State
California Department of Education (CDE) - Coordinated School Health and Safety Office (CSHSO)
01/09/19
12/14/18
01/23/19 4:00 PM Receipt
Grants to California K-12 school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education for programs to reduce school absenteeisim and dropout rates. An Intent to Submit must be submitted prior to the full proposal. Funding is intended to support initiatives that keep at-risk students in school such as social-emotional teaching strategies, culturally responsive approaches, extracurricular activities, bullying prevention education, and community-based family, health, and developmental services rendered on school premises.
The Learning Communities for School Success Program (LCSSP) provides funds to local education agencies (LEAs) to support programs aimed at improving student outcomes by reducing truancy and supporting students who are at risk of dropping out of school or are victims of crime. The goals of the LCSSP are to support evidence-based, non-punitive programs and practices aimed at keeping the state’s most vulnerable pupils in school.
Funded Program Activities - The LCSSP allows for a wide variety of programs and strategies to address the needs of K-12 vulnerable students. Allowable programs, include, but are not limited to:
- Establish/support community schools that participate in community-based efforts to coordinate and integrate educational, developmental, family, health, and other comprehensive services at a school site to pupils, families, and community members.
- Implement programs and activities to improve attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism.
- Implement restorative practices to improve retention rates, reduce suspensions and other school removals, and reduce the referral of pupils to law enforcement agencies.
- Implement activities that advance social-emotional learning, Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), culturally responsive practices, and trauma-informed strategies.
- Establish partnerships with community-based organizations to support the implementation of evidence-based, non-punitive practices that further the goals of keeping the state’s most vulnerable students in school.
- Increase staffing within a LEA whose primary purpose is addressing ongoing chronic attendance problems.
Students in elementary school, and especially kindergarten to third grade, who are chronically absent, are documented to have a much higher rate of dropping out of school by age eighteen. Programs raising awareness of the effects of chronic absenteeism on young children would be an appropriate use of LCSSP grant funds.
Early intervention with students in middle school who are demonstrating disruptive behavior, trauma, or mental health challenges can be critical in reducing their risk of dropping out. Addressing the factors that are contributing to chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy, including suspension and expulsion, may benefit these students. The students also may benefit from referrals to school-based health centers, school nurses, school counselors, school psychologists, school social workers, and other pupil support personnel for case management and counseling.
Community supports that help the high school student learn how to avoid behavior that results in dropping out and entering the school-to-prison pipeline can help that student lead a successful and productive life. Ensuring that these students are identified as early as possible to provide applicable support services and interventions may be the key to their graduation from high school. Engaging in co-curricular and extracurricular activities, such as mentoring, tutoring, the arts, service learning, career education, and others, are known to increase pupil connectedness to school.
Examples of allowable proposed grant programs and activities include, but are not limited to:
- Implementing programs directed at students in elementary school, especially kindergarten to third grade, who are chronically absent.
- Implementing positive-disciplinary measures, including restorative justice practices and referrals to School Attendance Review Boards (SARBs), as an alternative to suspensions and expulsions.
- Developing and implementing early intervention programs with students in middle school who demonstrate disruptive behavior, trauma, or mental health challenges.
- Developing and implementing early intervention programs for chronically absent and habitually truant students, including suspension and expulsion that provide referrals to school-based health centers, school nurses, school counselors, school psychologists, school social workers, and other pupil support personnel for case management and counseling.
- Establishing community support and partnership programs that promote co-curricular and extracurricular activities, such as mentoring, tutoring, the arts, service learning, career education or others, to increase pupil connectedness to school.
- Implementing youth development strategies that promote the three protective factors—caring relationships, high expectations, and meaningful participation.
- Developing partnerships among LEA homeless liaisons and with community supports to connect homeless children, youths, and their families to resources and services that meet their needs.
- Implementing bullying prevention programs (including cyberbullying) that include prevention and education.
- Implementing strong School Wellness Policies that comply with the federal mandates required in the Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act of 2010.
Program outcomes in the LCSSP application can target, but are not limited to, improvement in pupil engagement; improvement in school climate; and expansion or maintenance of evidence-based, non-punitive practices.
