Unified School District No 401

Unified School District No 401, a rural Kansas public school district headquartered in Chase, receives federal funding as a grant recipient (64% of recent awards as sub-recipient, 36% as prime recipient) through the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Services office. The district does not hold federal contracts and operates exclusively in the grant landscape, with no prime contracting vehicles or subcontractor roles on federal procurements.

The district's federal funding footprint centers on two grant programs. The Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education provides recurring annual formula grants under the Small, Rural School Achievement Program, with awards in each fiscal year from 2022 through 2027 funding ongoing operations at the district level. The Department of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Program awarded the district a $295,257 project grant under the Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Grants program (CFDA 16.710) in October 2024, running through September 2027, to implement evidence-based school security improvements and promote a positive learning environment through community policing partnerships and officer crisis response capabilities.

The district acts as a sub-recipient on the majority of its federal funding. Thirty-five of fifty-five total awards flow through the Kansas State Department of Education as the prime grantee, carrying block grant allocations, Title I Low Income education funds, and Stronger Connections Grant Program awards from July 2022 forward. The district has received at least one block grant sub-award per month since mid-2023, reflecting ongoing pass-through allocations from the state education agency. As a prime recipient, the district holds six Small, Rural School Achievement Program formula grants directly from the Department of Education (fiscal years 2022 through 2027) and the single Justice Department school violence prevention project grant noted above.

Combined dollars obligated across all federal sources total $1.8 million, reflecting the modest scale typical of a single rural school district. Activity has grown from three awards in each of 2022 and 2023 to twelve awards in 2024 and 2025, and twelve additional awards in 2026, driven by increased sub-award flows from the state education agency and the new Justice Department grant. One award reaches ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months. The district serves three distinct federal customer agencies, with the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (likely School Lunch and related nutrition programs) and the Department of Education accounting for all but one of the fifty-five awards in the source data.