SCC6 FOA-ETA 26-40 Amendment One.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration

Funding Opportunity Announcement

FOA-ETA-26-40

Amendment One

Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants (Round 6)

AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration, Department of Labor

ACTION: Amendment to FOA-ETA-26-40

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Labor announced on February 17, 2026, the availability of funding for the Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants (Round 6) to be awarded through a competitive process.

The document is hereby amended as follows:

Cover Page of the Funding Opportunity Announcement

The following is added:

On approximately March 17, 2026, a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page about the Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants FOA will be available at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/grants/apply/find-opportunities. Please check this link frequently for future updates, as additional FAQs may be added.

Section II.A. Eligible Applicants

The following is added (in bold):

1. The following organizations are eligible to apply:

Public and State controlled institutions of higher education Tribally controlled colleges and universities

The Department will award grants under this program to lead applicants that are community colleges as defined in Section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act, and at which the associate degree is primarily the highest degree awarded, as shown by the college's designation at https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/. The Department is requiring community colleges to apply for this funding as a consortium of institutions of higher education. Thus, a community college must apply as a lead of a consortium of institutions. Consortium members may include community colleges and public and private, non-profit four-year institutions, as defined in Section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act.

An institution consortium must include, at a minimum, the consortium lead and a majority of community colleges located in the state (defined as 50 percent or greater) or a comparable demonstration of majority engagement that is relevant to community colleges, but the Department strongly encourages applications that encompass a statewide system of community colleges, where feasible, to support the priorities of SCC6 related to statewide impact. The institutional consortium must form an SCC Partnership as described below in Section III.H.

Required Partnerships. Grants will be awarded to the lead applicant of an SCC Partnership, which will serve as the grantee and have overall fiscal and administrative responsibility for the grant.

The third paragraph is deleted and replaced with the following:

NOTE: The Department does not intend to fund more than one successful application per state;

however, dependent on the quality of the applications received, among other factors, the Department may consider an award to a qualifying tribal consortium within a state that otherwise may receive an award. Tribally controlled colleges and universities may also be part of the state consortium and are not required to apply as separate consortium applicants. See Section VI.C. Review and Selection Process for further information.

The following is added (in bold):

3. State Leadership Letters of Support

To be eligible for consideration, each application must include a letter of support from any one official listed in “Group A” and one letter from any one official in “Group B.” The letters should speak to the commitment to state-level coordination activities to support data integration and data sharing priorities described in Section III.B.3.b.

Group A:

• The Governor

• Executive Director/Chief/Chair, Governor’s Workforce Cabinet

• State Workforce Board Chair

• State Workforce or Labor Agency Head/Chief

• Tribal Chief/Governor/Chairperson (if pursuing separate tribal consortium)

Group B:

• Chief State Education Office/SHEEO

• Chief State School Officer

• State CTE Director

• Community College Board Chair (if pursuing separate tribal consortium)

Section III.H. Required Partnerships

The fourth and fifth paragraphs are deleted and replaced with the following:

Required Institution Consortium

The Department is requiring applicants to apply for this funding as a consortium of colleges, comprised of a sufficient demonstration of community college engagement to support the statewide impact necessary. This requires that applicants’ consortia include, if not a majority of the community colleges (or tribally controlled community colleges) within the state, then a comparable demonstration of majority engagement that is relevant to community colleges. Each applicant consortium is required to explain what measurement they are using to identify majority engagement and how they have identified the numerators and denominators for the ratios they are providing and to provide assurance they are meeting the requirement. See Section IV.C.3.i. for more information.

a. Required Institution Coordinating Entity

Applicants must include in their SCC Partnerships at least one state-level, community college district-level, or tribal entity within the state, referred to in this FOA as the institution coordinating entity. The institution coordinating entity must be a state-, district-level, or tribal entity with oversight within the state that is responsible for regulating, governing, advising, and/or coordinating the institutions of higher education in the institution consortium. Examples include, but are not limited to, a state governing body for community colleges or for institutions of higher education more broadly; a statewide association of community colleges; a community college district (or equivalent) entity; or an identified entity within the tribe that provides governance for one or more of the tribally controlled colleges or universities in the consortium. The identified institution coordinating entity will play an important role in supporting the statewide or large-scale impacts of the grant and its role in doing so must be consistent with the objectives outlined in the Core Elements of the FOA (Section III.B.) and the requirements in Section IV.C. Project Narrative.

Section IV.C.3.i. Institutions of Higher Education Selection (Up to 4 Points)

The second bullet is deleted and replaced with the following:

• Applicants that do not apply as a statewide community college system must describe how they have defined a majority of community colleges within their state or comparable demonstration of majority engagement that is relevant to community colleges, convincingly demonstrate that their proposed institution consortium members (described in Section III.A.5) meet the required majority threshold for the state as they have defined it, and describe how the colleges are organized relative to the labor market area(s) described in response to the Statement of Need (Section IV.C.1).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE EMAIL SCC6_FOA-ETA-26-40@dol.gov.

Signed March 18, 2026 in Washington, D.C. by:

Brinda Ruggles Grant Officer, Employment and Training Administration