Program Overview
In 2020, Congress set aside approximately $3 billion of the $30.75 billion allotted to the Education Stabilization Fund through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act for the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER) Fund. The Department awarded these grants to States (Governor's offices) based on a formula stipulated in the legislation: (1) 60% on the basis of the State's relative population of individuals aged 5 through 24. (2) 40% on the basis of the State's relative number of children counted under section 1124(c) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA).
The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act, 2021, was signed into law on December 27, 2020, and provided an additional $4,053,060,000 for the GEER Fund. The CRRSA Act provides that $1,303,060,000 of those funds be used to supplement the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER II Fund) awarded to each State with an approved GEER application under the CARES Act enacted on March 27, 2020.
Secretary DeVos Letter to Chief State School Officers
On July 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) published an Interim Final Rule (IFR) regarding equitable services under the CARES Act. (The rule is available at: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-07-01/pdf/2020-14224.pdf). On September 4, 2020, in NAACP v. DeVos, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an opinion and an order vacating the IFR. Accordingly, the IFR is no longer in effect.
GEER Implementation Resources
- ESSER & GEER FAQs - December 2022
- Preguntas frequentes de ESSER y GEER en español — Diciembre 2022
- GEER FAQs - 5.19.2020
GEER Award Resources
GEER I Awards
- GEER I Awards, Certifications & Agreement, and Initial Report
- GEER I Letter to Governors
- GEER I Notice
- GEER I Allocation Table
- GEER I Notice of Extension
GEER II Awards
If you have any questions, please email: GEERF@ed.gov
Report Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
Think an institution is misusing or abusing ED funds? Do not let CARES Act Funding for Schools and Students end up in the wrong hands. File a complaint online with our Inspector General (OIG) or call their Hotline.
For more information on ESF programs, visit the ESSER page, EANS page, or American Rescue Plan page.
GEER and ESSER Monitoring Reports
During the summer of 2022, the Department conducted quarterly reviews with each State, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. 1 These reviews focus on high-priority issues to elevate promising practices, identify needs for technical assistance, and monitor the implementation of ARP ESSER, specifically the requirement for local educational agencies to set aside 20 percent of their allocation for activities to address the academic impact of lost instructional time.
For more information on ESF programs, visit the ESSER page, EANS page, or American Rescue Plan page.
GEER Resources
ESSER & GEER Use of Funds FAQs
- ESSER & GEER FAQs — December 2022
- 12.21.2022 ESSER/GEER FAQs Webinar — English Recording
- 12.21.2022 ESSER/GEER FAQs Webinar — English Transcript
- 12.21.2022 ESSER/GEER FAQs Webinar — Spanish Transcript
- Preguntas frequentes de ESSER y GEER en espanol — 5.26.2021
Late Liquidation Guidance
- ESSER and GEER Late Liquidation Webinar — Recording
- ESSER and GEER Late Liquidation Webinar — Transcript
- ESSER and GEER Late Liquidation Webinar — PowerPoint
- CARES Act Liquidation Extension Requests FAQs
GEER Resources
- Pandemic Relief Programs Grant Closeout Webinar (11.19.2024)
- Davis Bacon Regulations Updates Office Hours (12.07.2023)
- SGR Grantee Learning Series: FFATA and APR Webinar (8.23.2023)
- MOEffort and MOEquity Webinar (8.16.2023)
- Grantee Learning Series — Technical Assistance, Resources, and Communications (08.09.2023)
- Grantee Learning Series — Grant Administration (07.26.2023)
- Grantee Learning Series — Monitoring (08.02.2023)
- Davis-Bacon Webinar (04.26.2023)
- Resumen de la Ley Davis-Bacon en Español — 4.27.2023
- GEER and ESSER Maintenance of Effort Update
- MOE Appendix B Template for State Internal Use
- Equitable Services FAQs
- CARES Act Late Liquidation and Closeout Webinar (03.09.2023)
- Recording — English
- Recording — Spanish
- Slides
- Transcript — English
- Transcript — Spanish
For more information on ESF programs, visit the ESSER page, EANS page, or American Rescue Plan page.
