U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten will continue the "ARPStars" tour in Washington state this week, April 19-21, to highlight ways schools are using American Rescue Plan (ARP) investments to support K-12 students’ recovery from the pandemic. She will visit Bellingham Public Schools and the Sedro-Woolley School District on Tuesday, April 19.

Tuesday morning, Deputy Secretary Marten will visit classrooms at Alderwood Elementary School—a new school that just opened and serves one of the highest needs and most diverse parts of their community—to see how they are using ARP funds to address students’ needs.

Following the elementary school visit, the Deputy Secretary will visit Options High School. Options High School is a recently built state-of-the-art school that has wrap-around services including a childcare program for students and staff as well as an aerospace manufacturing program.

On Tuesday afternoon, Deputy Secretary Marten will travel to the Sedro-Woolley School District, Mary Purcell Elementary School to visit early-learning classrooms and hold roundtable discussions with teachers and principals.

These visits are part of Deputy Secretary Marten’s “ARPStars” tour to highlight the use of ARP funds in school districts across the country. Since President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law one year ago, which included $130 billion to support recovery efforts at K-12 schools, more than 99% of elementary and secondary school students have returned to classrooms for in-person learning.

Additional stops on the Deputy Secretary’s tour of Washington will be announced later this week.

Press interested in covering each event can RSVP to Press@ed.gov