May 19, 2020 -- The United States Department of Education (Department) has posted its notice inviting applications for grants to Charter School Developers for the Opening of New Charter Schools and for the Replication and Expansion of High-Quality Charter Schools on the Department website. The application deadline is Friday, June 19, 2020 at 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time.
The NIA will be published in the Federal Register by Thursday, May 21,2020. a preview of the NIA can be found here. For more information about this grant competition please visit the Department website or contact the CSP team at charterschools@ed.gov.
This notice invites applications from eligible applicants. Eligible applicants are developers that have applied to an authorized public chartering authority to operate a charter school and provided adequate and timely notice to that authority. (Section 4310(6) of the ESEA). Additionally, the charter school must be located in a State with a State statute specifically authorizing the establishment of charter schools (section 4310(2) of the ESEA) and in which a State entity currently does not have a CSP State Entity grant (CFDA number 84.282A) under section 4303 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). (Section 4305(a)(2) of the ESEA).
Applicants are encouraged to notify the Department of their intent to submit an application for funding by sending an email to charterschools@ed.gov with ‘FY 2020 CSP Developer Intent to Apply’ in the subject line, by Monday June 1, 2020.
As a general matter, the Secretary considers charter schools that have been in operation for more than five years to be past the initial implementation phase and, therefore, ineligible to receive CSP funds under CFDA number 84.282B to support the opening of a new charter school or under CFDA number 84.282E for the replication of a high-quality charter school; however, such schools may receive CSP funds under CFDA number 84.282E for the expansion of a high-quality charter school.
If an applicant has applied to an authorized public chartering agency to operate a new school and has not yet been approved, it should include information in its application addressing the plan and timeline to receive notification from the authorizer on the final decision. Additionally, an applicant should delineate any costs in its proposed budget that are projected to be incurred prior to the date the applicant’s charter school application is approved by the authorized public chartering agency.
Please see the NIA and the Developer CSP website for complete eligibility information.
The "FY20 Developer (84.282B/E) Pre-application Webinar", will be held on Tuesday, May 26, 2020 at 2:00 p.m., Eastern Time. Individuals interested in attending this meeting are encouraged to register to attend this meeting, by emailing charterschools@ed.gov.
For eligible applicants considering applying, we encourage you to register as soon as possible on Grants.gov. In order to complete your Grants.gov registration and submit an application, you must have an active SAM (the System for Award Management) (https://www.sam.gov/) registration that is updated annually. Please note, SAM registration could take upwards of several weeks to be fully processed. Once your SAM registration is active, it will take 24-48 hours for the information to be available in Grants.gov before you can submit an application through Grants.gov. For detailed information on all Grants.gov registration steps, please go to: http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/register.html.
Primary information about SAM is available at https://www.sam.gov/. However, to further assist you with obtaining and registering your DUNS number and TIN in SAM or updating your existing SAM account, the Department has prepared a SAM.gov Tip Sheet which you can find at: http://www2.ed.gov/fund/grant/apply/sam-faqs.html.
For more information about this competition, please contact Leslie Hankerson, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20202-5970. Telephone: (202) 205-8524 or by email: leslie.hankerson@ed.gov; or charterschools@ed.gov.
More information about CSP's FY 2020 grant notices is available here.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) or a text telephone (TTY), call the Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 1-800-877-8339.