GEER FFATA Reporting
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA), Public Law 109-282, as amended by the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act), Public Law 113-101 requires that, on a monthly basis, Federal prime grant recipients report on subawards made that equal or exceed $30,000. Federal Prime recipients of ESSER I, ESSER II, ARP ESSER, GEER I, GEER II, EANS I or ARP EANS funds must comply with the FFATA reporting requirements. For more information on subaward reporting requirements see FSRS — Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Subaward Reporting System and eCFR :: 2 CFR Part 170.
FFATA Reporting Webinar and Forum (2.1.2023)
- English Recording
- Spanish Recording
- English Transcript
- Spanish Transcript
- PDF Presentation
- PowerPoint Presentation
GSA Answers Your FFATA Subaward Reporting System (FSRS) Questions (4.28.2023)
GEER Annual Reporting
All grantees are required to report on GEER funds received under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act; the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act. Grantees must submit an annual report describing how the State and subrecipients used the awarded funds during the performance period.
Similar to CARES Act Year 1 annual reporting, grantees will use the Annual Report Data Collection Tool to submit the State report. For information on account registration and when the tool will open for data entry, please visit https://covid-relief-data.ed.gov/grantee-help.
For the most up to date GEER Annual Reporting resources and collection forms, please visit: https://covid-relief-data.ed.gov/grantee-help/geer.
GEER Quarterly Reporting
The GEER I Quarterly Reporting Fact Sheet can be found here: CARES-Act-Quarterly-Reporting-FINAL-Reissued-11162020.pdf.
For more information on ESF programs, visit the ESSER page, EANS page, or American Rescue Plan page.
*This column links to, "PART C: Uses Of the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Funds," for states with extensive narratives.
**An initial report is due 45 days after the Department makes an award to a GEER grantee.
| State | Date of Award | Award Amount | Certification and Agreement | Certification and Agreement — Section C Narrative* | Initial Report** |
| Alabama | 5/29/2020 | $48,851,495 | MS Word | ||
| Alaska | 5/11/2020 | $6,503,527 | |||
| Arizona | 6/2/2020 | $69,196,325 | |||
| Arkansas | 6/2/2020 | $30,663,725 | MS Word | ||
| California | 5/12/2020 | $355,227,235 | |||
| Colorado | 5/21/2020 | $44,004,996 | |||
| Connecticut | 6/1/2020 | $27,881,682 | |||
| Delaware | 5/28/2020 | $7,916,821 | |||
| District of Columbia | 5/26/2020 | $5,807,678 | |||
| Florida | 5/28/2020 | $173,585,880 | |||
| Georgia | 6/2/2020 | $105,720,728 | |||
| Hawaii | 4/22/2020 | $9,993,387 | |||
| Idaho | 6/1/2020 | $15,676,340 | |||
| Illinois | 5/26/2020 | $108,497,757 | MS Word | ||
| Indiana | 5/21/2020 | $61,590,954 | |||
| Iowa | 6/1/2020 | $26,217,108 | |||
| Kansas | 6/1/2020 | $26,274,163 | |||
| Kentucky | 5/5/2020 | $43,799,187 | MS Word | ||
| Louisiana | 4/24/2020 | $50,276,799 | |||
| Maine | 4/24/2020 | $9,273,552 | |||
| Maryland | 4/24/2020 | $45,657,990 | |||
| Massachusetts | 5/1/2020 | $50,843,703* | |||
| Michigan | 5/19/2020 | $89,432,673 | MS Word | ||
| Minnesota | 5/20/2020 | $43,427,249 | |||
| Mississippi | 6/1/2020 | $34,662,872 | MS Word | ||
| Missouri | 5/20/2020 | $54,643,115 | PDF, | ||
| Montana | 6/1/2020 | $8,764,495* | PDF, | ||
| Nebraska | 6/1/2020 | $16,357,685 | |||
| Nevada | 5/29/2020 | $26,477,349 | PDF, | ||
| New Hampshire | 5/29/2020 | $8,891,470 | |||
| New Jersey | 5/4/2020 | $68,864,994 | PDF, MS Word | ||
| New Mexico | 5/22/2020 | $22,262,663 | |||
| New York | 5/22/2020 | $164,286,083* | MS Word, MS Word | ||
| North Carolina | 5/29/2020 | $95,638,869 | |||
| North Dakota | 6/1/2020 | $5,932,707 | MS Word, MS Word | ||
| Ohio | 6/1/2020 | $104,917,025 | |||
| Oklahoma | 5/1/2020 | $39,919,354 | MS Word, PDF, MS Word | ||
| Oregon | 6/2/2020 | $32,507,956 | MS Word | ||
