For several years, federal pandemic relief funds helped school districts across the United States expand “high-impact” or “high-dosage” tutoring programs that demonstrably improved student learning. Now that the main source of that financial backing has officially expired, education leaders nationwide are scrambling to keep those critical academic interventions afloat.
Between March 2020 and March 2021, the United States Congress allocated nearly $190.5 billion to public education through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund. It stands as the largest one-time federal investment in K-12 education in American history. That funding ended in phases between 2022 and 2024, though certain select districts managed to secure temporary extensions to help bridge the financial gap.
In response to the drying up of federal dollars, some school districts have been forced to pause or significantly scale back their tutoring initiatives. Others, however, are working aggressively to save the programs by weaving them directly into their core academic systems and standard operating budgets. A 2026 analysis of 35 districts conducted by the National Student Support Accelerator (NSSA) found that eight districts had significantly reduced their tutoring programs, while another eight had experienced a temporary pause or a disruption in services after ESSER funds ended. However, 19 districts—representing more than half of the sample studied—managed to successfully preserve or even expand their tutoring programs despite the fiscal cliff.
Extensive educational research shows that high-impact tutoring, frequently referred to as high-dosage tutoring, has served as the single most powerful intervention to make up for pandemic-related learning loss. Typically, these programs occur at least three times a week, providing highly targeted instruction that coordinates directly with regular classroom work. According to the NSSA, programs featuring frequent sessions over a span of at least 10 weeks, delivered either individually or in small groups alongside data-driven instruction, can generate anywhere from three to 15 months of additional academic learning for participating students.
Despite these impressive academic gains, the financial reality remains daunting. Research from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University estimates that high-impact tutoring costs between $1,200 and $2,500 per student annually. This steep price tag makes it exceptionally difficult for many school systems to absorb the cost without the safety net of ESSER funds.
For schools that have heavily invested in these initiatives and are desperately trying to retain their long-term benefits, the primary challenge is transforming tutoring from a temporary fix into a permanent, standard fixture of the educational ecosystem. Devon Wible, vice president of teaching and learning at Catapult Learning, an organization that provides tutoring programs to schools, notes that districts across several states are increasingly viewing tutoring not as an optional add-on, but as a foundational layer of academic support.
“A few years ago, when ESSER funds were here, the conversation was, ‘Let’s see if it works,’” Wible says. “Now it’s, ‘How do we sustain this?’”
Building Tutoring Into Existing Systems
One of the primary ways districts are trying to make tutoring last is by embedding it directly into the regular school day and aligning it with existing academic-support systems. While this structural shift does not completely eliminate the cost of providing tutors, it is significantly less expensive than creating a separate, standalone extracurricular program that requires separate staffing and facility coordination.
Wible explains that some districts have added dedicated intervention periods or “WIN” (What I Need) blocks into their daily master schedules. This grants students vital time for extra academic support without pulling them away from their core classroom instruction. She points out that this integrated approach also encourages much tighter collaboration among classroom teachers, external tutors, and school intervention staff, all of whom can share real-time student data and work collectively toward common academic goals.
The tutoring itself is meticulously designed to align with daily classroom instruction. A student who is struggling with grade-level reading, for instance, might receive targeted coaching on foundational reading skills while continuing to engage with grade-level texts alongside their peers in the regular classroom. Schools utilize ongoing student data to identify precise learning needs, continuously adjust instruction, and determine the exact moment a student has made enough progress to exit the program.
“Ultimately, our shared goal is that students experience classroom instruction, intervention and tutoring as one coherent learning experience,” Wible says.
Wible has witnessed the tangible impact of this cohesive approach firsthand. A recent Catapult analysis of roughly 700 students spanning kindergarten through third grade across 12 Massachusetts school districts found that children made substantial literacy gains after receiving high-impact tutoring, with some achieving up to five additional months of reading progress.
In one particular Massachusetts district, the results were especially striking. After just 12 weeks of structured tutoring, the share of students in kindergarten and first grade performing at or above grade level jumped dramatically from 11% to 55%, according to Wible.
