All 131 public school divisions in Virginia have finalized and submitted their plans for implementing Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s ALL IN VA learning loss recovery initiative, the governor announced earlier this month.
Funding for the initiative was included in the state budget approved in September. The plan funnels an additional $418.3 million to state school divisions across three categories for fiscal year 2024, which began July 1 and ends June 30. Youngkin’s office recommended that divisions spend their dollars accordingly:
- Category 1: 70% of their allocated funds on implementing “high-intensity tutoring” for grades 3-8
- Category 2: 20% on implementing the expanded Virginia Literacy Act
- Category 3: 10% on addressing chronic absenteeism.
Spending plans submitted by all 131 school divisions are linked at the Virginia Department of Education’s website. Here’s an overview of how Fredericksburg-area school divisions intend to spend the extra funding.
Fredericksburg
The City school division is receiving $1.14 million to implement ALL IN VA. It proposes to spend $399,554 in the current academic year—and the same amount next year—to carry out “high-intensity tutoring.”
Of that, $163,048 will be spent each year on tutor pay. Teachers will receive $42 per hour to provide tutoring and the same hourly rate to write lesson plans for tutoring sessions. Instructional assistants “currently employed by the school division” will be paid $28 per hour to provide tutoring, and bus drivers will receive their current rate of pay to transport students to their tutoring sessions, according to the plan.
In addition, the division proposes to spend $214,000 this year and next to contract with a third-party vendor to provide tutoring during the school day.
FCPS plans to spend $50,000 this year and next to train teachers on implementing the expanded Virginia Literacy Act and $128,317 to purchase instructional materials.
The division plans to address chronic absenteeism by spending a total of $102,000 this year and next to employ “attendance support” personnel and $4,355 this year only on incentives for students to attend school regularly.
Spotsylvania
Spotsylvania County Public Schools will receive about $8.2 million for ALL IN VA. According to its plan, it will spend about $1.2 million this year and about $1.6 million next year to pay teachers $50 per hour for tutoring. (Paraeducators and support staff will be paid $25 per hour.)
Tutoring will be provided for 54 weeks at 30 school sites. Each school will develop its own tutoring plan. The division will invest $379,522 this year on software such as Lexia, Dreambox and iReady for “tutoring support and monitoring.”
The VDOE and Youngkin recommended that school divisions use the majority of ALL IN VA funding on tutoring. Spotsylvania, however, is proposing to spend $5 million—the majority of its additional funding—in category 2, implementation of the Virginia Literacy Act, but it doesn’t propose anything specific to the requirements of the act.
Instead, the division proposes to purchase general “core and supplemental intervention materials” for grades K-8.
“We have been waiting for the VDOE-approved list to ensure we make a fiscally and academically responsible decision,” the division wrote in its plan. “Using this (ALL IN VA) funding will allow us to free up other dollars for ongoing intervention needs.”
To combat chronic absenteeism, Spotsylvania plans to spend $117,000 this year and $175,000 next year and the following to hire four attendance liaisons to support the schools.
“We will focus on home/school connection and connecting parents and families to resources, as well as daily outreach at our most impacted schools,” the division wrote.
Stafford
The division will receive $10.4 million for ALL IN VA and proposes to spend about $1.4 million this year and $2.7 million next year on tutoring. The plan is to employ at least one “school-based interventionist/tutor” at each elementary and middle school, for a total of 29, as well as a “central financial staff member to ensure compliant, efficient and accurate processing of state funding.”
To implement the Virginia Literacy Act, the division is proposing to spend $547,173 this year and $321,536 next year to hire an intervention coordinator at the elementary and middle school level and provide training to support requirements of the act. The training will include “coursework for staff to attain the reading specialist endorsement, training for staff to identify and support students with dyslexia, and local facilitation of (evidence-based literacy instruction) training” through an online-learning platform developed by Lexia.
Stafford plans to address chronic absenteeism by spending $347,720 this year, $76,680 next year and $35,000 the following year. “The plan includes expanding access to key data to provide insights into student absenteeism, discipline and instructional needs as well as tools to address those needs through providing curriculum resources to address individual student wellness,” the division wrote.
The division is also planning to spend $2.1 million to implement a staff retention initiative to ensure stability for students and $2.8 million to purchase 18 school buses. The 18 new buses will be assigned to each elementary school to support after-school tutoring.
“Without the additional buses, it would be near impossible to provide the additional tutoring after school and provide transportation for families. Our community supports the after-school tutoring and this approach,” the division wrote.
by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