A LEA that receives a LCSSP grant is required to use the grant funds for planning, implementation, and evaluation of activities in support of evidence-based, non-punitive programs and practices to keep the state’s most vulnerable pupils in school.
Allowable Grant Fund Expenditures:
- LEA employees working on LCSSP grant activities.
- Contracted services and direct service providers.
- Direct costs associated with programmatic interventions, such as training and release time, project materials and supplies, and services required by project staff, service providers, parents, and students.
- Reasonable and necessary travel costs for staff training and on-site technical assistance. Travel costs related to the project shall be reimbursed at rates not greater than those established in bargaining unit agreements to which the LEA is subject.
- Noncapitalized equipment costs of less than $5,000 per item. Equipment purchased with grant funds may only be used by personnel assigned to the program. The amount budgeted for individual equipment cannot exceed the percentage of time the person using the equipment is assigned to the program. Funds from other sources must contribute to equipment costs designated for shared-use with other programs and costs are to be prorated.
- The percentage used to determine indirect costs is not to exceed the CDE-approved Indirect Cost Rate.
GrantWatch ID#: 184584
$15,000,000
Funded applicants may receive up to $50 per year per student enrolled in the LEA in accordance with the following minimum/maximum funding levels for the 3-year period:
- For LEAs with 100 or less: Minimum of $15,000 ($5,000 per year)
- For LEAs with 101 or more: Maximum of $2,000,000 ($666,666 per year)
Individual LCSSP grants will be for three years.However, LCSSP three-year grants will be approved each year. Each year represents a separate funding cycle with a cohort representing those grants approved in any single cycle/year for a three-year grant period. At the end of the three-year grant period, LEAs will be expected to demonstrate measurable improvement in areas specifically identified in the LEA’s LCSSP grant application.
The upcoming grant period ("Cohort 3") begins July 1, 2019 and ends June 30, 2022.
Eligible Agencies: Applicant agencies are limited to LEAs within the State of California that serve students in K–12, inclusive. This includes school districts, all charter schools, and county offices of education (COEs) in their role as providers of direct student services in COE-operated schools.
All applicants and consortium members must have a CDE-assigned County/District/School (CDS) identification code and must be classified as an active LEA by the CDE.
Multiple LEAs may choose to form a consortium submitting a single application. LEAs are encouraged to form a program consortium when the resulting program efficiencies facilitate program success for each consortium member. If multiple LEAs choose to apply as a consortium, each consortium member must be identified as a priority LEA in accordance with the priorities listed below.
Funding Priorities - Priority will be given to a LEA that meets any of the following criteria:
- Has a high rate (i.e. exceeding the state average) of chronic absenteeism, out-of-school suspension, or school dropout for the general pupil population or for a numerically significant pupil subgroup as identified in their LCAP.
- Is in a community with a crime rate that exceeds the state average.
- Has a significant representation (i.e. 15 or more enrolled students) of foster youth among its pupil enrollment.
Individual schools are not eligible to apply. Only the LEA may apply on behalf of a school or schools within the LEA’s jurisdiction.
Community agencies, private schools, individual public schools, and state special schools are not eligible to apply for a LCSSP grant. They may, however, participate as a grant partner.
Grant funds are intended to complement and enhance existing programs and must not be used to supplant other local or state funds now being used for existing staff or activities. Funds cannot be transferred to any other program account.
Funds may not be used for:
- Law enforcement activities, including personnel or equipment.
- Expenditures for land, buildings, or other intangible capital assets, including items acquired through leases with option to purchase and capitalized equipment costs in excess of $5,000. Applicants are encouraged to review Procedure 770, Distinguishing between Supplies and Equipment, in the California School Accounting Manual (CSAM) for further discussion regarding capitalized equipment, noncapitalized equipment, and supplies. This manual can be downloaded from Supporting Documents below.
- Telephone systems, fax machines, and telephones, including cell phones and landlines.
- Purchase of vehicles.
- Out-of-state travel.
- Childcare.
- Food—possible exceptions are allowed, with evidence that the provision of food is necessary to implement a programmatic intervention strategy or training event conducted beyond normal school hours or off site for students, staff, or parents.
- Preparation, delivery, and travel costs associated with the application.
- Other more specific prohibitions included in the grant terms found in the General Assurances in Section V (Program Assurances).
