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21st Century Community Learning Centers

NCLB, Title IV Part B

Purpose

The 21st Century Community Learning Centers program is authorized under Title IV, Part B of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (www.emsc.nysed.gov). Its purpose is to create or expand community learning centers that:

1. provide opportunities for academic enrichment, including providing tutorial services to help students, particularly students who attend low-performing schools, to meet State and local student academic achievement standards in core academic subjects such as reading and mathematics; 
2. offer students a broad array of additional services, programs, and activities, such as youth development activities, drug and violence prevention programs, counseling programs, art, music, and recreation programs, technology education programs, and character education programs, that are designed to reinforce and complement the regular academic program of participating students; and
3. offer families of students served by community learning centers opportunities for literacy and related educational development.

A Community Learning Center must be located in a safe and easily accessible facility.  It must offer services when school is not in session (before school, after school, during holidays or summer recess).  Appendix 1 provides definitions and clarifications about the requirements of 21st Century Community Learning Centers.

Program Requirements

All 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLCs) must have three strands of program activity: academic enrichment, youth development and family literacy/educational programs for participants’ families.  In addition, programs are to be designed to include the 10 essential elements of high quality after school programs outlined in the Program Quality Self-Assessment (QSA) Tool that was developed by the New York State Afterschool Network and is available at www.nysan.org .
 
The QSA tool is used by all 21st CCLCs two times each year for self-assessment and planning for program improvement.  It provides an opportunity for program leaders and key staff, in collaboration with other stakeholders, to utilize a common set of standards to assess, plan, design and execute strategies for ongoing program improvement. The 10 essential elements of high quality after school programs listed below are the foundation for all professional development provided to 21st Century programs by the State Education Department, its Statewide 21st Century Technical Assistance Center and Regional Student Support Services Network Centers.

1. Environment and Climate
2. Administrative and Organization
3. Relationships
4. Staffing and Professional Development
5. Programming and Activities.
6. Linkages Between the School Day and After School Programs
7. Youth Participation and Engagement
8. Parent, Family and Community Partnerships
9. Program Sustainability and Growth
10. Measuring Outcomes and Evaluation

 
Additional information about the QSA Tool and other resources are available online at www.emsc.nysed.gov/sss/ by clicking on the link for 21st CCLC.

Available Funding

$45 million is the total funding available annually statewide for applicants that are public school districts, BOCES, charter schools, private schools, nonprofit agencies, city or county government agencies, faith-based organizations and institutions of higher education and for-profit corporations.  Each individual applicant may apply for an annual grant of a minimum of $50,000 to a maximum of $900,000.

Up to $600,000 will be set aside per year statewide to be shared among for-profit awardees.  Any unused funds will be added to the funding available for not-for-profit awardees.

In the event that funding is decreased, a proportional decrease will be made from all awardees.  If funding is increased, a proportional increase will be made to all awardees.

Project Period

Five years, July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2013.  All project activities must be completed by June 30, 2013.

Eligible Applicants

Any public or private organization is eligible to apply for 21st CCLC funding.  This includes public school districts, BOCES, charter schools, private schools, nonprofit agencies, city or county government agencies, faith-based organizations, institutions of higher education, and for-profit corporations.  Priority will be given to applicants whose programs will serve middle level and/or high school students who attend schools that are currently identified as being in school improvement status.

The applicant must demonstrate that its proposed program was developed and will be carried out in active collaboration among all partners including the eligible school(s) the students attend. A partnership signifies meaningful involvement in planning, as well as specific individual or joint responsibilities for program implementation. Each partnering agency must submit, as part of the application, a signed Partnership Agreement (see Appendix 2) with the fiscal agent of the grant.

NYSED Consortium Policy for State and Federal Discretionary Grant Programs:

Applicants/participants can form a partnership or consortium to apply for the grant.  In order to do so, the partnership or consortium must meet the following requirements:

1. The partnership or consortium must designate one of the applicants/participants to serve as the applicant and fiscal agent for the grant.  The applicant agency must be an eligible grant recipient.  All other consortium members must be eligible grant participants, as defined by the program statute or regulation.
2. In the event a grant is awarded to a partnership/consortium, the grant or grant contract will be prepared in the name of the applicant agency/fiscal agent, not the partnership/consortium, since the group may not be a legal entity.
3. The applicant agency/fiscal agent must meet the following requirements:

