FY2016 UPK Bidders Conference 4 6 15.pptx

FY 2016 Universal Pre-Kindergarten Open Competitive Grant (Fund Code 511)

Bidders’ Conferences

April 2015

Welcome. Introduce self and Michele to the audience.

Explain the rules for the Open Competitive Bidders’ Conferences – submit questions in writing (note cards) and/or submit questions via email. Email address is on Slide 4.

Locations of Bidders’ Conferences

Since this is an open competitive grant, Michele and I are conducting the Bidders’ Conferences in all of the Regional Offices. If you happen to know of someone that is interested in applying for the grant, encourage them to attend one of the subsequent regional meeting(s).

Welcome

Overview of the FY 2016 UPK Grant Application:

Questions and Answers Purpose Eligibility Grant Priorities and Requirements Narrative Questions Projected Deliverables Reporting Funding Budget Guidelines and Allowable Use of Funds

Online Application and Mail Submission Process Grant Posting/Grant Timeline/Submission Deadline Grant Application Components

Today’s Agenda

To ensure consistency in responses, please email questions by April 17, 2015 by 4:00 PM to EECSubmission@MassMail.State.MA.US Subject line: FY 2016 UPK – Fund Code 511

The Questions and Answers document will be posted on or around April 27, 2015.

The Questions and Answers document then becomes an official part of the Grant Application

Questions and Answers

Feel free to submit your questions at any point prior to the April 17th deadline. Michele and I are already starting to receive questions. We are starting to organize the questions in the Q & A document.

Grant Overview This is an open competitive grant.

EEC anticipates that $6.3M will be available for grant awards.

EEC will award funds for an initial term of one year with an option to renew for one additional year, contingent upon the grant recipients continuing to satisfy the grant requirements.

FY 2016 Open Competitive Grant FY 2017 Renewal Grant

Points to make should audience ask why this is a completely open competitive bid:

The UPK Grant is not entitlement money.

OSD advises that grants should be open competitive at least every three years.

The Board’s vision that this grant be open competitive – the quality dollars go toward the quality programs.

Through this competitive Grant Application, EEC seeks to award grants to those preschool programs which will:

Promote the Early Learning Guidelines to support school readiness and positive outcomes for children participating in UPK classrooms and homes;

Support and enhance the quality of services for children in UPK classrooms and family child care homes, especially for high needs children and/or children living in underperforming school districts;

Maximize parent choice by ensuring participation from all program types within a mixed public and private service delivery system;

Use evidence-based child formative assessment systems/tools to ensure that programs are effectively measuring children’s progress across all developmental domains and using this information to inform practice through individualized teaching; and

Serve as models of excellence, engage in communities of practice, and support the process of continuous quality improvement across the Commonwealth.

Purpose

The five (5) purposes for the FY16 UPK Grant.

Priorities

There are 9 Priorities listed.

Competitive Priorities:

Currently have a QRIS online application with a Level 3 or Level 4 Granted status;

Currently are located in Gateway Municipalities; and/or Currently are located in rural communities.

Priorities

The three Competitive Priorities will be incorporated into the scoring card.

QRIS: “Granted” level 3 is a stronger indicator of quality.

Gateway Municipalities: As of October 2014, the 26 Gateway Municipalities include: Attleboro, Barnstable, Brockton, Chelsea, Chicopee, Everett, Fall River, Fitchburg, Haverhill, Holyoke, Lawrence, Leominster, Lowell, Lynn, Malden, Methuen, New Bedford, Peabody, Pittsfield, Quincy, Revere, Salem, Springfield, Taunton, Westfield, and Worcester.

Rural Communities: For the purposes of this grant, “rural” is defined as a municipality in which there are fewer than 500 people per square mile. There are about 172 rural communities in the Commonwealth. Please see Appendix I for a list of the rural communities by county.

All programs' Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) online application(s) must demonstrate one of the following statuses:

Level 2 QRIS rating AND final submitted, self-assessed Level 3;

Granted Level 3; or Granted Level 4.

Eligibility Criteria: Overview

This is a competitive grant open to all vendors that are able to demonstrate through the submission of a successful grant application that they meet the priorities and required services as outlined in this grant application. In order to be eligible for the UPK competitive grant, designated classrooms and/or family child care homes must meet all of the criteria outlined below:

All programs' Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) online application(s) must demonstrate one of the following statuses:

Level 2 QRIS rating AND final submitted, self-assessed Level 3;

Granted Level 3; or Granted Level 4.

