Award Information
Awards for the Phase 2: Planning Grant will be $100,000-$250,000.
Collaboratives that receive a Phase 2: Planning Grant in Fall 2022 will be able to apply for a Phase 2: Implementation Grant in October 2023. Note that applying for or receiving a Phase 2: Planning Grant is not a prerequisite to apply for a Phase 2: Implementation Grant.
Planning grants are only awarded to CERF regions that have not already received a Phase 1 award. There is a possibility that more than one Phase 2: Planning Grant award is made to an eligible CERF region.
Yes. More than one planning grant can be funded per CERF region. The intent is that there be a single Implementation grant submitted at the end.
The amount for each planning grant will range between $100,000 to $250,000 even if more than one planning grant is awarded in a CERF Region.
If funds are available, that may be a possibility at a future time and will be announced at that time.
Timeline
Estimated project dates for planning grants are November 2022-October 2023. Exact start dates will depend on when the final grant agreement is signed with awardees.
No. The Phase 2: Implementation Grant application will be due in October 2023. Refer to the Timeline on the K-16 website.
Eligibility
CERF Regions with Phase 1 grantees cannot apply for a Phase 2: Planning Grant. However, the lead agency in an awarded CERF region may be able to apply for incremental supplemental funding through the Phase 2: Implementation Grant in October 2023.
Non-profit universities can be partners in a collaborative, but they cannot be a lead applicant. A lead applicant must be one of the four required educational entities as noted in the program guidelines.
If your CERF region has already been funded, no. You may wish to reach out to the collaborative for your region to learn of other ways to be involved in the program.
We suggest you get in touch with the lead applicant from your CERF region. Primary contacts for each Phase 1 awardee are available on the K-16 website.
Lead Agency and Fiscal Sponsor
The lead agency for a collaborative must be one of the four required educational partners and is expected to be physically located in the CERF region to be served.
Collaborative Partners and Considerations
Each of the four required educational partners must be identified in the Phase 2: Planning Grant application and must provide a Letter of Support indicating agreement to participate in the planning process. All other partners must be identified by the time collaboratives are ready to apply for the Phase 2: Implementation Grant.
Employer partners do not need to be identified for the Phase 2: Planning Grant.
For the Phase 2: Planning Grant application, MOUs are not required. Each of the four required educational partners must provide a Letter of Support indicating agreement to participate in the planning process. Note that formal MOUs will be required for each of the four required educational partners for the Phase 2: Implementation Grant.
Yes. Depending on the selected pathways, school districts can count as employers to meet the minimum threshold of 25% for Steering Committee members. However, a school district that serves as the required partner for the collaborative cannot also be counted as an employer to meet the minimum threshold of 25% for Steering Committee members.
Yes, the intent of this program is to ensure employment, so industry partners need to be part of the process from the beginning.
Program Requirements
K-12 members of the collaborative must apply to CCGI beginning in March 2023 as part of the Phase 2: Planning Grant activities. If a collaborative receives a Phase 2: Implementation Grant, the K-12 members must be in contract with CCGI no later than January 1, 2024.
Partnership level is required for all districts participating in collaboratives that are awarded a grant. Also needed will be a data sharing MOU with CCGI, which enables transcript-informed functionality not available to districts who use the basic (open access) tools on the website. Districts can reach out to CommunityEngagement@californiacolleges.edu to begin the process of establishing a partnership.
Applicants are not expected to name the RWE recommendations or pathways during the planning year. This information will be required, however, for the Phase 2: Implementation Grant application.
The Implementation grant application is a competitive application and the Phase I application questions and guidelines are included on the website. The scoring of those application questions is outlined in the application guidelines.
Phase 2: Planning grants are meant to allow awardees the time to create the infrastructure and relationships required for implementation of program objectives and to prepare a strong application for a Phase 2: Implementation grant to address the needs of each region.
Phase 1 implementation grants were for established collaboratives with the infrastructure in place to implement program objectives upon funding. Phase 2: Planning grants are meant to allow awardees the time to create the infrastructure and relationships required for implementation of program objectives.
Given that needs may vary across the CERF regions, collaboratives will need to articulate how different pathways meet the needs of subregions if this is part of their implementation grant proposal.
Refer to the Clarification document on the Program Resources page of the website.
This program pre-dates the most recent Executive Order. Aligning with the Executive Order is not part of the review criteria or scoring for this grant program.
Budget and Allowable Costs
No. Grant funds cannot be used for grant writing.
Contractors are allowed to complete work that is in line with the goals of the grant, and those costs should be included in the grant budget.
Refer to the current FAQs available on the K-16 web site under Phase 1, as they include questions and answers related to the budget and eligible expenditures. Additional information on allowable vs. not allowable expenditures will be listed in the Grant Agreement.
Region
To find out more about CERF regions, please see this link: https://opr.ca.gov/economic-development/just-transition/cerf.html
Grant Application and Scoring Criteria
Narrative answers do not have word limit. Where there is a limit, it will be noted.
Hyperlinks to such documents can be inserted in response fields.
A complete list of partners will be requested as part of the application.
Letters of support from the four required partners are required. They need only indicate agreement to participate in the planning process. Formal MOUs will be required for each of the four required educational partners for the Phase 2: Implementation Grant.
The work plan example provided is a general format template. Data elements noted can be deleted if they are not reflective of the collaborative’s proposal.
Reporting Requirements
Collaboratives will be expected to submit quarterly reports to track progress towards their goals and outcomes, as identified in their grant application and grant agreement, and to track and report on expenditures.
OPSC and FoundationCCC will support various types of evaluation activities throughout the project period. Additional information about reporting requirements can be found in the Phase 1 application guidelines and will also be detailed in the grant agreement for collaboratives that receive an award.
If you’re interested in learning more about the data requirements for the implementation phase, you can visit the data resources page on the K16 collaborative website https://k16collaborative.org/program-resources/