| Pennsylvania | 5/15/2020 | $104,418,240 | MS Word | ||
| Puerto Rico | 3/23/2021 | $47,812,236 | |||
| Rhode Island | 5/28/2020 | $8,704,245 | |||
| South Carolina | 5/11/2020 | $48,467,924 | |||
| South Dakota | 5/28/2020 | $7,944,013 | MS Word | ||
| Tennessee | 5/28/2020 | $63,582,031 | |||
| Texas | 6/2/2020 | $307,026,008 | |||
| Utah | 5/29/2020 | $29,189,663 | |||
| Vermont | 5/6/2020 | $4,488,802 | |||
| Virginia | 6/1/2020 | $66,775,322 | MS Word XLS | ||
| Washington | 5/21/2020 | $56,769,263 | MS Word | ||
| West Virginia | 5/26/2020 | $16,353,314 | MS Word | ||
| Wisconsin | 6/1/2020 | $46,550,411 | |||
| Wyoming | 6/1/2020 | $4,700,937 |
*Due to a downward revision by a State to data that the Department used to calculate FY 2020 and FY 2019 Title I allocations, the Department revised GEER Fund allocations in 2021. The revised award amounts are shown in the table above. Grantees were given the option of accepting or rejecting additional GEER I and GEER II funding, where applicable, as a result of the adjustments. Three States – Massachusetts, Montana, and New York – chose to reject this supplemental payment for GEER I.
For more information on ESF programs, visit the ESSER page, EANS page, or American Rescue Plan page.
Program Overview
In 2020, Congress set aside approximately $3 billion of the $30.75 billion allotted to the Education Stabilization Fund through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act for the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER) Fund. The Department awarded these grants to States (Governor's offices) based on a formula stipulated in the legislation: (1) 60% on the basis of the State's relative population of individuals aged 5 through 24. (2) 40% on the basis of the State's relative number of children counted under section 1124(c) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA).
The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act, 2021, was signed into law on December 27, 2020, and provided an additional $4,053,060,000 for the GEER Fund. The CRRSA Act provides that $1,303,060,000 of those funds be used to supplement the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER II Fund) awarded to each State with an approved GEER application under the CARES Act enacted on March 27, 2020.
Secretary DeVos Letter to Chief State School Officers
On July 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) published an Interim Final Rule (IFR) regarding equitable services under the CARES Act. (The rule is available at: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-07-01/pdf/2020-14224.pdf). On September 4, 2020, in NAACP v. DeVos, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an opinion and an order vacating the IFR. Accordingly, the IFR is no longer in effect.
GEER Implementation Resources
- ESSER & GEER FAQs - December 2022
- Preguntas frequentes de ESSER y GEER en español — Diciembre 2022
- GEER FAQs - 5.19.2020
GEER Award Resources
GEER I Awards
- GEER I Awards, Certifications & Agreement, and Initial Report
- GEER I Letter to Governors
- GEER I Notice
- GEER I Allocation Table
- GEER I Notice of Extension
GEER II Awards
If you have any questions, please email: GEERF@ed.gov
Report Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
Think an institution is misusing or abusing ED funds? Do not let CARES Act Funding for Schools and Students end up in the wrong hands. File a complaint online with our Inspector General (OIG) or call their Hotline.
For more information on ESF programs, visit the ESSER page, EANS page, or American Rescue Plan page.
GEER and ESSER Monitoring Reports
During the summer of 2022, the Department conducted quarterly reviews with each State, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. 1 These reviews focus on high-priority issues to elevate promising practices, identify needs for technical assistance, and monitor the implementation of ARP ESSER, specifically the requirement for local educational agencies to set aside 20 percent of their allocation for activities to address the academic impact of lost instructional time.
