FY2023: McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Grant

Fund Code: 310

Purpose:

The purpose of these continuation federal funds is to provide funding for programs that ensure students who are homeless enroll and attend school, and have racially equitable and culturally responsive opportunities to succeed in school through the following grant program purposes:

1. Support Services: to address the basic and ongoing needs of students who are homeless;

2. School-Housing Partnership: to stabilize and re-house homeless families with school age children or unaccompanied homeless youth by partnering with a homeless/housing services provider;

3. Regional Homeless Education Liaisons: to form a network of experienced homeless liaisons that provides technical assistance, training and mentoring to other districts in collaboration with the state coordinator of homeless education and other Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) staff; and/or

4. Homeless Migrant Student Support: to collaborate with the Massachusetts Migrant Education Program (MMEP) and to provide racially equitable and culturally responsive academic support to migrant students including summer programming, English language services, tutoring, and school supplies and uniforms.

Priorities:

McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act prioritizes funds to support the education of students who are homeless through racially equitable and culturally responsive high quality programming in any or all of the following:

1. programming designed to raise awareness of the needs and rights of students who are homeless throughout the district and community;
2. tutoring, supplemental instruction, and other educational services that help students who are homeless close achievement gaps;
3. providing developmentally appropriate early childhood education programs, not otherwise provided through federal, state, or local funding for preschool children who are homeless;
4. providing services and assistance to attract, engage, and retain students who are homeless, particularly those that are not enrolled in school, in public school programs and services provided to housed students;
5. before- and after-school programs, mentoring, summer programs for children and youth who are homeless, and services/assistance to attract, engage, and retain students who are homeless in these programs;
6. collaborating with external agencies to provide students and families who are homeless with medical, dental, mental health, and other community and state services;
7. providing for the meaningful involvement of parents/guardians who are homeless in their student's education;
8. providing violence prevention counseling, referrals to counseling and/or address the needs of students who are homeless and domestic violence survivors;
9. providing supplies to non-school facilities and adapting these facilities to enable them to provide services; and
10. providing extraordinary or emergency services to eligible students as necessary to enroll and retain them in school

Funding Priority will be given to districts and schools in chronically underperforming status.

Eligibility:

All Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Fund Code (FC) 310 and FC 310-2 grantees are eligible for FY2023 funding through this Request for Proposals.

Districts who are not currently grantees may apply based on the identification of fifty (50) or more enrolled students who were homeless by April 1, 2022.

Two or more districts with a combined total of fifty (50) or more enrolled students who are homeless may apply as a consortium.

Applicant districts must include collaboration with community-based organizations committed to advancing racial equity through a local Homeless Education Service Coordination Committee or other established local committee or council addressing homelessness.

Funding Type:

Federal CFDA 84.196A

Funding:

Approximately $1,300,000 is available.

Using homeless student enrollment data for the current (2021/2022) school year submitted to DESE by April 1, 2022, districts/consortia can submit applications based on the following funding levels for each grant purpose:

1. Support Services:
   • $40,000: 2,000 or more enrolled homeless students
   • $30,000: 1,000 or more enrolled homeless students
   • $20,000: 500 or more enrolled homeless students
   • $15,000: 200 or more enrolled homeless students
   • $10,000: 50 or more enrolled homeless students
   
   
2. School-Housing Partnership:

   • The following districts are eligible to apply for continued funding of up to $75,000 per year: Boston, Chicopee, Holyoke, Lowell, North Adams, Worcester

   • Districts with three percent (3%) or more of their students experiencing homelessness are eligible to apply for up to $75,000 per year. In addition to those listed above, approximately one or two new housing partnerships will be funded.

3. Regional Homeless Education Liaisons:

   • The following districts are eligible to apply for continued funding of up to $25,000 per year to support work serving as Regional Homeless Education Liaisons (to include but not be limited to conference expenses): Framingham, Holyoke, New Bedford, North Adams, Worcester, Cape Cod Collaborative.

   • Additional districts (not listed in the prior sentence) that have a homeless education liaison/coordinator with more than three years of experience and the ability to commit 0.2 FTE (8 to 10 hours per week) may also apply for $25,000 per year. Applicant districts are encouraged to recommend racially and culturally diverse homeless liaisons. Approximately one or two new regional liaisons will be funded (in addition to the ones in the districts listed in the paragraph above).

4. Homeless Migrant Student Support:

   • Using the funding tiers below, the following districts are eligible to apply for funds to support their significant population of identified migrant students: Chelsea, Everett, Gloucester, Lynn, New Bedford, and Springfield

   • $50,000: 100 or more enrolled migrant students (Lynn, Springfield)
     $25,000: 30 or more enrolled migrant students (Chelsea, Everett, Gloucester, New Bedford)

DESE reserves the right to alter the award to each funded district.

FY2023 is the second year of the three-year grants awarded in FY2022. Subject to budget appropriation, funded applicants will be eligible for one additional continuation year under this grant — FY2024.

Fluctuations in homeless populations may necessitate a review of funding amounts in continuation years. 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:

Programs can either expand or improve services provided through a school's general academic program but cannot replace that program (supplement not supplant). To the extent practicable, activities and services are to integrate students who are homeless and students who are housed.

Districts may provide services through programs on school grounds, at other facilities, or may use funds to enter into contracts with other agencies that are committed to racial equity to provide services for children and youth who are homeless. McKinney-Vento funds may provide the same services to students who are housed to ensure that program activities integrate students who are homeless.

Grant funds cannot be used to pay for the district's Homeless Education Liaison, a position required in all school districts, unless the liaison has responsibilities in the district for students who are homeless beyond those required by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act including the work of the Regional Liaison described in Category C above

Grant funds cannot be used for food, gift cards, or rent for families or unaccompanied youth.

Grant funds cannot be used for transportation costs that are required by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Other transportation costs may not exceed 10% of the grant.

Project Duration:

Upon approval (no earlier than 9/1/2022) – 8/31/2023

Program Unit:

Student and Family Support

Contact:

Sarah Slautterback

Phone Number:

(781) 873-9522

Date Due:

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Proposals must be received at the Department by 5:00 p.m. on the date due.

Required Forms:

• Part I — General — Program Unit Signature Page — (Standard Contract Form and Application for Program Grants)

• Part II — Budget (submitted directly into EdGrants) — Template provided for drafting purposes only.

• Part III — Required Program Information

• McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Grant Assurances

• Memorandum of Understanding for the Service Coordination Committee — (with signatures, to be developed by the applicant)

• (if applicable) Memorandum of Understanding for the School-Housing Partnership — (with signatures, to be developed by the applicant)

• Schedule A (for districts applying as a consortium)

Additional Information:

1. For applicants interested in C: Regional Homeless Education Liaisons grant sub-category, please see the McKinney-Vento Regional Homeless Education Liaison Job Description for duties of the Regional Liaison position.

2. Key Grant Requirements
   Funded applicants will:
   • convene a local Homeless Education Services Coordination Committee or actively participate in an established local committee/council designed to assess the needs and assist in the provision of services to the homeless student population in the district;
   • attend grantee meetings twice a year; and
   • provide an end-of-year report — details will be provided to all grantees.

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:

FY23 FC 310 McKinney Vento Homeless Education Grants [Applicant Name]

All items listed under the required forms section of this RFP should be uploaded / attached in the Attachments List formlet of the Application Submission in EdGrants. This includes a signed / scanned PDF of Part I / Coversheet with Superintendent's signature as well as Schedule A form, if applicable to your district. The final budget the applicant is requesting will be entered directly into EdGrants as part of the application submission process.

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

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: April 26, 2022