Protecting What Works
While some districts find innovative ways to sustain their programs, David Blazar, an associate professor of education policy at the University of Maryland, warns that an even bigger concern may be what happens to overall program quality when schools cannot find new funding sources and are forced to cut spending on tutoring.
Blazar recently co-authored a University of Maryland study examining tutoring programs across all 24 of Maryland’s school districts, analyzing how local systems are designing and scaling their interventions. The analysis revealed that 18 districts offered tutoring with several features strongly associated with effective implementation, including small-group instruction, frequent weekly sessions, and delivery during regular school hours.
Although that specific research focuses on the state of Maryland, it offers critical insight into the broader existential questions facing school districts nationwide as they attempt to sustain tutoring in a post-pandemic funding landscape. Blazar anticipates that as financial pressures mount, cash-strapped districts may consider increasing group sizes, reducing session frequencies, or turning to lower-cost, lower-quality providers rather than eliminating tutoring outright.
“The more likely change is quieter and, in some ways, more consequential: erosion of the design features that make tutoring work,” Blazar says. “When you have to find savings, dosage — and other components of quality, including how many students work with the same tutor simultaneously — are very likely to change.”
Blazar’s analysis of implementation plans under the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future from 2024 to 2027 found that Maryland districts intentionally planned to restructure their daily schedules to keep tutoring alive. Because tutoring serves as a core mandate of the state’s landmark education policy, he expects local districts in Maryland to maintain their firm commitment to the strategy.
“I think they will continue because it is a core part of the Blueprint, and there is growing consensus that tutoring is a critical resource for improving student outcomes, so it is money well spent,” Blazar notes.
For school systems everywhere attempting to stretch limited local and state dollars, the ultimate hurdle is figuring out precisely where to trim operational costs without fatally weakening the core structural features that make high-impact tutoring effective in the first place, Blazar explains.
One District’s Approach
West Feliciana Parish Schools in Louisiana provides a clear example of a district successfully identifying alternative funding sources to permanently integrate tutoring into the school day. The district had rudimentary intervention and tutoring practices in place prior to 2024, but it dramatically expanded and formalized its school-day high-dosage tutoring program during the 2024-25 school year with critical financial assistance from the state through Louisiana’s Accelerate: High-Dosage Tutoring initiative.
The district engineered a schoolwide master schedule featuring a dedicated 30- to 50-minute block each day when standard core instruction pauses. During this designated window, students are divided into skill-based groups and report either to their regular classroom teacher or a specialized interventionist for high-dosage tutoring, according to Jodi Lemoine, director of accountability at West Feliciana Parish Schools.
Students who are not receiving tutoring during that specific block remain in the classroom to work independently, utilizing educational software or reading a library book. Meanwhile, fourth and fifth-grade students received targeted online tutoring through external providers.
This strategic approach significantly expanded the reach of the district’s intervention program. Before the statewide initiative was launched, the local reading intervention program served approximately 96 students a week. Lemoine reports that that number skyrocketed to more than 430 students after a single year.
“From the get-go, our philosophy was: This is gonna require good teaching, not just programs,” Lemoine says.
The district actively monitors student progress every two to three weeks, making instructional adjustments as necessary. Lemoine points to district assessment data demonstrating clear, measurable academic gains between the fall and spring assessments of the 2025-26 school year. According to Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress data, the district recorded notable increases in overall student performance metrics.
The Louisiana Department of Education formally recognized the district as a Model of Excellence for its innovative approach to high-dosage tutoring. By December 2024, more than 45% of its K-5 students were receiving targeted tutoring—more than double the number who had received it previously. Furthermore, about 60% of participating students successfully reached the established proficiency benchmark on their targeted literacy skill by the very first progress-monitoring checkpoint.
“We have figured out a way to use the resources we have smarter,” Lemoine says. “Our high-dose tutoring program is truly an example of that: Work smarter, not harder.”
The district currently relies on a careful combination of state and local funding streams to keep the program operating smoothly, but school leadership remains deeply committed to sustaining it for the long haul. Superintendent Hollis Milton emphasizes that the district’s measurable success proves high-quality academic tutoring does not simply have to vanish the moment a particular federal funding stream dries up.
“If something’s working, you find the will, and then you’re gonna find the way,” Milton says.