FY2024: Emergency Management Planning Grant — Round 2

Fund Code: 0212

Purpose:

The purpose of this federally funded competitive grant program is to support schools and districts in creating and maintaining safe, healthy, and inclusive learning environments for students, faculty, and staff through the work of emergency management planning and threat assessment.

Priorities:

The main priorities for this grant are to support establishing or strengthening emergency management planning teams at the district and school levels and/or establishing and implementing threat assessment teams. Emergency management planning teams are responsible for developing and revising school/district Emergency Operations Plans (EOP's). Threat assessment teams (TAT's) convene to identify, evaluate, and address threats or potential threats to school safety and security.

Competitive priority will be given to districts and schools in chronically underperforming status.

Grants must be developed in consultation with local law enforcement, fire departments and other emergency response partners.

Eligibility:

Massachusetts public school districts (including charter schools) with an "Local Educational Agency (LEA) Need Index" above 80 are eligible to apply for funding. For the purposes of this grant program, a district's LEA Need Index equals the sum of the district's 2022 percent of high needs students, out-of-school suspension rate, and chronic absenteeism rate [missing 20 percent of days] for 2022.

Educational collaboratives may apply on behalf of one or more eligible districts.

Funding Type:

Federal CFDA 84.424

Federal grant funds must adhere to:

• UGG (2 CFR 200)
• EDGAR As Applicable
• EDGAR General Fiscal Administration 34 CFR Part 76

Funding:

Approximately $2,500,000 is expected to be available to support these grants. It is anticipated new competitive opportunities for this grant will also be offered in FY 2025 and FY 2026.

This RFP is the governing document for these grant funds

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.

Applicants may apply for up to a total of $50,000 per school district to cover both School Year (anticipated 1/3/2024 – June 30, 2024) and Summer (July and August 2024) costs. Applicants may opt to fund district and building-based EOP teams, TAT's or both.

Fund Use:

Funds may be used for stipends for EOP team and TAT leadership coordination and facilitation, planning, monthly and after-action review meetings, meeting facilitation, threat assessment team review, professional development, and other team specific related training. Funds may not be used for critical infrastructure improvement or school security equipment, systems, or technology.

Project Duration:

School Year: Upon Approval* – 6/30/2024
Summer (optional): 7/1/2024 – 9/30/2024**

* 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.

**Applicants proposing to spend a portion of their grant funds during July and August 2024 will be required to submit a separate FY2025 application in GEM$ sometime in the spring 2024. Applicants will outline anticipated summer 2024 expenditures in this application.

Program Unit:

Student and Family Support

Contact:

Anne L. Gilligan

Phone Number:

(781) 338-6309

Date Due:

Friday, January 5, 2024

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

All responses must be received by the due date listed above. Failure to do so will result in disqualification. Responses not received on time will not be reviewed. Applicants applying after the due date may be notified their application was received late and will not be reviewed. Applications must be submitted as directed in the Submissions Instructions below. Failure to do so may result in disqualification. If you need assistance with submitting your application, please reach out to the contact person listed on this funding opportunity.

Additional Information:

Program Evaluation and Professional Development
Grantees are expected to participate in professional development (e.g., conferences, webinars, and/or regional events, etc.) to be held by the Department. Professional Development details will be provided once information is confirmed. For planning purposes, applicants should estimate participating in 2–3 three-hour virtual trainings and one in-person training during the grant period. At the conclusion of the grant period, grantees will be asked to submit a program summary. Program summary details will be provided following the grant award notification.

Questions and Answers — Questions and Information Webinar: Due to the competitive nature of this grant program, all questions about the Funding Opportunity documents and process will be addressed during the Grant Information Webinar and Q & A sessions.

The Department will host an Emergency Management Planning Grant Webinar on Wednesday, December 6 from 9:30–11:00 am to walk interested applicants through the RFP and respond to questions. You must register to receive the Zoom link.

The Department will also host two 30-minute Question and Answer Sessions from 3:00–3:30 PM on Wednesday, December 13 and Tuesday, December 19, 2023 to respond to all questions. You must register at the links above and may register at any time.

Submission Instructions:

The FY2024 Fund Code 0212 Emergency Management Planning grant will be submitted in our new GEM$ system. GEM$ is a cloud-based fiscal and program management grant system through which Department grant opportunities will be submitted and processed (taking the place of EdGrants and other grants submission processes).

Interested applicants must establish a User Access Administrator in GEM$ who can assign required user roles for this opportunity. Interested applicants that need to establish a User Access Administrator (or that are unsure if one is set up for the district) can complete this form and someone from the Department will follow up.

Last Updated: July 3, 2024