CFDA#
None
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Funder Type
State Government
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IT Classification
B - Readily funds technology as part of an award
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Authority
California Department of Education (CDE)
Summary
The Federal Public Charter Schools Grant Program (PCSGP) is a discretionary grant program administered by the Charter Schools Division. Grant applications are reviewed by peer evaluators and are awarded to nonprofit entities and local educational agencies to assist in the development of new high quality charter schools. The primary focus of the PCSGP is to create high quality charter schools that will provide public school choice to students.
Funding Priority
Due to the highly competitive nature of the 2020–23 PCSGP sub-grant application, additional preference points will be awarded to eligible applicants who demonstrate the following:
- The applicant school site will be located in an area defined as rural county AND in a Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ). Rural counties have populations below 65,000 based on the 2010 United States Census. The 2020–2023 Charter School Program established preference priorities to spur investment in QOZs (One point) (https://www.ca-ilg.org/post/where-are-californias-opportunity-zones).
- The applicant provides a signed facility agreement with the PCSGP application (One point).
- The applicant proposed opening a new charter high school (One point).
- The applicant school site will be located in a district or county with less than 10 publicly funded charter schools (One point).
- Expansion Sub-grant Applicants only – the high-quality school site to be expanded is located in a densely populated urban QOZ (One point).
These preferences are in alignment with the approved 2020–23 CA CSP award priorities preferences. There may not be sufficient funding to serve all eligible applicants. Therefore, this application process is highly competitive. CDE staff will complete an eligibility screening for all applications including a review of the approved charter petition, level of autonomy, and the lottery preferences. Applications deemed eligible will be moved on to the peer review process for scoring. An application that receives a "1" in any required element will not be considered for funding. Preference points will not be added to any application receiving a score of 1” in any required element.
History of Funding
Previous grantees can be viewed at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fo/r1/pcsgppire21result.asp.
Additional Information
Autonomy is a requirement of the PCSGP; therefore, all of the following conditions must be met:
- The charter school must be highly autonomous: Under the ED the CSP program defines a highly autonomous charter school as one that exhibits a high degree of autonomy in governance, operations, staffing, and financial decisions. PCSGP applicants must demonstrate a high degree of autonomy in the application.
- Reviewers use specific criteria to assess each charter school's degree of autonomy. These criteria include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Governance Structure (i.e., governing board or entity as described in the school's approved charter):
- Is elected or appointed independently of the chartering authority.
- Includes less than a majority of the current employees or appointees of the chartering authority.
- Operates as and/or is operated by a nonprofit public benefit corporation.
- Operations: The charter school governing board or entity as described in the school's approved charter maintains control over a majority of its operations (i.e., professional development, school year calendar, disciplinary policies and procedures, curriculum, graduation requirements, etc.).
- Staffing:
- Teachers and staff are employees of the charter school.
- Charter school retains a majority of decision-making authority over all hiring, dismissal, work rules, employee assignment, and other personnel decisions and actions.
- The charter school governing board or entity as described in the school's approved charter has adopted its own employment policies and procedures.
- Financial Decisions: The charter school governing board or entity as described in the school's approved charter exhibits control over the development and adoption of the charter school's budget, the receipt and expenditure of funds, business management (back-office”) services, audit services, purchasing and contracting decisions, and other financial matters in general.
- Includes less than a majority of the current employees or appointees of the chartering authority.
- Operates as and/or is operated by a nonprofit public benefit corporation.
Eligibility Details
Eligible applicants are Local educational agencies, nonprofit organizations serving grades K-12.
A newly established or conversion classroom-based charter school may be eligible for a Planning, Implementation, or Replication sub-grant, provided that the school did not begin serving students prior to July 1, 2019. A Non-classroom-based and virtual charter school may be eligible for an Expansion sub-grant, provided the school meets the definition of a high-quality charter school. Applicants must have not received a CSP grant from CDE or ED within the past five years.
Note: Applicants must have an approved charter petition prior to applying for the grant.
Deadline Details
Applications were to be submitted between February 23, 2021 to March 23, 2021. A similar deadline is anticipated, annually.
Award Details
Planning, Implementation, and Replication sub-grants may not exceed $600,000. Expansion sub-grants may not exceed $300,000. There may be one additional opportunity to apply for supplemental funding, of up to $100,000, to specifically serve educationally disadvantaged students.
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