Before Funding Runs Out – Renovate Your School Restrooms with ESSER Funds

The pandemic emergency may be over, but much of the U.S. government funding authorized during the pandemic is still available. In fact, the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund still has more than $100 billion to distribute to K-12 schools.

Restroom upgrades are eligible for these funds—and there’s a good chance that your school can qualify.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the ESSER funding available and what you have to do to apply it to your school’s restroom renovations.

What is ESSER Funding, and What Does it Cover?

The ESSER fund is a federal grant program created in 2020 to help school districts recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic emergency may be over, more than half of ESSER funding was never claimed, and much of it is still available to help schools make improvements through the end of 2024.

These funds are intended for school improvements in many areas1, including:

• Purchasing educational technology
• Providing mental health services and support
• Improving indoor air quality
• Addressing the needs of children from low-income families, children with disabilities, and others
• Purchasing supplies to sanitize and clean facilities
• Repairing and improving facilities to reduce risk of virus transmission and exposure to environmental health hazards

Many of the investments at the top of the list addressed challenges that were most acute during COVID-19 restrictions in 2020. But for today and the future, the last two applications serve as investments for ongoing disease-prevention needs—which can be addressed effectively via restroom renovations.

What Kinds of Restroom Upgrades Qualify for ESSER Funding?

Because hand hygiene is essential to stopping disease transmission, ESSER funding is often used to install touch-free restroom fixtures and/or replace older, manual fixtures with touchless alternatives.

Replacing manual fixtures with touch-free, sensor-operated products lowers the risk of spreading disease simply because they allow people to touch fewer surfaces when using the restroom. And the fewer surfaces they touch, the less likely they are to get germs on their hands that can spread disease to others.

Hand hygiene remains important to schools even beyond COVID-19. In the United States, 22 million school days are lost annually due to the common cold, and 38 million days lost to the flu2. When students, teachers, and school staff touch fewer restroom surfaces, viruses simply have less opportunity to spread.

Sloan is the leading source of touch-free commercial restroom products, including:

• Sensor flushometers
• Retrofit flushometer kits
• Sensor faucets
• Hands-free soap dispensers
• Touchless hand dryers
• Mobile Handwashing Stations

Hundreds of schools nationwide have purchased and installed these and other Sloan products with ESSER funds.

How Can School Districts Apply for ESSER Funding?

Under ESSER guidelines, your Local Educational Agency—usually a public board of education—would apply for and administer the funds.

The first step is to develop a list of needs with estimated budgets. You’ll also need to prepare a site audit to document your priorities. Your local Sloan rep can help with this crucial step.

For more complete information on the application process, visit Sloan’s comprehensive guide to Coronavirus Relief Stimulus Funding. You’ll find numerous resources to explore—program details, webinars, downloadable guides, and helpful links.

The most important thing to know? The deadlines.

• September 30, 2023. $23 billion is still available for 2023 renovations, if you have a small-scale project in mind that can be completed by the end of the year.
• September 30, 2024. More than $100 billion is available for projects completed by the end of 2024. No further ESSER funding will be awarded after this deadline.

ESSER funding represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take advantage of federal money to upgrade your school district’s restrooms.

Want to take advantage of these government grants to make your restrooms more hygienic? Need recommendations regarding the best options for your facilities? Contact Sloan!

1—U.S. Department of Education fact sheet: American Rescue Plan Act of 2021
2—Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology