U.S. Department of Education Awards Charter School Grants

The U.S. Department of Education (USED) awarded nearly $400 million in federal grants to support and expand charter schools in States and districts. The grants are part of the Charter Schools Program under USED's Office of Innovation and Improvement. These funds were part of the FY 2018 funding package that was passed by the U.S. Congress in the spring of this year.

The grants were broken out into several categories:

• About $313 million was granted to eight states to support new, replicating, and expanding charter schools (about 300 schools total)
• Charter school developers was awarded $29.5 million to launch new charter schools or expand existing ones
• About $40 million was granted to four groups to help charter schools enhance their financial credit so that they can gain eligibility for private-sector capital to build new schools or pay for renovations
• About $16 million was awarded to eight organizations with the purpose of supporting the charter school sector

The FY2019 spending bill that was passed in September included an additional $40 million for these programs for the 2019-2020 school year. This brings the funding level for Charter Schools Programs up to about $440 million, so more funding will be available for next year's Charter Schools Program grants as well.

Interested in learning more about how ESSA impacted charter schools?

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