevarán a cabo para la recuperación académica para preparar a todos los
estudiantes para el éxito académico.
Plan para la Recuperación Académica 23
REFERENCIAS
Alcántara, A. (2007). Dimensiones de la calidad en la educación superior. Reencuentro, núm. 50,
diciembre, 2007, pp. 21-27. Recuperado de https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/340/34005004.pdf
Antoninis, M. (2021). Opinion: How will countries make up for lost learning during the pandemic?
DEVEXhttps://www.devex.com/news/opinion-how-will-countries-make-up-for-lost-learning-
during-the-pandemic-99453
Beniwal, R. P. & Et al. (2018). Scholastic backwardness among school students: Prevalence and
correlates. Telangana Journal of Psychiatry, January-June 2018: 4, 1, pp. 11-15. Recuperado de
https://www.ipinnovative.com/journal-article-file/6963
Bowen, M. (2020). What You Don’t Know About Academic Interventions May Be Hurting Your
Students: 7 Instructional Strategies for Accelerating Student Learning. Learning Sciences
International (LSi). Recuperado de https://www.nga.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Review-
of-state-learning-acceleration-plans-April-21-2021.pdf
Carro, R. & González, D. (s.f.). Administración de la Calidad Total. Facultad de Ciencias
Económicas y Sociales, Universidad Nacional de Mar de Plata. Recuperado de
http://nulan.mdp.edu.ar/1614/1/09_administracion_calidad.pdf
Council of Chief State School Officers & National Governors Association (April 21, 2021). State
Plans for Accelarating Students Learning: A preliminary Analysis. Recuperado de
https://www.nga.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Review-of-state-learning-acceleration-
plans-April-21-2021.pdf
Doucet, A. & Et al. (2020). Thinking about pedagogy in an unfolding pandemic (An Independent
Report on Approaches to Distance Learning during COVID-19 School Closure. Work of Education
International and UNESCO. Recuperado de
https://issuu.com/educationinternational/docs/2020_research_covid-19_eng
Foto de portada. Foto de uso gratuito. Recuperado de
https://mx.depositphotos.com/161456872/stock-photo-african-american-girl-drawing-
with.html
Inoma (23 febrero 2021). La pandemia del COVID-19 y el rezago académico. Recuperado de
https://www.inoma.mx/noticias/index.php/2021/02/23/la-pandemia-covid-19-rezago-
educativo/
Plan para la Recuperación Académica 24
Madani, R. A. (2019). Analysis of Educational Quality, a Goal of Education for All Policy. Higher
Education Studies; 9, 1. Recuperado de https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1203706.pdf
McKinsey-UNESCO (2020). COVID-19 response –remediation. UNESCO.
https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/About%20Us/COVID%20Response%20Center/
Overview/COVID-19%20Education%20Response%20Toolkit/202010_UNESCO-
McKinsey%20Response%20Toolkit_Remediation_VF.pdf
Meckler L. & Natanson H. (December 6, 2020). ‘A lost generation’: Surge of research reveals
students sliding backward, most vulnerable worst affected. The Washington Post. Recuperado de
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/students-falling-behind/2020/12/06/ 88d7157a-
3665-11eb-8d38-6aea1adb3839_story.html
Neha Sharma, & Et al. (2018). A study of association of behavioral problems with scholastic
backwardness in urban lower middle-class school children. Industrial Psychiatry Journal 2018
January-June: 27, 1, pp. 92–95. Recuperado de
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6198595/
OECD (2020). Education responses to COVID-19: Embracing digital learning and online
collaboration. https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/education-responses-to-
covid-19-embracing-digital-learning-and-online-collaboration-d75eb0e8/
Olmos-Gómez, M del C. & Et al. (2020). Quality of Higher Education through the Pursuit of
Satisfaction with a Focus on Sustainability. Journal Sustainability 2020, 12, 2366. Recuperado de
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340028900_Quality_of_Higher_Education_through
_the_Pursuit_of_Satisfaction_with_a_Focus_on_Sustainability
St. George, D., Strauss V., Meckler L., Heim J. & Natanson H. (March 15, 2021). How the pandemic
is reshaping education. The Washington Post. Recuperado de
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/03/15/pandemic-school-year-changes/
Pokhrel, S. & Roshan C. (2021). A Literature Review on Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Teaching
and Learning. Higher Education for the Future 8, 1, pp. 133–141. Recuperado de
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2347631120983481
Rothstein, R. (April 14, 2020). The coronavirus will explode achievement gaps in education.
Economic Policy Institute. Recuperado de https://www.epi.org/blog/the-coronavirus-will-
explode-achievement-gaps-in-education/
Plan para la Recuperación Académica 25
Steiner, D. & Weisberg, D. (2020). When students go back to school, too many will start the year
behind. Here’s how to catch them up — in real time. The 74. Recuperado de
https://www.the74million.org/article/steiner-weisberg-when-students-go-back-to-school-too-
many-will-start-the-year-behind-heres-how-to-catch-them-up-in-real-time/
UNESCO. (2008). Reflexiones en torno a la evaluación de la calidad en América Latina y el Caribe.
Recuperado de http://archivos.agenciaeducacion.cl/Reporte_tematico_Reflexiones_en_torno
_a_la_evaluacion_de_la_calidad_educativa_en_AL_y_el_Caribe.pdf
UNESCO. (2021). Education: From disruption to recovery. Recuperado de
https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse
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