Joint School District No 28-J Of The Counties Of Adams & Arapahoe

Joint School District No 28-J Of The Counties Of Adams & Arapahoe, operating as Aurora Public Schools, is a Colorado-based school district serving as a prime recipient of federal education grants and as a sub-recipient of federal education funding passed through the Colorado Department of Education and other state agencies. The district does not hold federal contracts and competes for work exclusively within the federal grant ecosystem for K-12 education, nutrition, special education, English language acquisition, and workforce development programs.

Aurora Public Schools is a U.S. local government entity and school district headquartered in Aurora, Colorado. The district's federal activity is heavily weighted toward sub-recipient status — 76% of the past five years' awards are sub-awards flowing through state grantees, primarily the Colorado Department of Education (Board of Education Colorado) and the Colorado Energy Office. The remaining 24% of activity comprises direct prime grants from federal education agencies.

The district's funding footprint concentrates sharply on the Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, which accounts for 62 awards (52% of all awards in the source data) spanning Indian Education Formula Grants, Title I, Title II, Title III (English Language Learner), Title IV, and nutrition block grants. The Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service provides the second-largest tranche with 30 awards (25% of total) in nutrition block and Summer EBT programs. The Department of Education's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Office of English Language Acquisition, and the Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service round out the active customer set. Together, these five agencies account for 88% of awards.

The district's capability portfolio spans K-12 academic support, English language learner services, special education service delivery, student nutrition programs (including Summer EBT and the Nutrition Block), Indian education programming, and workforce development. Representative prime grant activity includes five consecutive years of Indian Education Formula Grants to LEAs from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, with awards dated annually from 2022 through 2026 (each carrying a one-year performance cycle). As a sub-recipient, Aurora Public Schools delivers federally funded Title programs (academic improvement, teacher development, student support), nutrition services (monthly Nutrition Block allocations and Summer EBT), special education services (Part B and Preschool under IDEA), and workforce initiatives including EASI (Equitable Accelerated and Strategic Investment) cohorts for teacher development and charter school facility assistance. The district also serves as fiscal agent for Aurora Quest K-8, a sub-recipient entity receiving COVID-19 recovery funds under the Executive Office of the State of Colorado. A subsidiary entity, Pickens Technical College (Aurora Public Schools), received a sub-award from the Colorado Energy Office for the Training for Residential Energy Contractors (TREC) grant to provide heat pump upskilling for HVAC technicians as of January 2026.

Activity has grown from one award in 2022 to 26 in 2024 and 32 in 2025, with 20 awards recorded through August 2026, indicating sustained or accelerating growth in sub-award volume. Only one award has an ultimate completion date within the next twenty-four months, meaning the district faces minimal recompete pressure in the near term; most of the district's recurring education and nutrition grants renew on annual cycles and fall outside the immediate recompete window. The district has not competed for or been awarded federal contracts and does not participate in federal contracting vehicles such as GWACs, IDIQs, or BPAs; its entire federal footprint is grant-driven through the Department of Education and Department of Agriculture.