All programs must have submitted their original QRIS online application on or before March 30, 2015 as demonstrated in their submitted QRIS Summary of Application Profile from the QRIS Program Manager.

Eligibility Requirements: QRIS Online Application

All programs must have an income-eligible contract and/or voucher agreement in place and be willing to accept EEC-subsidized or low-income children.

EEC subsidized or low-income children are defined as any of the following populations:

Children accessing care through EEC contracts or vouchers;

Children funded with Head Start dollars;

Privately subsidized children from families meeting EEC income eligibility criteria (i.e., total household income at or below 85% of the state median income) with supporting documentation from program; and Children attending preschool programs operated by public schools that:

Have a high proportion of children qualifying for free/reduced lunch;

Are at risk of or have been determined to be under-performing in accordance with sections 1J and 1K of Chapter 69 of the General Laws; and/or Have been placed in the accountability status of identified for improvement, corrective action, or restructuring pursuant to Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) school regulations, or which have been designated Commonwealth priority schools or Commonwealth Pilot Schools pursuant to said regulations.

Eligibility Requirements: EEC Subsidy

All programs must provide access to full-day, full-year services for working families.

The term "full day/full year" is defined as operating for at least 231 days and 2,079 hours per year. Programs that are not "full-day, full-year" must demonstrate how UPK and/or other funds are being used to provide access to full-day, full-year services in the narrative section of the UPK budget.

Eligibility Requirements: Full-Day, Full-Year

All programs must have current National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) or New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) accreditation for group child care programs or National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) accreditation or a non-expired Child Development Associate (CDA) credential or higher for family child care educators (AA, BA, or Master’s degree).

Current NAEYC, NEASC, or NAFCC accreditation means that a program is considered by the national accrediting body as of July 1, 2015 to be accredited. If there is a lapse in accreditation, during the grant period, the program must report this change to EEC and come back into accreditation status within 90 days of the first day of the lapse or be subject to loss of UPK funding.

Eligibility Requirements: Accreditation/Credentials

All programs must demonstrate that they serve preschool-aged children.

The term "preschool-aged children" is defined as children who are 2 years, 9 months to kindergarten-eligible.

Eligibility Requirements: Preschool-Aged Children

All programs must demonstrate that they serve high needs children.

The term “high needs children” is defined as children who have two or more of the following risk factors shown to be linked to poor outcomes in such areas as school performance, health and mental health:

Low-income households/children eligible for free or reduced priced meals;

Children with special needs/disability (IEP or 504 Plan);

Children and families who previously participated in Early Intervention services (IFSP);

Children who are homeless or move more than once per year, as defined under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Improvements Act of 2001;

Children who are Dual Language Learners whose home language is not English (DLL/ELL/LEP);

Parent(s) with education less than a high school diploma or GED;

Parent(s) with chronic illness or disability affecting care-giving ability;

Children who have experienced multiple traumas or losses;

Young children whose family recently immigrated to U.S. (parent(s) who came to the U.S. within the past 10 years);

Families and children involved with multiple state agencies;

Children with parent(s) who are deployed and are not living on a military base.

Eligibility Requirements: High Needs Children

The definition for high needs children has been slightly modified. This definition is consistent with other EEC grants such as the Inclusive PK Grant (391).

All programs must demonstrate that formative assessment data is collected and entered for each child in the preschool classroom(s).

Preschool programs must use one of the three EEC-approved formative assessment tools:

Teaching Strategies GOLD® Work Sampling System® High Scope Preschool Child Observation Record Eligibility Requirements: Formative Assessment

Use of formative assessment data is critical to improve teaching practices and individualizing instruction for children.

Per the reporting requirements of the grant, EEC runs data reports in the aggregate to ensure that UPK programs are collecting information on the children in their classrooms across all of the developmental domains: (1) social/emotional, (2) physical, (3) cognitive, (4) language, and (5) approaches to learning.

Programs must ensure that they are engaged in activities that maintain and/or enhance upward mobility in EEC's QRIS Program Manager (QPM):

Programs that have a Level 2 QRIS rating AND a self-assessed, final submitted Level 3 online application (as of March 30, 2015) will be required to be at Granted Level 3 by June 30, 2016. Additionally, these programs are required to, at a minimum, maintain a Granted Level 3 status for the duration of the grant cycle.

Programs that have a Granted Level 3 online application (as of March 30, 2015) will be required to, at a minimum, maintain a Granted Level 3 status throughout the duration of the grant cycle.

