FY2020: Title III: English Language Acquisition and Academic Achievement Program for English Learners and Immigrant Children and Youth

Fund Code: 186

Purpose:

Title III of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides supplemental resources to local school districts to help ensure that English learners (ELs) and immigrant children and youth attain English proficiency and develop high levels of academic achievement in English, assist teachers and administrators to enhance their capacity to provide effective instructional programs designed to prepare ELs and immigrant children and youth to enter all-English instructional settings, and promote parental, family, and community participation in language instruction educational programs for parents, families, and communities.

Priorities:

The priorities of Title III Immigrant Grant are to provide enhanced instructional opportunities for immigrant children and youth that it serves. This includes:

• Family literacy, parent and family outreach, and training activities designed to assist parents and families to become active participants in the education of their children;
• Recruitment of and support for personnel, including teachers and paraprofessionals who have been specifically trained, or are being trained, to provide services to immigrant children and youth;
• Provision of tutorials, mentoring, and academic or career counseling for immigrant children and youth;
• Identification, development, and acquisition of curricular materials, educational software, and technologies to be used in the program;
• Basic instruction services that are directly attributable to the presence of immigrant children and youth in the LEA, including the payment of costs of providing additional classroom supplies, costs of transportation, or such other costs as are directly attributable to such additional basic instruction services;
• Other instruction services that are designed to assist immigrant children and youth to achieve in elementary and secondary schools in the U.S., such as programs of introduction to the educational system and civics education; and
• Activities, coordinated with community-based organizations, institutions of higher education, private sector entities, or other entities with expertise in working with immigrants, to assist parents and families of immigrant children and youth by offering comprehensive community services.

In addition to the above priorities, the Title III program supports Massachusetts' goals and strategies (listed below) for increasing student achievement by enhancing grant recipients' capacity to increase students' English language proficiency and academic achievement.

State Goal, Core Strategies, and ESSA Priorities

The goal of Massachusetts' public K–12 education system is to prepare all students for success after high school. Our five core strategies to accelerate the pace of school improvement are:

1. Strengthening standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessment
2. Promoting educator development
3. Supporting social-emotional learning, health, and safety
4. Turning around the state's lowest performing districts and schools
5. Enhancing resource allocation and data use

Additionally, Massachusetts has identified four priority focus areas under its plan for implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act:

• Early grades literacy
• Middle grades math
• High-quality college and career pathways for high school students
• Supporting historically disadvantaged subgroups of students

ESEA requires states and districts to implement "evidence-based" practices, activities, strategies and interventions with demonstrated evidence of effectiveness. Evidence-based practices refer to interventions for which there is evidence of significant positive impact that may be found in published research papers, literature reviews, or Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) research briefs. Alternately, evidence-based practices can be those local practices that a district or state has previously instituted, measured, and found to be effective.

See link to "Title III — Required and Authorized Activities" under "Additional Information" below for required and authorized activities for Title III subgrants.

Eligibility:

Funds will be awarded to eligible districts that have met the following criteria:

• 300 or more immigrant students in the district
• The district's percentage of immigrant students who are economically disadvantaged needed to exceed the overall statewide percentage of economically disadvantaged students
• The number of immigrant students enrolled in school year 2020 must be at least 20 more than the average of the prior two years
• The percentage of immigrant students enrolled in school year 2020 must be at least 2.5% higher than the average of the prior two years.

Please note: ESSA defines "immigrant children or youth student" as a student who is aged 3–21, who was not born in the United States of America, and who is in his/her first three years of schooling in the United States. (For making this determination, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are considered states.) A student can be designated as both immigrant and EL for three years. After three years the student can still be designated EL, if they meet EL eligibility criteria, but can no longer be designated as an immigrant student.

See the FY20 List of Eligible School Districts under "Additional Information" below.

Funding Type:

Federal funding CFDA# 84.365

Funding:

An estimated $1,188,325 will be available for immigrant subgrants to eligible entities. The grants will be awarded using a formula based on number of immigrant students reported in October SIMS (see "Eligibility" above) and the number of districts eligible to apply.

Funding is contingent upon availability. All dollar amounts listed are estimated/approximate and are subject to change. If more funding becomes available it will be distributed under the same guidelines that appear in this RFP document.

Fund Use:

Title III Immigrant children and Youth formula subgrants are to be used to fund supplemental instruction for immigrant children and youth, professional development for teachers and administrators of immigrant children and youth, and immigrant children and youth family and parent engagement. Required and authorized activities can be found in the "Additional Information" section below. Title III funds must be used to supplement the level of local, state, and federal funds that, in the absence of Title III funds, would otherwise be expended for programs for EL and immigrant children and youth and in no case supplant such federal, state, and local funds. There is a maximum 2% cap on direct administrative costs, and suggested maximum 20% for supplies and materials, and 15% for travel.

Note: Applicants may only legally claim expenses to the grant starting from the date of final DESE approval. The start date for the grant is the date on which the district submits substantially approvable budget and information for the grant.

Project Duration:

Upon approval — 6/30/2020 (Year 1)*
*The period of availability for this grant award can be extended beyond Year 1 based on utilizing the multi-year feature for this Funding Opportunity in EdGrants. Extended period as follows: 7/1/2020–6/30/2021 (Year 2); 7/1/2021–9/30/2021 (Year 3)

Program Unit:

Resource Allocation Strategy and Planning

Contact:

Federal Grants

Phone Number:

(781) 338-6230

Date Due:

Monday, March 16, 2020

Required Forms:

FY20 Fund Code 186 Immigrant Children & Youth Application workbook

**Please see Submission Instructions below.

Additional Information:

Required and Authorized Activities

List of Eligible School Districts

Title III, Part A Quick Reference Guide on allowable and unallowable costs

Submission Instructions:

Submit all required grant materials through EdGrants. In EdGrants, districts are required to create and name the project. Please use the following naming convention for your "Applicant Project Name" in EdGrants:

FY20 FC186 Title III Applicant Number
For example, Boston (0035) would name the file as, FY20 FC186 Title III 0035

In EdGrants, district staff assigned the role of "control user" enter the Title III FC186 budget and attach a PDF of the Signature Page with an original signature of the Superintendent/Executive Director and a Schedule A form if it's applicable.

Upload the entire FY20 FC186 Title III, Part A Immigrant Children and Workbook to EdGrants: This included the Signed Signature Page, Workbook, which includes the Contact Information, Private School Services, Narrative, and Budget tabs.

For additional submission instructions, see the "Read Me First" tab of the FY20 Consolidated Addendum for Title III, Part A, Immigrant Children and Youth (Fund Code 186) Application workbook.

For Guidance Documents regarding EdGrants, visit EdGrants: User Guides and Information.

Please note: It is up to the district to determine who they want to add as EdGrants Front Office users in order to submit grant application as well as payment request information. Please review the EdGrants: User Security Controls to make informed decisions regarding assigning your district level users.

Last Updated: February 14, 2020