U.S. Department of Education: Full-Service Community Schools
The Full-Service Community Schools (FSCS) program provides support for the planning, implementation, and operation of full-service community schools that improve the coordination, integration, accessibility, and effectiveness of services for children and families, particularly for children attending high-poverty schools, including high-poverty rural schools.
A full-service community school is a public elementary or secondary school that uses established partnerships between schools and community organizations to provide well-rounded educational opportunities and meet the social, emotional, physical and mental health, and academic needs of students. A FSCS is defined as a school that:
(a) Participates in a community-based effort to coordinate and integrate educational, developmental, family, health, and other comprehensive services through community-based partnerships; and
(b) Provides access to such services in schools to students, families, and the community, such as access during the school year (including before- and after-school hours and weekend), as well as during the summer.
Evidence-based features, or pillars that improve teaching, learning, and student outcomes include providing (1) integrated supports (e.g., social and emotional learning, access to health and nutrition services); (2) expanded and enriched learning time (e.g., after-school enrichment and summer school); (3) active family and community engagement; and (4) collaborative leadership and practices to support high-quality teaching. Evidence-based full-service community schools create and implement at least these strategies as part of a comprehensive set of strategies that are designed to reflect and be tailored to local contexts.
The FSCS program contains five absolute priorities and two competitive preference priorities. Applications must meet Absolute Priority 1 or Absolute Priority 2 and one additional absolute priority (Absolute Priority 3, Absolute Priority 4, or Absolute Priority 5).
Absolute Priorities:
Absolute Priority 1—Title IA Schoolwide Program Eligibility. Applicants must propose to serve a minimum of two or more full-service community schools eligible for a schoolwide program as part of a community- or district-wide strategy.
Absolute Priority 2—Title IA Schoolwide Program Eligibility and Rural Districts—Small and Rural or Rural and Low-Income. Applicants must propose to serve: (1) a minimum of two or more full-service community schools eligible for a schoolwide program as part of a community- or district-wide strategy; and (2) include an LEA that satisfies the requirements of the Small Rural School Achievement (SRSA) program or the Rural and Low-Income School (RLIS) program.
Absolute Priority 3—Capacity Building and Development Grants. Applicants must propose projects to (a) conduct initial development and coordination activities, including extensive community engagement, that leverage the findings of their needs assessment—which may be completed during or before the grant period—to develop the infrastructure, activities, and partnerships to implement full-service community schools in two or more schools, and (b) gather data on performance indicators.
Absolute Priority 4—Multi-Local Educational Agency Grants.Applicants must propose projects to implement and sustain full-service community schools in two or more LEAs. The project must, with the exception of LEAs that oversee a single school, coordinate and provide services at two or more full-service community schools in each LEA.
Absolute Priority 5—FSCS State Scaling Grants. Applications must include a written commitment of the SEA to participate in the partnership and to sustain the program beyond 2 years after the term of the grant. The applicant, in partnership with the SEA, determines the number and percentage of State LEAs, and the number and percentage of schools across those LEAs, that will develop, support, and expand full-service community schools over the 5-year grant performance period.
Competitive Preference Priorities:
Competitive Preference Priority 1—Meeting Student Social, Emotional, and Academic Needs. (up to 5 points)
Competitive Preference Priority 2—Strengthening Cross-Agency Coordination and Community Engagement to Advance Systemic Change. (up to 5 points)
Additionally, applicants must commit to have an independent evaluation which includes a design and implementation that assesses progress on an annual basis, uses data and findings to refine and improve activities, and collects and reports on a set of common indicators. See solicitation for minimum requirements of the evaluation.
Amount: $68,000,000 is available to make up to 40 awards with project periods of up to 60 months. Award ranges are dependent on priority areas, as follows:
* Absolute Priority 3, $275,000 to $500,000 for each 12-month budget period; $1,375,000 to $2,500,000 for the entire project period.
* Priority 4, $1,000,000 to $3,000,000 for each 12-month budget period; $5,000,000 to $15,000,000 for the entire project period.
* Absolute Priority 5, $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 for each 12-month budget period; $25,000,000 to $50,000,000 for the entire project period.
Match: An applicant shall provide matching funds through non-Federal contributions, either in cash or in-kind donations. The applicant must propose the amount of cash or in-kind resources to be contributed for each year of the grant.
Eligibility: A consortium of—
(a)(i) One or more LEAs; or (ii) The BIE; and
(b) One or more community-based organizations, nonprofit organizations, or other public or private entities.
Note: An LEA includes a public charter school that operates as an LEA.
A school may operate a schoolwide program if –
(i) The school’s LEA determines that the school serves an eligible attendance area or is a participating school under section 1113 of the ESEA; and
(ii) Except as provided under paragraph (b)(1)(iii) of this section, for the initial year of the schoolwide program – (A) The school serves a school attendance area in which not less than 40 percent of the children are from low-income families; or (B) Not less than 40 percent of the children enrolled in the school are from low-income families.
(iii) A school that does not meet the poverty percentage in paragraph (b)(1)(ii) of this section may operate a schoolwide program if the school receives a waiver from the State to do so, after taking into account how a schoolwide program will best serve the needs of the students in the school in improving academic achievement and other factors.
For more information about school wide program eligibility see: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-34/section-200.25#p-200.25(b)
Link: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=341447
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