Programs that have a Granted Level 4 online application (as of March 30, 2015) will be required to maintain a Granted Level 4 status throughout the duration of the grant cycle.

Required Services: QRIS

Matriculation requirement for those programs that receive UPK funds at Level 2, self-assessed Level 3: they need to be Granted Level 3 by June 30, 2016.

A program's failure to attain a Granted Level 3 online application by June 30, 2016 may result in the withholding and/or exclusion from FY 2017 UPK grant funds.

A program's failure to maintain a Granted Level 3 online application throughout the duration of the grant cycle may result in the withholding, reduction and/or exclusion from FY 2017 UPK grant funds.

Programs must ensure that all of the required measurement tools are completed and all of the required documentation is attached to their online applications in EEC's QPM for Level 3 or higher.

Programs must agree to allow EEC's Program Quality Specialists to conduct technical assistance site visits to review documentation and to conduct environment rating assessment observations per the requirements of Level 3 in QRIS.

Programs must agree to allow an outside reliable rater to conduct an on-site environment rating assessment of the program by use of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales, Revised Edition (ECERS-R) or the Family Child Care Environment Rating Scales, Revised Edition (FCCERS-R) per the requirements of Level 4 in QRIS.

Required Services: QRIS

Programs must ensure that educators are providing developmentally appropriate experiences and practices as evidenced by use of the following:

Massachusetts Preschool Early Learning Guidelines;

Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for Preschool and Kindergarten;

Early Childhood Program Standards for Three and Four Year Olds;

Pre-K Science and Technology/Engineering Standards;

WIDA’s Early English Language Development (E-ELD) Standards: Massachusetts Guidelines to Serve Dual Language Learners;

Massachusetts Social-Emotional Learning Standards (when available); and One of the three EEC-approved formative assessment tools.

Required Services: Developmentally Appropriate

Programs must ensure that they are actively participating on EEC’s QRIS Online Learning Community.

Programs must ensure that they are willing to provide best practices advice/support to those early education and care programs that might need guidance which are located within their respective communities.

Required Services: Communities of Practice

The QRIS Online Learning Community may be found at the following link: http://qriscommunity.org/.

Creates a larger network of Level 3 & 4 programs that can provide best practices advice to the early education and care programs located within their respective communities.

Programs must ensure that all program staff, along with their respective titles, are registered in EEC's PQ Registry and are linked to their program.

Programs must ensure that no staff members are in an "expired" status. All staff members must have "Active" PQ Registry IDs.

Required Services: PQ Registry

Programs must ensure that preschool teachers have received training on formative assessment and authentic observation and documentation.

Programs must ensure that formative assessment data is collected for all of the developmental domains and entered for each child participating in the designated UPK classroom(s) per the deadlines articulated in the Reporting Section of the Grant Application.

If programs do not currently have the capacity to enter formative assessment data electronically, FY 2016 funds must be prioritized for this purpose. The electronic component of the assessment systems involves purchasing, receiving training in, and implementing one of the following: Teaching Strategies GOLD®, Work Sampling System®, or High Scope Preschool Child Observation Record.

Required Services: Formative Assessment

Programs must provide EEC with information as to the total number of high needs children participating in the designated UPK classroom(s) per the requirements articulated in the Reporting Section of this Grant Application.

Programs must provide EEC with the demographic information for each student participating in the designated UPK classroom(s) per the requirements articulated in the Reporting Section of this Grant Application.

Required Services: Classroom Reporting

Programs must ensure that preschool educators receive competitive compensation packages as demonstrated by any five (5) of the following:

Written salary scale that reflects education and experience;

Annual salary increases;

Compensation plan that provides for merit increases in addition to annual salary increases;

Health insurance benefits;

Paid sick/personal days;

Paid vacation days;

Contribution to retirement plans;

Reimbursement for professional development; and/or Tuition reimbursement.

Required Services: Competitive Compensation

Programs must ensure that they incorporate the approved tagline for the Brain Building in Progress communications initiative on appropriate marketing and communications materials and resources that are funded in whole or part through this grant. These materials and resources may include, but are not limited to, the following: marketing products (e.g., flyers, brochures, pamphlets); professional development products printed by the grantees (e.g., books/booklets, guides, course readers); websites; and other products as determined by EEC.

