FY2023: Homeless Emergency Support

Fund Code: 344

Purpose:

The goal of this targeted Homeless Emergency Support grant is to provide funding for programs that ensure students who are homeless enroll in and attend school, and have racially equitable and culturally responsive opportunities to succeed in school through the following grant program purposes:

1. To address the immediate basic needs of students who are homeless;
2. To ensure students who are homeless have access to the educational programming, services, and opportunities they need;
3. To support districts in locating and identifying students who are homeless; and
4. To ensure district staff are trained and have the capacity to support students who are homeless.

Priorities:

This grant program prioritizes funds to support the education of students who are homeless through culturally responsive, high-quality programming that advance equity, including racial equity, 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 maximize achievement;
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. providing before- and after-school programs, mentoring, and/or 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.

Eligibility:

Any local educational agency in which a new emergency assistance family shelter (or hotel used as a shelter) is opened by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) during the 2022-2023 school year may apply.

Funding Type:

Federal CFDA 84.425

Funding:

Approximately $1,500,000 is currently available.

Districts experiencing the impact of newly opened DHCD emergency assistance family shelters can submit an application for an amount based the number of identified students who were placed in those shelters during the 2022-2023 school year multiplied by $1,000.

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 to provide services for children and youth who are homeless. ARP Emergency Support funds may provide the same services to students who are housed to ensure that program activities integrate students who are homeless.

Funds may be used to support any activities/expenses necessary to facilitate the identification, enrollment, retention, and educational success of homeless children and youth, such as:

1. providing wraparound services (which could be provided in collaboration with and/or through contracts with community-based organizations, and could include academic supports, trauma informed care, social-emotional support, and mental health services);
2. purchasing needed supplies (e.g., PPE, eyeglasses, school supplies, personal care items);
3. providing transportation to enable children and youth to attend classes and participate fully in school activities;
4. purchasing cell phones or other technological devices for unaccompanied youth to enable the youth to attend and fully participate in school activities;
5. providing access to reliable, high-speed internet for students through the purchase of internet connected devices/equipment, mobile hotspots, wireless service plans, or installation of Community Wi-Fi Hotspots (e.g., at homeless shelters), especially in underserved communities; and
6. providing store cards/prepaid debit cards to purchase materials necessary for students to participate in school activities

Project Duration:

Upon Approval* – 08/31/2023

* Grant start date cannot be prior to DESE receiving a substantially approvable Application Submission as directed in this RFP's Submission Instructions. Goods and Services cannot be procured prior to Grants receiving and approving an application submission. Funds cannot exceed the project duration end date.

Program Unit:

Student and Family Support

Contact:

Sarah Slautterback

Phone Number:

(781) 338-6330 or (781) 873-9522

Date Due:

Rolling but no later than Wednesday March 1, 2023

Required Forms:

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

• Part II — Budget — Entered directly into EdGrants (template for drafting purposes only)

• Part III — Required Program Information (including budget narrative)

• ARP-HCY II Grant Assurances

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 344 ARP-ES 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. 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: December 1, 2022