The Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII): Promise Neighborhoods Program CFDA Number 84.215N | ED GRANTS 072117 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for ED GRANTS 072117 001

The U.S. Department of Education, through the Office of Innovation and Improvement, announced a discretionary grant competition for the Promise Neighborhoods Program. This program was authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 as updated by the Every Student Succeeds Act, and it is aimed at producing real, measurable improvements in both academic performance and overall child development for children living in the nation’s most distressed communities. The central idea is to help stabilize and strengthen a neighborhood by connecting children and families to a coordinated, community-based pipeline of supports, starting early in life and continuing through high school and into pathways that support long-term success.

The program targets neighborhoods with a high concentration of low-income residents and multiple indicators of significant distress. The opportunity description highlights examples of these stressors, such as high poverty levels, childhood obesity, academic failure, and involvement with the juvenile justice system (including delinquency, adjudication, or incarceration). The schools connected to the target area are also expected to be those facing serious performance challenges, including schools implementing comprehensive support and improvement or targeted support and improvement activities under section 1111(d) of ESEA. In practical terms, this positions Promise Neighborhoods as a place-based initiative that tries to align school improvement work with wraparound services and community supports, rather than treating educational outcomes as something that schools can fix on their own.

A key requirement is that the proposed continuum of solutions must be accessible to children with disabilities and English learners. That means applicants are expected to design services and partnerships in ways that remove barriers to participation, provide appropriate accommodations and language access, and ensure that these student groups are not treated as an afterthought. The program’s stated outcomes include improved school readiness, increased high school graduation, and stronger access to high-quality services that support children and families across multiple stages of development.

Eligibility is structured to ensure that applicants are rooted in the community and capable of coordinating across institutions. An eligible organization must be representative of the geographic area it proposes to serve, and it must operate or propose to work with and actively involve, in coordination with the school’s local educational agency, at least one public elementary or secondary school located within the defined service area. In addition, the applicant must fit into one of the eligible entity categories: an institution of higher education; an Indian Tribe or Tribal organization as defined in federal law; or one or more nonprofit entities that form a formal partnership with at least one qualifying partner entity. Those required partner types include a high-need local educational agency, an institution of higher education, the office of a chief elected official of a local government unit, or an Indian Tribe or Tribal organization. Beyond forming partnerships on paper, the applicant also must already be providing at least one of the proposed pipeline services in the geographic area, which signals that the Department is looking for applicants with an existing footprint and demonstrated ability to deliver services locally.

From an application logistics standpoint, submissions were required to be made electronically through the Grants.gov Apply site. The notice also includes a practical instruction for locating the application package: applicants should search by the numeric portion of the program number only, omitting the letter suffix (for example, searching for 84.215 rather than the version that includes an added letter). The opportunity listing notes it is a grant mechanism within the education funding category, offered by the Department of Education, with an original closing date of September 5, 2017. The listing also indicates an expectation of seven awards, although the award ceiling field is not specified in the provided text.

• The Department of Education in the education sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "The Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII): Promise Neighborhoods Program CFDA Number 84.215N" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 84.215.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-07-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-09-05. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 7 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for ED GRANTS 072117 001

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