Required Services: Brain Building in Progress

Programs will be required to complete the section of the UPK Site Survey that addresses the following classroom information:

The total number of children in the classroom;

The total number of preschool-aged children in the classroom;

The total number of preschool-aged children who are high needs;

The total number of preschool-aged children who are dual language learners;

The total number of preschool-aged children who are of Hispanic or Latino origin;

The total number of preschool-aged children who are of non-Hispanic or non-Latino origin;

The total number of preschool-aged children who are American Indian or Alaska Native;

The total number of preschool-aged children who are Asian;

The total number of preschool-aged children who are Black or African American;

The total number of preschool-aged children who are Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander;

The total number of preschool-aged children who are White;

The total number of preschool-aged children who are Biracial/Multi-racial;

The total number of preschool-aged children who are Other Race; and The total number of preschool-aged children who are Unspecified Race.

Reporting: Classroom Information

Please note that your identified UPK classroom(s) must have at least one (1) high needs. A warning will populate should you have a zero (0) for this line.

Programs will be required to update the UPK Classroom Information page(s) in the UPK Site Survey twice per year as part of the reporting requirements:

Fall Reporting Deadline: December 31, 2015 Spring Reporting Deadline: June 30, 2016

Please note that EEC reserves the right to withhold third and fourth quarter grant payments to programs until FY 2016 Fall data reports are submitted to EEC.

Reporting: Continuous Classroom Reporting

Programs will be required to collect and enter the formative assessment data for all of the developmental domains for each child participating in the designated UPK classroom(s). EEC will monitor the formative assessment data collected by programs twice per year via reviews of aggregate classroom reports to ensure that programs are regularly assessing children and entering the data. EEC will not examine individual child data or use this information to assess the strengths or weaknesses of individual programs.

Assessment data reporting deadlines for FY 2016 are as follows:

Fall Reporting Deadline: December 31, 2015 (for data collected between July 1 and December 31, 2015).

Spring Reporting Deadline: June 30, 2016 (for data collected between January 1 and June 30, 2016).

Reporting: Formative Assessment

There are four (4) Narrative Questions for the FY 2016 UPK Application:

Massachusetts Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) Student Screening and Formative Assessment Competitive Compensation Packages for Preschool Educators Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 3 Framework Narrative Questions

Reminder: please make sure that you answer all of the sub-questions to ensure that you receive the maximum amount of points.

All questions must be answered in the space provided. The character limit including spaces is 25,000 (equates to approximately 5.5 typed pages). Please note: review the PDF to ensure that your full response is included. If the full response is not visible, you have exceeded your character limit and you will need to revise your response accordingly.

There are eight (8) categories for Projected Deliverables:

Staff compensation and benefits to improve quality of workforce and retention;

Lower staff/child ratios and/or reduce class/group size;

Services that support comprehensive developmental needs of children;

Implementation of child assessment systems and use of data to support program practice and communication with families;

Enhanced training and professional development to build skills and credentials of educators;

Rich curricula and instructional supports for preschool educators and children;

Smooth transitions for children to kindergarten and/or other programs; and Effective and regular engagement and support of families in program activities and operations.

Projected Deliverables

Instructions: For each performance measure below, grantees must report their proposed benchmarks for FY 2016. Grantees are not required to accomplish all of the objectives and associated performance measures described below during FY 2016, but are expected to make progress on as many of them as possible within available UPK grant resources. EEC will analyze data collected from grantees about their progress toward meeting these objectives, and may use this information to evaluate fund use requirements in the future and to make other grant refinements.

Programs can enter a zero (0) for a particular Projected Deliverable. You will need to enter text in the box explaining why you are not focusing on this particular deliverable.

(12 Months) Total Maximum Contract Duration 2 Years (24 Months)

Project Duration

This UPK Open Competitive Grant will have an initial duration of one (1) year, starting on or about July 1, 2015 and ending on June 30, 2016, with a one (1) year option to renew in FY 2017 and will be subject to State and Federal budget allotment and appropriation. As a condition of approving the FY 2017 renewal grants, EEC will require that all Grantees have complied with the FY 2016 UPK Open Competitive Grant Required Services and Reporting Requirements. Please note that EEC may require Grantees to meet additional requirements related to the UPK grant in FY 2016 and FY 2017 so that the grant terms continue to reflect EEC’s priorities and the needs of the communities.

Funding determinations will be based upon three components:

QRIS Level Number of PK Children in Identified UPK Classroom Annual Operating Hours

Funding

Different from the FY13 to FY15 funding formula. The funding formula is no longer focused on the number of high needs children in the classroom.

