FY2025: Massachusetts 21^st Century Community Learning Centers Enhanced Programs for Students on IEPs

Fund Code: 0245

Purpose:

In collaboration with the Office of Special Education Policy and Planning the purpose of this federally funded targeted grant program is to enhance the capacity of funded 21^st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) out-of-school time (OST) programs to provide the supports needed to ensure students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) have meaningful access and are fully included in all aspects of programming.

Priorities:

The main priorities of this enhancement grant are to:

• support the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's (Department's or DESE's) Educational Vision to advance equitable learning opportunities and re-envision learning experiences for students across the Commonwealth;

• meaningfully engage students with IEPs into academically enriching programming that contributes to closing the opportunity and achievement gaps between students with disabilities and their age-appropriate non-disabled peers;

• increase effective and efficient collaboration between general educators, special educators, related service providers, families, and students;

• support teachers to know how to respond to the needs of students with disabilities and use that knowledge to proactively work with students across the school day; and

• support families of students with disabilities to understand how their student learns and interacts with the life of the school.

Eligibility:

School districts/organizations that are recipients of a Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Fund Code (FC) 0645 21CCLC Continuation Grant and/or FC 0646 Exemplary Programs Grant, and have met compliance and program requirements.

Applicants are limited to applying for a maximum of 3 school/sites.

Funding Type:

Federal CFDA: 84.027

Federal grant funds must adhere to:

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

Funding:

A total of approximately $400,000 is available for these grants.

The maximum grant award per site is $10,000 for school year programming.

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.

Fund Use:

Funds must be used to support the full inclusion of students with IEPs into currently funded 21^st CCLC OST programs.

Allowable expenses include:

• Special Education instructional and related services staff
• Stipends for health care, mental health, special education instructional assistants and/or other qualified support staff;
• Stipends for additional planning time as it relates to inclusion efforts;
• Professional development, technical assistance and/or consultation services (e.g., proper use of adaptive equipment, language instruction for students on IEPs, creating an inclusive environment, etc.); and
• Program or adaptive materials. These materials must be specific to the efforts to fully include students with IEPs.

Funds for materials and supplies, which are limited to 10% of the total budget, may only be budgeted if you are able to demonstrate they are related to supporting students with IEPs. A justification for the expense must be included.

• These funds cannot be used to transport students with IEPs to or from the 21^st CCLC OST program during the school year. These funds may be used to provide specialized transportation for the purpose of including students with IEPs served by these grant funds on field trips.

• Indirect costs are not allowed under this grant.

Project Duration:

Upon Approval* – 6/30/25

*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:

Karyl Resnick

Phone Number:

(781) 338-3515

Date Due:

Friday December 20, 2024

Proposals must be received at the Department by 5:00 p.m. Eastern 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.

Required Forms:

All required program information and forms will be submitted in DESE's Grants for Education Management System (GEM$). See Submission Instructions for details.

Additional Information:

Districts/Schools must designate a special education liaison to the 21^st CCLC program to ensure that students on an IEP have full access to the program.

Recipients will be required to utilize the Survey of Academic and Youth Outcomes (SAYO) for all students served by these funds. Any accommodations or modifications to the SAYO administration for students with IEPs should be described in the written evaluation.

Recipients will be required to complete and submit student data forms for all programs and services funded by this grant.

Any specialized materials and/or equipment, including augmentative and alternative communication aids or devices or other assistive technology purchased with these funds are for the sole purpose of use during the 21^st CCLC program and only for the students with IEPs.

GEM$ Submission Instructions:

The FY25 FC 0245 Massachusetts 21st Century Community Learning Centers Enhanced Programs for Students on IEPs will be submitted in our new GEM$ system. GEM$ is a cloud-based fiscal and program management grant system that will eventually phase out the use of EdGrants.

Grants for Education Management System (GEM$)

Please Note: Grant Submission at the LEA level requires roles to be established for Grant writer for the specific fund code, LEA fiscal for financial review/approval, and Superintendent/Chief Executive sign off. All these roles should be established prior to the grant due date and all appropriate forms should be either uploaded to GEM$, maintained at the LEA level or sent in to the DESE RFP contact as described on the individual forms. The user guidance documents and forms are found on the GEM$ homepage under DESE Resources. These forms can be accessed without logging in to the system.

Last Updated: November 19, 2024