1. Must be an eligible grant recipient as defined by statute; 
2. Must receive and administer the grant funds and submit the required reports to account for the use of grant funds;
3. Must require consortium partners to sign an agreement with the fiscal agent that specifically outlines all services each partner agrees to provide.
4. Must be an active member of the partnership/consortium, except where SUNY or CUNY Research Foundations are the fiscal agent.
5. Cannot act as a flow-through for grant funds to pass to other recipients.  NYSED may establish a minimum level of direct service to be provided by the fiscal agent.
6. Is PROHIBITED from sub-granting funds to other recipients.  The fiscal agent is permitted to contract for services with other consortium partners or consultants to provide services that the fiscal agent cannot provide itself.
7. Must be responsible for the performance of any services provided by the partners, consultants, or other organizations and must coordinate how each plan to participate. 

Regional Technical Assistance Sessions for Potential Applicants

The State Education Department will conduct 11 regional technical assistance sessions for potential applicants during January and February 2008.  Preregistration is strongly encouraged.  The 11 sessions are listed below:

Vendor Responsibility

State law requires that the award of state contracts be made to responsible vendors. Before an award is made to a not-for-profit entity, a for-profit entity, a private college or university or a public entity not exempted by the Office of the State Comptroller, the Department must make an affirmative responsibility determination. The factors to be considered include: legal authority to do business in New York State; integrity; capacity- both organizational and financial; and previous performance. Before an award of $100,000 or greater can be made to a covered entity, the entity will be required to complete and submit a Vendor Responsibility Questionnaire.

Vendors are invited to file the required Vendor Responsibility Questionnaire online via the New York State VendRep System. To enroll in and use the New York State VendRep System, see the VendRep System instructions at: http:\\www.osc.state.ny.us/vendrep/systeminit.htm or go directly to the VendRep System online at https://portal.osc.state.ny.us.

For direct VendRep System user assistance, the OSC Help Desk may be reached at 866-370-4672 or 518-408-4672 or by email at helpdesk@osc.state.ny.us. 

Vendors opting to file a paper questionnaire can obtain the appropriate questionnaire from the VendRep website: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/vendrep/templates.htm or will receive it with the award letter.

Application Submission Instructions

Only complete applications will be reviewed. A complete application must include the Application Checklist and all the items on it in the order listed.  

Unallowable Expenditures

Planning expenses, nutritional services for participants, purchase of vehicles or facilities, major remodeling or new construction are not allowed.

Budget (FS-10) and Budget Narrative

The application must include an FS-10 Budget Form as well as a budget narrative for each category of expenditure proposed for the grant (e.g., Professional Salaries, Support Staff Salaries, Purchased Services, Supplies and Materials). The narrative should include sufficient detail to allow reviewers to understand what the funds will be used for and the relationship between the proposed expenditures and project objectives and activities. Please remember that travel costs for program employees should be itemized under Travel Expenses; travel for consultants should be itemized under Purchased Services.

General   of expenditures, allowable costs, applicable federal costs principles and administrative regulations are available in the Fiscal Guidelines for Federal and State Aided Grants at http://www.oms.nysed.gov/cafe/ .  

Review and Rating of Applications

Incomplete proposals and proposals postmarked after the due date will NOT be reviewed. Proposals from applicants that SED determines do not have sufficient capacity to administer this program will NOT be reviewed.  Proposals with formatting errors will result in considerable penalties such as the proposal will not be reviewed in its entirety or the proposal will be rejected. For example, only the first 25 pages of a program narrative that exceeds the 25-page limit will be read; only a proportionate part of narratives that are less than double spaced or prepared in a smaller font will be read.  Charts and graphs that are not limited to data or schedules will not be considered.

Each application will be reviewed and rated individually by three reviewers using the point scales indicated in the Program Narrative. The reviewers will then meet as a team to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the proposal.  Final scores from each reviewer will be used to compute the final average score.  The scoring rubric is contained in Appendix 3.

An application (except from a for-profit applicant – see next section “For-Profit Applicants”) must receive a final average score of 75 to be considered for funding.  However, if funds remain after awards are made to applicants who score 75 or higher, the Department reserves the right to lower the minimum score to 70 in order to award all available funds. 

Budgets will be reviewed and adjusted to eliminate items that are unallowable or inappropriate.