Reduces the likelihood of programs over identifying “high needs children” in a particular UPK classroom.

Reduces the likelihood of programs moving/transferring “high needs children” from non-UPK classrooms into the identified UPK classrooms to ensure that they receive the maximum grant amount.

Creates a more stable funding stream for programs from year to year (the number of “high needs children” in a particular classroom constantly fluctuates throughout the year).

$10,000 per classroom for those programs that have a Level 2 QRIS rating AND a self-assessed, final submitted Level 3 online application;

$15,000 per classroom for those programs that have a Granted Level 3 online application; and $20,000 per classroom for those programs that have a Granted Level 4 online application.

The online application will get this information from the Program Summary section.

Funding: QRIS Level

There is a salary gap between Public PK Educators and Private PK Educators - approximately $10,000.*

In an effort to close this salary gap and to support staff retention, propose a tiered funding (per classroom) approach:

Addresses the increasing costs associated with a preschool program increasing a level in QRIS.

Incentivizes preschool programs in moving up in the QRIS levels.

Programs with five (5) or more preschool children in the identified classroom(s) will be eligible to receive 100% of the per classroom rate.

Programs with less than five (5) preschool children in the identified classroom(s) will be eligible to receive 60% of the per classroom rate.

The online application will get this information from the UPK Classroom Information Page.

Funding: Number of PK Children in Classroom(s)

In order to address the differences in classroom composition between Center-based/School-based and FCC settings, there is a second component to the funding formula - the number of PK children in the classroom.

Based on the FY15 UPK Grantees, the average number of PK children in CB/SB is 18; the average number of PK children in FCC is 3.

Programs that provide full-day, full-year services will be eligible to receive 100% of the grant award amount.

Programs that provide less than full-day, full-year services will be eligible to receive award amounts that are proportionate to the number of hours of operation per year. Classrooms/family child care homes operating for:

Three-quarters time care (1,560 through 2,078 hours per year) will receive 75% of the grant award;

Part-time care (1,080 through 1,559 hours) per year will receive 60% of the grant award; and Less than part-time care (less than 1,080 hours per year) will receive 50% of the grant award.

The online application will get this information from the Program Operation and Enrollment Information section.

Funding: Annual Operating Hours

Please note: this component has always been part of the UPK funding formula since at least FY12.

EEC estimates that approximately $6,300,000 will be available for funding this open competitive grant in FY 2016.

Please see Appendix D: FY 2016 Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) Grant (Fund Code 511) Budget Guidelines for specifics on allowable and unallowable fund use.

Funding is subject to State and Federal budget allotment and appropriation.

Should additional funds become available, EEC reserves the right to make additional awards based on the responses received, the needs of the Commonwealth, identified professional development needs, if applicable, and/or best value to the Commonwealth.

EEC reserves the right to reallocate funding to existing grantees in the event one or more grant is terminated or ended prior to the grant term.

EEC also reserves the right, in the event additional funding becomes available, to add additional required services and/or extend the existing services.

Funding Use

Instructional/Professional Staff: Professional staff that are qualified to provide either instructional or direct services, based on education/training and experience.

Advisor - may be a content expert in a particular field; and be involved with the program in such a way that he/she can mentor or guide. Examples include guidance on:

Program quality and evaluation measures (QRIS, NAEYC, NEASC, NAFCC, etc.)

Formative assessment (Teaching Strategies GOLD®, Work Sampling System®, High Scope Child Observation Record) Screening (Ages and Stages Questionnaire) Curriculum development Supporting the diverse learning needs of preschool children Family engagement Transition to Kindergarten

Allowable Fund Use: Instructional/Prof. Staff

Change from the early UPK grants: there are no longer UPK-specific line items. Those budget asks will be sprinkled throughout EEC’s standard budget.

Contractual Services: Funds to pay to another individual to carry out a single purpose or specific service to meet the objectives of the grant at a specific rate per Hour/Day/Week/Year/Flat. Details regarding the # of Hours/Days/Weeks/Year/Flat should be outlined when requesting these funds.

Advisor - may be a content expert in a particular field; and be involved with the program in such a way that he/she can mentor or guide. Examples include guidance on:

Program quality and evaluation measures (QRIS, NAEYC, NEASC, NAFCC, etc.)