A webinar for prospective applicants is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, November 13, 2018. Any LEA interested in applying may participate. The webinar will provide information regarding the application and the application process. It will point out items that have disqualified applicants in previous cohorts and will address as many questions as possible submitted during the webinar.
A second webinar will be held on Wednesday, January 9, 2019. While this webinar will provide a brief overview of the application, it is intended to address specific questions and last-minute concerns.
Topic: Technical Assistance Webinar for the Learning Communities for School Success Cohort 3 Grant Program
Date and Time: Tuesday, November 13, 2018 9:30 am, Pacific Standard Time (San Francisco, GMT-08:00)
Event number: 668 368 546
Event password: 159024
To register: https://cdeevents.webex.com/cdeevents/onstage/g.php?MTID=ef84744a79a8ae268c0aaa11acadec89a
For more information about webinars: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ss/se/schoolsuccess.asp
The LCSSP grant application must be received by the CSHSO no later than 4 p.m. on Wednesday, January 23, 2019.
Application packets must be mailed or delivered to the LCSSP Competitive Grants. Faxed or emailed applications will not be accepted.
It is the prospective applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the Intent to Submit an Application online form is completed and received by the CSHSO no later than Friday, December 14, 2018.
Timetable of Due Dates:
- November 13: Webinar for prospective applicants.
- December 14: Intent to Submit an Application online form is due to the CSHSO.
- January 9: Webinar for prospective applicants.
- January 23: Application due to the CDE by 4 p.m.
- March 5–7: Application review and scoring
- April 3: Notice of Intent to Award Funds posted in the lobby of the CDE, 1430 N Street, Sacramento, CA 95814-5901. The list will also be posted on the CDE Learning Communities for School Success Funding Results web page at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ss/se/schoolsuccess.asp.
- April 10: Grant appeals due to the CSHSO by 4 p.m.
- April 17: CDE final decision and expected notification.
For information on the optional webinars offered, see Pre-Proposal Conference above.
There is a match requirement for this grant program. Each LEA grant recipient must provide a local contribution of matching expenditures or services equal to at least 20 percent of the total grant award. The local contribution can be from cash expenditures or in-kind contributions. The matching funds or services must be identified in the application and constitute at least a 20 percent match in each year of the grant. A LEA is encouraged to exceed the 20 percent match requirement to enable the LEA to sustain the activities or programs supported by the grant beyond the three-year grant period.
LEAs may submit only one application per funding cycle.* A LEA that has been awarded a grant may apply in a subsequent grant cycle under the following conditions: (1) the term of the LEA’s previous grant award will be exhausted so as not to overlap with the new funding cycle; and (2) the LEA must have submitted all required reports and have expended grant funds in accordance with their previous grant award.
(*LCSSP three-year grants will be approved each year. Each year represents a separate funding cycle with a cohort representing those grants approved in any single cycle/year for a three-year grant period.)
The CDE’s Coordinated Student Support Division staff will accept and answer questions regarding the Request for Applications (RFA) via email only. Questions must be sent to the LCSSP via email; please direct questions to Elvia González or Tom Herman. Questions received via email will be answered on a daily basis. Submitted questions and answers not already on the CDE LCSSP Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) web page will be subsequently added to the FAQs.
Request for Applications and List of Documents: https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fo/r8/lcsspcohort3.asp
Program Information: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ss/se/schoolsuccess.asp
FAQs: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/pf/c8/documents/prop47faqs.asp
Program Description: https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fo/r8/documents/lcsspprojdes.asp
Before starting your grant application, please review the funding source's website listed below for updates/changes/addendums/conferences/LOIs.
Submit the online Intent to Submit form at:
https://surveys2.cde.ca.gov/siam/surveylanding/interviewer.asp
Mail or deliver application packets to:
LCSSP Competitive Grants
Coordinated School Health and Safety Office
California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Suite 6408
Sacramento, CA 95814-5901
Elvia Gonzalez
916-319-0277
egonzalez@cde.ca.gov
Tom Herman
916-319-0914
therman@cde.ca.gov
LCSSP@cde.ca.gov
916-319-0914 (phone)
916-319-0218 (fax)
For application downloading questions:
Tissy Simmons
tsimmons@cde.ca.gov
USA: California
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