Poudre School District R-1

Poudre School District R-1, a local government entity and school district headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado, operates as a federal grant recipient (12% of awards) and sub-recipient (88% of awards) delivering K–12 education, early childhood services, nutrition programs, and school-based mental health and wellness initiatives. The district does not hold federal contracts; all federal funding flows through grants from the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Agriculture, and the state of Colorado acting as pass-through grantor.

The district's prime grant footprint centers on three active awards. The Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families awarded Poudre School District R-1 a $9.672 million Head Start and Early Head Start project grant (CFDA 93.600) in November 2025, running through October 31, 2030, to deliver early childhood education, health, nutritional, social, and family support services to infants, toddlers, preschoolers (ages 3–4), and pregnant women in Fort Collins. The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education has funded two Indian Education formula grants, most recently in July 2026 for the period through June 30, 2027, and previously in July 2025. The district also holds a project grant from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education for a Mental Health in Schools Fellowship Program partnership with Colorado State University, awarded in April 2023 and running through December 2026.

Sub-award activity dominates the portfolio. Poudre School District R-1 receives the majority of its federal funding as a sub-recipient from the Colorado Board of Education, which acts as the state-level pass-through for Title I, Title II, Title III, Title IV, and other ESEA programs, as well as USDA nutrition block grants, 21st Century Community Learning Centers funding, special education (Part B and preschool), McKinney-Vento homeless education, and charter school facility assistance. Representative sub-awards include recurring monthly nutrition block grants, Title I funds for disadvantaged students, Project AWARE Cohort 2 mental health funding, 21st Century afterschool and summer learning programs, EASI school improvement grants, and USDA National School Lunch Program equipment assistance. The district also received a sub-award in July 2025 from Highland CSB 1, LLC for an EPA Community Schools Building (Round 2) project. Additionally, Poudre School District R-1 received a $437,999 sub-award in November 2023 from the Executive Office of the State of Colorado for a RISE Youth Apprenticeship grant to expand career-pathway apprenticeships in transportation, IT, cybersecurity, construction, and design.

Customer concentration is sharp and predictable for a school district. The top five funding sources account for 85% of awards by count: the Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (40 awards), the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (32 awards), the Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (6 awards), the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families (4 awards), and the Department of Education Office of English Language Acquisition (4 awards). Activity has grown steadily — two awards in 2021 to twenty-seven in 2024 and thirty-one in 2025 — with only two awards reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, indicating a stable, low-turnover funding base. Combined obligated dollars across the 101-award portfolio total $184.5 million over the source period.