Formative assessment (Teaching Strategies GOLD®, Work Sampling System®, High Scope Child Observation Record) Screening (Ages and Stages Questionnaire) Curriculum development Supporting the diverse learning needs of preschool children Family engagement Transition to Kindergarten Allowable Fund Use: Contractual Services

Contractual Services:

Consultant - may provide expert advice professionally to programs. Examples include advice on:

Program quality and evaluation measures (QRIS, NAEYC, NEASC, NAFCC, etc.)

Formative assessment (Teaching Strategies GOLD®, Work Sampling System®, High Scope Child Observation Record) Screening (Ages and Stages Questionnaire) Curriculum development Supporting the diverse learning needs of preschool children Family engagement Transition to Kindergarten

Allowable Fund Use: Contractual Services (continued)

Supplies & Materials: Supplies that will be used to carry out the required services of the grant. These supplies and materials are items costing less than $5,000 per unit or having a useful life of less than a year. These include instructional materials to implement parent and/or parent/child educational activities and non-instructional supplies.

Educational & Instructional Materials Curriculum Materials High Quality Children's Books Child Development Resources Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Materials Handouts Art Supplies Play & Learn Group Supplies (e.g., construction paper, glue sticks, craft supplies, etc.)

Instructional Technology Formative Assessment Licenses Laptops (price not to exceed $1000.00 per laptop) Tablets (price not to exceed $600.00 per tablet) Instructional "Apps" for Tablets Educational Software Non-Instructional Materials Accessories for Laptops/Tablets (e.g., desktop printers, protective cases, cables, etc.)

Office, Printing and Cleaning Supplies

Allowable Fund Use: Supplies & Materials

Instructional Technology may include computer programs that allow students to learn new content, practice using content already learned, and/or be evaluated on how much content they currently know. The Instructional Technology must be evidence-based and directly linked to the UPK Required Services. These technologies may allow teachers and students to demonstrate concepts and perform simulations.

Formative Assessment licenses would fall under Instructional Technology.

Other Costs: This sub-line is used to indicate costs associated with a variety of activities outlined in the application instructions.

Advertising Equipment Rental Maintenance/Repairs Memberships and Subscriptions Printing/Reproduction Staff Training: please include staff training under Capacity Building: Professional Development Rental of Space Telephone/Utilities Direct Service Transportation Other

Allowable Fund Use: Other Costs

Memberships & Subscriptions: costs associated with:

NAEYC

NEASC

NAFCC

Other:

Food: Requests for funds to purchase food needs to be limited to parents and children and be connected to the priorities articulated in the UPK Grant. Examples include:

Enhancing current or providing new family engagement activities; or Enhancing current or providing new transitional supports to children moving to/from other programs or to kindergarten.

Enrichment Activities: Requests for funds to support enrichment activities need to be connected to the priorities and required services articulated in the UPK Grant.

Capacity Building: For the purposes of this grant application, capacity building is defined as the acquisition of skills and knowledge for staff development in order to enhance their capacity to implement the requirements of the UPK grant.

Professional Development Application Fees College Courses CEU Courses Other

Professional development is for on-site training provided to programs and educators in the context of supporting UPK grant priorities and required services. These professional development sessions cannot be the only consultation service received. Other programs and providers can be considered for inclusion in this professional development opportunity to ensure maximum resources for professional development purposes.

Allowable Fund Use: Capacity Building

Indirect Costs: Indirect Costs are costs incurred for common objectives that benefit multiple programs administered by the grantee organization, or the organization as a whole, and as such are not readily assignable to a particular program funding stream.

Indirect Costs are part of the expenses allocated to administrative funds.

Under no circumstances can the use of the indirect cost rate exceed the amount of funds (10% of the total grant) allocated to administrative purposes.

A grantee can use an indirect cost rate ONLY IF it submits documentation stating the approved rate on letterhead from the approving agency. The Indirect Cost Rate Letter (Federal) is usually from Health and Human Services.

Public Schools do not need an Indirect Cost Rate approval letter. Their rate is provided by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Applicants must write their actual approved Indirect Cost Rate in Indirect Cost Rate box in the Online Application.

In the absence of having an approval letter, applicants must submit a detailed Admin budget.

Allowable Fund Use: Indirect Costs

Equipment: Tangible nonexpendable personal property including exempt property charged directly to the award having a useful life of more than one year and an acquisition cost of $5000 or more per unit.

Instructional Non-Instructional Other

All indoor and outdoor equipment purchased must be easily moveable.

Classroom materials purchased with UPK funds must enhance the educational experience of the children and should not be used to purchase or replace materials used for the basic operation of the classroom/family child care home or outdoor areas (e.g., shelves, nap mats, cubbies, tables, chairs, storage units, copy machines, portable shade coverings, mulch, etc.).

