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Federal Grant Opportunity for Washington Public Charter School Developers

Jun 25, 2013 | Blog

The U.S. Department of Education Office of Innovation and Improvement recently announced that public charter school developers located in Washington state are eligible to apply for federal start-up funds. The deadline to apply is July 12 at 4:30 p.m. EST, 1:30 p.m. PST.

This is a significant opportunity for Washington’s public charter school developers to tap into critically important start-up funding.

Initially, Washington’s developers didn’t think they would be eligible to apply.

The grant [official name is Non-SEA Planning, Program Design, and Implementation (84.282B) grant] requires charter developers to have applied to an authorized public chartering entity by the July grant application deadline. In Washington, public charter schools will not begin applying to authorizers until September 12, 2013, well after the July 12 grant deadline.

In order to accommodate Washington’s authorizing timeline and still allow Washington public charter school developers to apply, staff from the Office of Innovation and Improvement issued this statement late last week:

In order for Washington developers to apply, each applicant must request, in the body of their application, to waive Section 5203(d)(3) of the ESEA, which requires each “eligible applicant” to provide its authorized public chartering authority with adequate and timely notice, and a copy, of its public charter school application. The waiver request must be accompanied by a description of the potential authorizers, and a timeline for the charter application process.

According to grant guidelines, successful grant applications must describe how the school will improve the achievement and high school graduation rates in high-poverty schools. Serving rural students, ELL students, and special education students is of particular interest, as well as promoting racial diversity and supporting military families. Parent involvement is also an important component.

To learn more, check out additional information for applicants, the Federal register announcement  and the grant application  (NOTE: Applications must be submitted online.)

How to get started:
Before developers submit a grant application, these registration steps, which may take five or more business days, must be complete:

  1. Register  online through the Grants.gov system.
  2. Obtain a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number.
  3.  Obtain a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) as either an individual or an organization.
  4. Register your DUNS number and your TIN in the System for Award management.