FY2022: McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Grant

Fund Code: 310-2

Purpose:

The purpose of these competitive federal funds is to provide funding for programs that ensure students who are homeless enroll and attend school, and have racially equitable and culturally responsive opportunities to succeed in school through the following grant program purposes:

1. Support Services: to address the basic and ongoing needs of homeless students;

2. School-Housing Partnership: to stabilize and re-house homeless families with school age children or unaccompanied homeless youth by partnering with a homeless/housing services provider;

3. Regional Homeless Education Liaisons: to form a network of experienced homeless liaisons that provides technical assistance, training and mentoring to other districts in collaboration with the state coordinator of homeless education and other Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) staff; and/or

4. Homeless Migrant Student Support: to collaborate with the Massachusetts Migrant Education Program (MMEP) and to provide racially equitable and culturally responsive academic support of migrant students including summer programming, English language services, tutoring, and school supplies and uniforms.

Priorities:

McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act prioritizes funds to support the education of students who are homeless through racially equitable and culturally responsive high quality programming 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 close achievement gaps;
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. before- and after-school programs, mentoring, 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.

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

Eligibility:

Based on the number of identified students who are homeless during the 2019/2020 school year l Massachusetts public school districts (including charter school districts) with fifty (50) or more enrolled students who are homeless and are not currently fiscal year 2022 (FY2022) recipients of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Grant (FC310) may apply.

Two or more districts with a combined total of fifty (50) or more enrolled students who are homeless may apply as a consortium.

Applicant districts must include collaboration with community-based organizations committed to advancing racial equity through a local Homeless Education Service Coordination Committee or other established local committee or council addressing homelessness.

Funding Type:

Federal CFDA 84.196

Funding:

Approximately $500,000 is available.

Using homeless student enrollment data submitted to DESE for the 2019/2020 school year districts/consortia should submit applications based on the following funding levels for each grant purpose:

1. Support Services:
   • $40,000:   2,000 or more enrolled homeless students
   • $30,000:   1,000 or more enrolled homeless students
   • $20,000:   500 or more enrolled homeless students
   • $15,000:   200 or more enrolled homeless students
   • $10,000:   50 or more enrolled homeless students
   
   
2. School-Housing Partnership: (Up to 4 wards will be made)
   • Districts with three percent (3%) or more of their students experiencing homelessness are eligible to apply for up to $75,000 per year.
   
   
3. Regional Homeless Education Liaisons: (Up to 6 awards will be made)
   • Districts that have a homeless education liaison/coordinator with more than three years of experience and the ability to commit 0.2 FTE (8 to 10 hours per week) may apply for $25,000 per year. Applicant districts are encouraged to recommend racially and culturally diverse homeless liaisons.
   
   
4. Homeless Migrant Student Support:

   • Using the funding tiers below the following districts are eligible to apply for funds to support their significant population of identified migrant students: Chelsea, Gloucester, and New Bedford.

   • $50,000:   100 or more enrolled migrant students
   • $25,000:   30 or more enrolled migrant students (Chelsea, Gloucester, New Bedford)
   
   

DESE reserves the right to alter the award to each funded district.

Subject to budget appropriation, funded applicants will be eligible for a total of three-years of funding under this grant (FY2022 through FY2024). Fluctuations in homeless populations may necessitate a review of funding amounts in continuation years.

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 that are committed to racial equity to provide services for children and youth who are homeless. McKinney-Vento funds may provide the same services to students who are housed to ensure that program activities integrate students who are homeless.

Grant funds cannot be used to pay for the district's Homeless Education Liaison, a position required in all school districts unless the liaison has responsibilities in the district beyond those required by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.

Grant funds cannot be used for food, gift cards, or to support rent for families.

Grant funds cannot be used for transportation costs that are required by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Other transportation costs may not exceed 10% of the grant.

Project Duration:

Upon approval* – 8/31/2022
*likely mid- to late-November

Program Unit:

Student and Family Support

Contact:

Sarah Slautterback

Phone Number:

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

Date Due:

Thursday, November 4, 2021

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

Required Forms:

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

• Part II — Budget Detail Pages (Include both pages.)

• Part III — Required Program Information

• McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Activity Form

• McKinney-Vento Budget Narrative

• McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Grant Assurances

• Memorandum of Understanding for the Service Coordination Committee — (with signatures, to be developed by the applicant)

• Memorandum of Understanding for the School-Housing Partnership — (with signatures, to be developed by the applicant)

• Schedule A (for districts applying as a consortium)

Additional Information:

For applicants interested in C: Regional Homeless Education Liaisons grant sub-category, please see the McKinney-Vento Regional Homeless Education Liaison Job Description for duties of the Regional Liaison position.

Key Grant Requirements
Funded applicants will:

• convene a local Homeless Education Services Coordination Committee or actively participate in an established local committee/council designed to assess the needs and assist in the provision of services to the homeless student population in the district;
• attend grantee meetings twice a year; and
• provide an end-of-year report.

Submission Instructions:

Email one (1) complete set of all required documents to sarah.e.slautterback@mass.gov no later than 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 4, 2021.

Awarded Recipients: Upon award, recipients will be required to enter the approved budget and Part I and required documents in EdGrants. Once selected, recipients will be contacted with further instructions on the process.

Last Updated: September 30, 2021