Grants to Colorado local educational providers, public libraries, nonprofit organizations, IHEs, Tribes, and public agencies for projects to expand educational opportunities for students. Funding is intended to support students and communities as they recover from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

As Colorado students and families continue to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Colorado Department of Education seeks to support and empower students and families across the state through a coordinated, comprehensive, and consistent community approach. The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated the academic and personal challenges many students face. Helping them overcome those challenges requires not only the efforts of educators during the school day but also the efforts of student-centric afterschool and summer programming.

As such, the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) is creating a grant program that will support districts and community-based organizations (CBOs) in creating new, or expanding existing, expanded learning opportunities (ELOs). This program will be funded under the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER III) state reserve.

This program exists to distribute funds to qualified applicants, pursuant to the American Rescue Plan requirements for the state education agency to reserve 1% of the state set aside to fund evidence-based comprehensive afterschool programs and an additional 1% to fund evidence-based summer enrichment programs, to create expanded learning opportunities that address students’ academic and personal needs, ensure families can continue to engage in and support their students’ learning, and ultimately continue to strengthen schools and communities during COVID-19 recovery.

This funding opportunity seeks to accelerate student learning and strengthen student engagement in that learning by:

• Providing students with comprehensive out-of-school time programs, including after school and during the summer, that build upon a student’s school-day instruction to provide the continuity necessary to meet their academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  
• Providing students a safe and healthy environment where additional educational enrichment services, programs, and activities are offered to students, particularly those who are disproportionately adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Offering families of students served opportunities for active and meaningful engagement in their children’s education, to ultimately positively impact student academic outcomes.
• Providing students and their families with a deeper connection to their school and community, allowing them to understand and take advantage of the full breadth of school and community supports and opportunities available to them.

The following are projected outcomes of this funding opportunity:

• Expanded capacity for districts and community-based organizations to leverage after school and summer programming to accelerate the completion of lost or unfinished learning; and
  
• Strengthened student engagement in learning–both in the traditional school day and out.

Allowable Use of Funds and information about Priority Considerations can be found on the URL for Full Text, below.