FY2024: Homeless Emergency Support

Fund Codes: 344/349/355

Purpose:

The goal of this targeted Homeless Emergency Support grant is to provide funding for programs that ensure students who are homeless enroll in and attend school, and have racially equitable and culturally responsive opportunities to succeed in school through the following grant program purposes:

1. To address the immediate basic needs of students who are homeless;
2. To ensure students who are homeless have access to the educational programming, services, and opportunities they need;
3. To support districts in locating and identifying students who are homeless; and
4. To ensure district staff are trained and have the capacity to support students who are homeless.

Priorities:

This grant program prioritizes funds to support the education of students who are homeless through culturally responsive, high-quality programming that advances equity, including racial equity, in any or all of the following areas:

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 maximize achievement;
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 not currently enrolled in school), in public school programs and services provided to housed students;
5. providing before- and after-school programs, mentoring, and/or 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.

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

Eligibility:

Any local educational agency in which a new emergency assistance family shelter (or hotel used as a shelter) is/was opened by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (HLC), formerly DHCD during the 2023-2024 or 2022-2023 school year may apply.

Funding Source:

Fund Code 344: Federal CFDA 84.425
Fund Code 349: Federal CFDA 84.425 ESSER — Federal Coronavirus Relief Programs — Federal Grant Programs

Federal grant funds must adhere to:

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

Fund Code 355: State Line Item 1599-0924

Funding:

Approximately $3,300,000 is currently available..

[Updated 11-9-2023] Districts in which HLC has opened a new emergency assistance family shelter (or hotel used as a shelter) may submit an application for an amount based the number of students who were placed in those shelters and that have enrolled in the district during the 2022-2023 or 2023-2024 school year multiplied by $1,000. Districts in which a new HLC emergency assistance family shelter opened in 2022-2023 may apply for only those students that remain enrolled in the district this year, and for whom they did not receive FY23 FC 344 funding.

[Updated 1-23-2024] Additional funds added will support eligible districts that:

• did not yet receive the full amount for which they are eligible based on $1,000/eligible student enrolled, including newly enrolled eligible students since their original application, and

• are hosting consolidated shelter expansion sites and students moving into these new shelter sites and enrolling locally in the district in which the shelter is located.

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:

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 to provide services for children and youth who are homeless. These ARP Emergency Support funds may also be used to provide the same services to students who are housed to ensure that program activities integrate students who are homeless.

Funds may be used to support any activities/expenses necessary to facilitate the identification, enrollment, retention, and educational success of homeless children and youth, such as:

1. providing wraparound services (which could be provided in collaboration with and/or through contracts with community-based organizations, and could include academic supports, trauma informed care, social-emotional support, and mental health services);
2. purchasing needed supplies (e.g., PPE, eyeglasses, school supplies, personal care items);
3. providing transportation to enable children and youth to attend classes and participate fully in school activities;
4. purchasing cell phones or other technological devices for unaccompanied youth to enable the youth to attend and fully participate in school activities;
5. providing access to reliable, high-speed internet for students through the purchase of internet connected devices/equipment, mobile hotspots, wireless service plans, or installation of Community Wi-Fi Hotspots (e.g., at homeless shelters), especially in underserved communities; and
6. providing store cards/prepaid debit cards to purchase materials necessary for students to participate in school activities.

**Funds may be used to cover expenses incurred to support students placed in eligible shelter expansion sites prior to the grant submission date.**

Project Duration:

Upon Approval – 6/30/2024

Program Unit:

Student and Family Support

Contact:

Shirley Fan-Chan

Phone Number:

(781) 338-6310

Date Due:

Rolling but no later than Friday, March 8, 2024*

*Due date extended to February 26^th on 1/23/2024

*Due date extended to March 8^th on 2/20/2024

Required Forms:

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

• Part II — Budget — Entered directly into EdGrants (template for drafting purposes only)

• Part III — Required Program Information (including budget narrative)

• ARP-HCY II Grant Assurances

Submission Instructions:

Submit all required grant materials through EdGrants.

In EdGrants, districts are required to create and name the project. Please use one of the following naming convention for your "Applicant Project Name" in EdGrants:

FY24 344 ARP-ES NAME (Applicant Name)
FY24 349 ARP-ES NAME (Applicant Name)**
FY24 355 ARP-ES NAME (Applicant Name)**

**DESE will confirm the fund code and allocation amount upon receipt of a list of students currently enrolled in the district that are placed in the emergency expansion site in the district.

All items listed under the required forms section of this RFP should be uploaded / attached in the Attachments List formlet of the Application Submission in EdGrants. This includes a signed / scanned PDF of Part I / Coversheet with Superintendent's signature as well as Schedule A form, if applicable to your district. The final budget the applicant is requesting will be entered directly into EdGrants as part of the application submission process.

For Guidance Documents regarding EdGrants, visit EdGrants: User Guides, Information and Trainings.

Please note: It is up to the district to determine who they want to add as EdGrants Front Office users in order to submit grant application as well as payment request information. Please review the EdGrants: User Security Controls to make informed decisions regarding assigning your district level users.

Last Updated: March 20, 2024