Charter-District School Collaborative Grant

The Charter-District School Collaborative Grant is administered by the New York State Education Department under the federal Charter Schools Program authorized by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act. This program is designed to strengthen collaboration between charter schools and traditional public school districts by funding structured, time-bound partnerships. The overarching goal is to improve academic and developmental outcomes for educationally disadvantaged students while generating replicable tools and practices that can be scaled across New York State. The grant supports cross-sector partnerships that jointly design, implement, and evaluate targeted strategies aligned to a selected performance focus area. These focus areas include student academic outcomes, instructional systems, school climate, teacher workforce development, and innovation. Each partnership must define a clear problem of practice, propose two to three measurable goals, and deliver at least one student-facing intervention during the grant period. In addition, grantees must produce dissemination resources such as tools, protocols, or reports that can be adapted by other schools statewide. The initiative emphasizes depth over breadth, requiring focused implementation with measurable impact. Funding is provided as a one-time, non-renewable award for an eighteen-month project period running from January 1, 2027 through June 30, 2028. The total program funding is 1,400,000 dollars, with no more than seven awards anticipated. Individual partnerships may receive up to 200,000 dollars. Allowable expenditures include staff stipends for project work, instructional materials, data and assessment tools, professional learning, technology directly tied to the project, and consulting services. Non-allowable costs include general operating expenses, unrelated staffing, construction, and general-purpose technology purchases. Eligibility is restricted to partnerships consisting of one New York State charter school and one New York State traditional public school. The charter school must serve as the lead applicant, fiscal agent, and primary point of contact, while the district partner must actively participate in implementation and co-sign a formal Memorandum of Understanding. Both entities must demonstrate readiness to begin implementation within 60 to 90 days of award and must be in good standing with their respective authorizers or state oversight bodies. Nonprofit charter schools must also meet prequalification requirements in the Statewide Financial System prior to submission. Applications must be submitted electronically and include a proposal narrative, work plan, budget, and required forms. The submission deadline is August 14, 2026 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time. While a Notice of Intent is not required, it is strongly encouraged and due July 24, 2026. Questions regarding the opportunity must be submitted by July 10, 2026, with responses posted by July 24, 2026. The application requires detailed documentation of goals, activities, collaboration structures, and evaluation methods, and will be scored based on criteria including need, program design, organizational capacity, and budget alignment. Awardees will participate in ongoing reporting and monitoring processes, including monthly cohort engagement activities, quarterly implementation reviews, and submission of progress and financial reports. Partnerships are required to document implementation outcomes, produce a final report, and contribute to statewide learning by sharing tools and insights. Failure to demonstrate adequate progress toward goals may result in rescission of funding. Key program contacts include Tanya Lewis-Jones for programmatic inquiries, Taylor Gillis for fiscal matters, and Thomas McBride for M/WBE compliance.

Focus on clearly defined SMART goals aligned to a single performance focus area; demonstrate strong partnership collaboration with shared responsibilities; ensure budget aligns directly to project activities and allowable costs; include measurable student outcomes and a clear student facing deliverable