Allowable Fund Use: Equipment

All Administration Costs for the Lead agency and Subcontractors (if applicable) cannot exceed 10% of the grant requested amount.

Fiscal administration and oversight costs: For the purposes of this grant application, Grants Administration expenses are defined as the following:

Supervisor/Director salary/wages Secretary/Bookkeeper salary/wages Stipends for Supervisor/Director and/or Secretary/Bookkeeper Fringe Benefits for Supervisor/Director and/or Secretary/Bookkeeper Other Costs Equipment Rental Printing/Reproduction Rental Space (non-direct, office space) Telephone/Utilities (non-direct, administrative, Internet, and Wi-Fi) Indirect Costs Non-Instructional Equipment

Allowable Fund Use

Costs that supplant federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): Early Childhood Programs (Section 619) funding or federal Head Start funding.

Out-of-State Travel

Lobbying Expenses

Capital Items

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has informed EEC that early education and care programs that receive funds through the FY 2016 UPK Grant may not use those funds toward their federal Head Start match requirements. EEC uses 100% of the UPK state appropriation for Commonwealth federal match requirements, thus precluding other entities from using the same money for federal match and/or maintenance of effort requirements. Please note that this preclusion also includes recipients of funding from any other EEC appropriation other than the Head Start Grant, Line Item 3000-5000.

Unallowable Fund Use

Lead agencies with multiple UPK sites and family child care systems must communicate and consult with individual sites and family child care educators about the plan for UPK funds during the grant application process and throughout the grant period. UPK funds may not be used to benefit other sites within the same lead agency with the exception of certain agency and/or community-wide professional development opportunities when there is minimal or no additional cost to doing so.

Funding must directly benefit and target the children in the UPK classrooms/family child care homes.

Funded activities should support the diverse learning needs of all children, including high needs children, children with special needs, challenging behaviors and dual language learners.

Additional Stipulations

Family child care systems receiving funds for designated UPK family child care grantees must pass through at least 75% of their total UPK grant directly to the participating educators.

For the purposes of this grant, the term “pass through” means that educators will receive the funds directly through stipends or direct payments and decide how to spend these funds, with support from system staff, to improve the quality of their programs. Individual family child care educator budgets must detail how funds will be spent on quality improvement activities.

Additional Stipulations

Guarantees that more money is going directly to the FCC providers to support their programming needs.

Generates a stronger sense of accountability for the FCC providers.

Grant Evaluation: Narrative Questions

Grant Evaluation: Budget & Budget Narrative

FY 2016 Appendix D: Budget Guidelines

Grant Posting Available :

On COMMBUYS AT www.commbuys.com If you plan to do business with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts you are required to register on COMMBUYS before applying for any funding opportunity.

Registration Required: While you may previously have been registered as a seller in Comm-PASS, no vendor registration was transferred to COMMBUYS, so you must now register as a seller in COMMBUYS.

To assist you in the registration process, the Operational Services Division (OSD) has provided you with a series of COMMBUYS job aids and on-line learning videos for your use as you transition to COMMBUYS.

Posting of the Grant

COMMBUYS registration is easy! It takes just three simple steps:

1. Go to the COMMBUYS landing page at www.COMMBUYS.com

2. Select the first link titled REGISTER and complete registration. There is no cost.

3. You must register on COMMBUYS and select the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC) 84-10-15 for all EEC Grants. If you have already registered, please make sure you add the UNSPSC code to your registration.

Posting on COMMBUYS

Once you have registered, OSD will be able to link your agency's contract to the registration, which will allow you to get direct receipt of electronic POs or quote requests from the system.

Please note: Applicants will be required to be specify an Administrator as part of the registration process. COMMBUYS will confirm that the Tax ID entered does not already exist in the system. If the Tax ID is already in use, you will need to follow-up within your own agency to a obtain access to COMMBUYS. More detailed instructions are provided in the job aid if this applies to your agency.

If you have any questions or concerns, contact the COMMBUYS Help Desk at COMMBUYS@state.ma.us or contact them during normal business hours (8AM – 5PM Monday – Friday) at 1-888-627-8283 or 617-720-3197.

COMMBUYS Help Desk

To complete and submit the online portion of the grant application, please click the following link:

http://www.eec.state.ma.us/GrantsOnlineFY2016/Grants511/Default.aspx

The online portion of the Grant Application includes the following information that must be submitted online and printed as a PDF document. Please note: A PDF document is created once an Applicant has clicked the Submit button of the Online Application.

