Critical Deadlines for Funding and Grants
During uncertain fiscal times, it’s more important than ever not to leave money on the table. Authorizers can help ensure that local charter schools receive all the funds they are entitled to by reminding them of upcoming deadlines.
Money is available right now from federal and state sources to help schools with COVID recovery and other challenges. These include CALPADS, the Educator Effectiveness Block Grant, the LCAP Supplement, and the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief.
Click here for a quick reference, including deadlines and links to program details.
As CCAP board treasurer Debi Deal emphasized (see Spotlight article in this issue), a strong financial management team is one of the three essential pillars for charter school success. Authorizers play a key role in that success through their oversight and by ensuring that charter schools have timely information and support to meet these deadlines. Is this a statutory duty of authorizers? No. But here are four important reasons we think authorizers should consider making it a priority.
- COVID recovery will require all-hands-on-deck collaboration among all local education agencies, including charter schools, and understanding how these resources can help charter schools serve their students is part of the collective effort;
- Additional resources provide much needed support for schools during a time of post-COVID recovery, fiscal unpredictability, enrollment fluctuation, and staffing challenges;
- Authorizers need to understand these restrictions and allowable uses for restricted funding sources that supplement student programs for the charter school budgets they oversee and evaluate how charter schools include these resources in their financial projections; and
- Authorizers may need this information for their own schools as well as the charter schools they oversee.
If you have any technical questions, contact Debi Deal at DDeal@Brightlake.com.