For more information on ESF programs, visit the ESSER page, EANS page, or American Rescue Plan page.
GEER Resources
ESSER & GEER Use of Funds FAQs
- ESSER & GEER FAQs — December 2022
- 12.21.2022 ESSER/GEER FAQs Webinar — English Recording
- 12.21.2022 ESSER/GEER FAQs Webinar — English Transcript
- 12.21.2022 ESSER/GEER FAQs Webinar — Spanish Transcript
- Preguntas frequentes de ESSER y GEER en espanol — 5.26.2021
Late Liquidation Guidance
- ESSER and GEER Late Liquidation Webinar — Recording
- ESSER and GEER Late Liquidation Webinar — Transcript
- ESSER and GEER Late Liquidation Webinar — PowerPoint
- CARES Act Liquidation Extension Requests FAQs
GEER Resources
- Pandemic Relief Programs Grant Closeout Webinar (11.19.2024)
- Davis Bacon Regulations Updates Office Hours (12.07.2023)
- SGR Grantee Learning Series: FFATA and APR Webinar (8.23.2023)
- MOEffort and MOEquity Webinar (8.16.2023)
- Grantee Learning Series — Technical Assistance, Resources, and Communications (08.09.2023)
- Grantee Learning Series — Grant Administration (07.26.2023)
- Grantee Learning Series — Monitoring (08.02.2023)
- Davis-Bacon Webinar (04.26.2023)
- Resumen de la Ley Davis-Bacon en Español — 4.27.2023
- GEER and ESSER Maintenance of Effort Update
- MOE Appendix B Template for State Internal Use
- Equitable Services FAQs
- CARES Act Late Liquidation and Closeout Webinar (03.09.2023)
- Recording — English
- Recording — Spanish
- Slides
- Transcript — English
- Transcript — Spanish
For more information on ESF programs, visit the ESSER page, EANS page, or American Rescue Plan page.
GEER FFATA Reporting
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA), Public Law 109-282, as amended by the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act), Public Law 113-101 requires that, on a monthly basis, Federal prime grant recipients report on subawards made that equal or exceed $30,000. Federal Prime recipients of ESSER I, ESSER II, ARP ESSER, GEER I, GEER II, EANS I or ARP EANS funds must comply with the FFATA reporting requirements. For more information on subaward reporting requirements see FSRS — Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Subaward Reporting System and eCFR :: 2 CFR Part 170.
FFATA Reporting Webinar and Forum (2.1.2023)
- English Recording
- Spanish Recording
- English Transcript
- Spanish Transcript
- PDF Presentation
- PowerPoint Presentation
GSA Answers Your FFATA Subaward Reporting System (FSRS) Questions (4.28.2023)
GEER Annual Reporting
All grantees are required to report on GEER funds received under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act; the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act. Grantees must submit an annual report describing how the State and subrecipients used the awarded funds during the performance period.
Similar to CARES Act Year 1 annual reporting, grantees will use the Annual Report Data Collection Tool to submit the State report. For information on account registration and when the tool will open for data entry, please visit https://covid-relief-data.ed.gov/grantee-help.
For the most up to date GEER Annual Reporting resources and collection forms, please visit: https://covid-relief-data.ed.gov/grantee-help/geer.
GEER Quarterly Reporting
The GEER I Quarterly Reporting Fact Sheet can be found here: CARES-Act-Quarterly-Reporting-FINAL-Reissued-11162020.pdf.
For more information on ESF programs, visit the ESSER page, EANS page, or American Rescue Plan page.
*This column links to, "PART C: Uses Of the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Funds," for states with extensive narratives.