Link to Online Application

Contact Information Communities Served Languages Spoken Lead Agency Budget Subcontractor Budget 6a. FY 2016 Budget Summary 6b. FY 2017 Budget Summary Narrative Questions Projected Deliverables Required Grant Forms Lead Agency Indirect Cost Approval Letter (if applicable) Subcontractor Indirect Cost Approval Letter (if applicable) QRIS Summary of Application Profile (PDF document) EEC Professional Qualifications Registry Program Summary (PDF document) Checklist Cover Page

EEC may disqualify any incomplete grant applications from consideration/review.

Link to Online Application

The following Appendices are for reference only; they do NOT need to be filled out by the Respondent or included in any response submitted.

Appendix A: Required Specifications Appendix B: Grant Application RFR – Other Specifications Appendix C: FY 2016 Universal Pre-Kindergarten Online Application Instructions Appendix D: FY 2016 Universal Pre-Kindergarten Grant Budget Guidelines Appendix E: List of Towns and Cities in each EEC Region Appendix F-1: Demographic Information Regarding Cities and Towns in Massachusetts Appendix F-2: Demographic Information Regarding Cities and Towns in Massachusetts Appendix G: Supplemental Information for FY 2016 Universal Pre-Kindergarten Grant Appendix H: Grant Payment Terms, Grant Expenditures, Termination, Recoupment of Funds, and Relevant Law Appendix I: Rural Communities List Appendix J: Instructions for the QRIS Summary of Application Profile

Grant Appendices

All of the following documents below must be submitted:

by mail with one (1) original (all signatures must be in blue ink) and three (3) copies:

The entire PDF document generated by the Online Application With original signature on the Cover Page Required Grant Forms:

Lead Agency Indirect Cost Approval Letter (if applicable) Subcontractor Indirect Cost Approval Letter (if applicable) QRIS Summary of Application Profile (PDF document) EEC Professional Qualifications Registry Program Summary (PDF document) MA Standard Administrative Forms (if applicable) Electronically:

Required Grant Forms:

Lead Agency Indirect Cost Approval Letter (if applicable) Subcontractor Indirect Cost Approval Letter (if applicable) QRIS Summary of Application Profile (PDF document) EEC Professional Qualifications Registry Program Summary (PDF document) Please Note: The Required Grant Forms must be submitted as hard copies and submitted electronically, as these do not print as part of the PDF document. Grant applications will be considered incomplete if both hard copies and electronic copies are not received.

Online Application & Mail Submissions

Please send an email to notify us of your submission to EECSubmission@massmail.state.ma.us.

Include name of grant and name of your agency on the subject line of the email. Example: FY 2016 UPK Grant, XYZ Community Program.

Include the Required Grant Forms as attachments since these do not print as part of the Online Application PDF.

Please note: If your application is selected for funding, EEC will e-mail a Standard Contract Form to the individual identified as the “Applicant Contact” in Part 1 of each response. This Form will need to be printed, signed (in blue ink), and returned to EEC prior to the Grant start date. Directions on how to submit the signed form to EEC will be explained with the form.

Required Electronic Notification of Submissions

Please go to the following link to print out a PDF version of the QRIS Summary of Application Profile: http://www.mass.gov/edu/government/departments-and-boards/department-of-early-education-and-care/online-applications-for-authorized-users.html. For technical assistance regarding EEC's QRIS Program Manager, please contact the EEC's Help Desk at eechelpdesk@massmail.state.ma.us.

Please go to the following link to print out a PDF version of the EEC Professional Qualifications Registry Program Summary: http://www.mass.gov/edu/government/departments-and-boards/department-of-early-education-and-care/online-applications-for-authorized-users.html. For technical assistance regarding EEC's Professional Qualifications Registry, please contact the EEC's Help Desk at eechelpdesk@massmail.state.ma.us.

QRIS Summary of Application Profile & EEC Professional Qualifications Registry Program Summary

John (Jay) Swanson, EEC Policy Analyst Phone: 617-988-7803 Email: john.swanson2@state.ma.us Michele Smith, EEC Program Funding Specialist Phone: 617-988-7835 Email: michele.smith@state.ma.us Elizabeth Bryant, EEC Program Funding Specialist Phone: 617-988-6617 Email: elizabeth.bryant@massmail.state.ma.us

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