Applications will be ranked according to final average score from highest to lowest in one of the following three geographic areas:

1. New York City
2. Big Four Cities (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Yonkers)
3. Rest of the State

 
Funds will be allocated to each geographic area based on its relative share of the allocation of Title I funds to New York State schools – i.e., approximately 60 percent to New York City; 10 percent to the big four cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers; and 30 percent to the rest of the State. Awards will be made in the full amount of the budget, as adjusted, to applicants within each geographic area in rank order of score using the following groupings.  Placement of applicants into one of these groups will be made at the discretion of the reviewers and SED staff. In the event that funds remain in any one of the three geographic regions, such funds will be redistributed proportionately to the other geographic region(s).

First, to applicants that:

1. include not less than one local education agency receiving Title I funds and a community-based organization or other public or private entity (the only exception to this joint submission rule is for LEAs that do not have qualified community organizations within reasonable geographic proximity) and
2. primarily target services to students who attend schools that have been identified as in need of improvement under Title I, Section 1116, and
3. primarily target services to middle level students or high school noncompleters.

until funds allocated to that geographic area are insufficient to fund the next ranking applicant in full.

Second, to applicants that:

1. include not less than one local education agency receiving Title I funds and a community-based organization or other public or private entity (the only exception to this joint submission rule is for LEAs that do not have qualified community organizations within reasonable geographic proximity), and
2. primarily target services to students who attend schools that have been identified as in need of improvement under Title I, Section 1116.

until funds allocated to that geographic area are insufficient to fund the next ranking applicant in full.

Third, in the event funds remain after funding all ranking applicants above, the remaining applicants will be funded until funds allocated to that geographic area are insufficient to fund the next ranking applicant in full. 

In the event of tie scores the applicant that will serve a SINI school with a middle-level program or high school program will be ranked higher. If two or more applicants meet these criteria, the Department will then determine which program will serve students who have lower levels of academic achievement and higher levels of poverty.

For-Profit Applicants

Applications from for-profit organizations will be reviewed and ranked separately from all other applicants.  Up to $600,000 will be set aside per year to be shared among for-profit awardees.

Each accepted application from a for-profit organization will be reviewed and rated individually by three reviewers using the point scales indicated in the Program Narrative. The reviewers will then meet as a team to discuss their ratings.  Final scores from each reviewer will be used to compute the final average technical score of up to 80 points.  The scoring rubric is contained in Appendix 3.
 
The remaining 20 points allowable for the “Adequacy of Resources” section which addresses the proposed budget will be evaluated and scored separately according to cost by the SED’s Contract Administration Office.

The final score awarded will be the total of the final average technical score (up to 80 points) and the “Adequacy of Resources” or cost score (up to 20 points).

For–profit applicants will be ranked separately from all other applicants according to their final score from highest to lowest.  For-profit applicants will not be separated into three separate geographic regions. 

Awards will be made to for-profit applicants in rank order of score and according to the first, second and third priority groupings used for all other applicants until an insufficient amount of the $600,000 set aside for for-profit applicants is available to fund the next ranking for-profit applicant in full.  In the case of a tie score, the applicant with the lower cost will be ranked higher.

Entities’ Responsibility

Entities that receive 21st Century funding are responsible for the proper disbursement of, and accounting for, program funds. Written agency policy concerning wages, mileage and travel allowances, overtime compensation, or fringe benefits, as well as State rules pertaining to competitive bidding, safety regulations, and inventory control must be followed. Supporting or source documents are required for all grant related transactions entered into the local agency's recordkeeping system. Source documents that authorize the disbursement of grant funds consist of purchase orders, contracts, time & effort records, delivery receipts, vendor invoices, travel documentation and payment documents, including check stubs.

Supporting documentation for grants and grant contracts must be kept for at least six years after the last payment was made unless otherwise specified by program requirements. Additionally, audit or litigation will "freeze the clock" for records retention purposes until the issue is resolved. All records and documentation must be available for inspection by State Education Department officials or its representatives.

For additional information about grants, please refer to the previously noted Fiscal Guidelines for Federal and State Aided Grants at Fiscal Guidelines.

APPLICATION FORM (in Word)

21st Century Eligible Public Schools (In Excel Format)        
21st Century Eligible Nonpublic Schools (In Excel Format) 
21st Century Eligible NYC Schools (In Excel Format)