**An initial report is due 45 days after the Department makes an award to a GEER grantee.
| State | Date of Award | Award Amount | Certification and Agreement | Certification and Agreement — Section C Narrative* | Initial Report** |
| Alabama | 5/29/2020 | $48,851,495 | MS Word | ||
| Alaska | 5/11/2020 | $6,503,527 | |||
| Arizona | 6/2/2020 | $69,196,325 | |||
| Arkansas | 6/2/2020 | $30,663,725 | MS Word | ||
| California | 5/12/2020 | $355,227,235 | |||
| Colorado | 5/21/2020 | $44,004,996 | |||
| Connecticut | 6/1/2020 | $27,881,682 | |||
| Delaware | 5/28/2020 | $7,916,821 | |||
| District of Columbia | 5/26/2020 | $5,807,678 | |||
| Florida | 5/28/2020 | $173,585,880 | |||
| Georgia | 6/2/2020 | $105,720,728 | |||
| Hawaii | 4/22/2020 | $9,993,387 | |||
| Idaho | 6/1/2020 | $15,676,340 | |||
| Illinois | 5/26/2020 | $108,497,757 | MS Word | ||
| Indiana | 5/21/2020 | $61,590,954 | |||
| Iowa | 6/1/2020 | $26,217,108 | |||
| Kansas | 6/1/2020 | $26,274,163 | |||
| Kentucky | 5/5/2020 | $43,799,187 | MS Word | ||
| Louisiana | 4/24/2020 | $50,276,799 | |||
| Maine | 4/24/2020 | $9,273,552 | |||
| Maryland | 4/24/2020 | $45,657,990 | |||
| Massachusetts | 5/1/2020 | $50,843,703* | |||
| Michigan | 5/19/2020 | $89,432,673 | MS Word | ||
| Minnesota | 5/20/2020 | $43,427,249 | |||
| Mississippi | 6/1/2020 | $34,662,872 | MS Word | ||
| Missouri | 5/20/2020 | $54,643,115 | PDF, | ||
| Montana | 6/1/2020 | $8,764,495* | PDF, | ||
| Nebraska | 6/1/2020 | $16,357,685 | |||
| Nevada | 5/29/2020 | $26,477,349 | PDF, | ||
| New Hampshire | 5/29/2020 | $8,891,470 | |||
| New Jersey | 5/4/2020 | $68,864,994 | PDF, MS Word | ||
| New Mexico | 5/22/2020 | $22,262,663 | |||
| New York | 5/22/2020 | $164,286,083* | MS Word, MS Word | ||
| North Carolina | 5/29/2020 | $95,638,869 | |||
| North Dakota | 6/1/2020 | $5,932,707 | MS Word, MS Word | ||
| Ohio | 6/1/2020 | $104,917,025 | |||
| Oklahoma | 5/1/2020 | $39,919,354 | MS Word, PDF, MS Word | ||
| Oregon | 6/2/2020 | $32,507,956 | MS Word | ||
| Pennsylvania | 5/15/2020 | $104,418,240 | MS Word | ||
| Puerto Rico | 3/23/2021 | $47,812,236 | |||
| Rhode Island | 5/28/2020 | $8,704,245 | |||
| South Carolina | 5/11/2020 | $48,467,924 | |||
| South Dakota | 5/28/2020 | $7,944,013 | MS Word | ||
| Tennessee | 5/28/2020 | $63,582,031 | |||
| Texas | 6/2/2020 | $307,026,008 | |||
| Utah | 5/29/2020 | $29,189,663 | |||
| Vermont | 5/6/2020 | $4,488,802 | |||
| Virginia | 6/1/2020 | $66,775,322 | MS Word XLS | ||
| Washington | 5/21/2020 | $56,769,263 | MS Word | ||
| West Virginia | 5/26/2020 | $16,353,314 | MS Word | ||
| Wisconsin | 6/1/2020 | $46,550,411 | |||
| Wyoming | 6/1/2020 | $4,700,937 |
*Due to a downward revision by a State to data that the Department used to calculate FY 2020 and FY 2019 Title I allocations, the Department revised GEER Fund allocations in 2021. The revised award amounts are shown in the table above. Grantees were given the option of accepting or rejecting additional GEER I and GEER II funding, where applicable, as a result of the adjustments. Three States – Massachusetts, Montana, and New York – chose to reject this supplemental payment for GEER I.
For more information on ESF programs, visit the ESSER page, EANS page, or American Rescue Plan page.