001All right, welcome. It is 11:00. We will go ahead and get started. Welcome to the 2025 2026 CSP grant applicant webinar. My name is Chelsea Garcia and I am the director of resource and support in our division of charter school authorizing. We also would like to highlight some of our team members who are here with us as well. So, we have Melissa Miner who is our new charter schools program grant manager and her email is listed there and she is here with us today as well as Miss Britney Eldrid. She is our new charter schools program grant specialist and her email is also listed there and then my information is there as well. We also have Charlotte Worman, our grant manager, division of grants administration and Carmen Patrick, our grant and negotiator, division of grants
002administration. Moving into our agenda for today, we will go over our program purpose, grant overview, grant and application information, budget and use of funds, which includes grant management, planning and implementation, allowable activities, unallowable activities, review criteria, and priority points, and then next steps. If you have any questions, you're welcome to put them in the chat. Um, all questions will be uh formally answered if they are able to in the Q&A that will be posted and we'll have more information about that at the end. So to start, we'll start with some background information of the authority and program purpose. The Texas CSP grant is allowed through public law 114-95, Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended by the ESSA by ESSA, Title 4, Part C, the Texas Quality Charter School Program Grant awarded to
003TEA, Texas Education Agency, by the United States Department of Education, and the Texas Education Code TE, chapter 12, subchapter C, D, and E, and Texas administrative code TAC 100.1033B13. [Music] The Texas Quality Charter Schools Program Grant, a $90 million grant, was awarded to TEA by the US Department of Education in the fall of 2020. The grant period runs from October 1st, 2020 through September 30th, 2026. And TEA grants awards of up to $900,000 to eleas as subgrantees to open, prepare new charter schools and replicate, expand highquality charter schools. The purpose of the Texas Charter Schools Program Grant is to support the growth of highquality charter schools in Texas, especially those focused on improving academic outcomes for educationally disadvantaged students. Now, we'll go over the overview of the 2025 2026 CSP grant for sub C and
004D. 13,248,365 is available funding for this cycle. There's approximately 14 grants of up to $900,000 or per award. The grant project period, the anticipated beginning date is November 17th, 2025, and the end date for the grant will be September 30th, 2026. All grant funds must be spent on or between these two grant dates. Eligible applicants must one meet the federal definition of a charter school as defined in ESSA, two never have received CSP funds under ESSA, and three be one of the following subchapter C or D charter. If an eligible campus receives a CSP grant, the campus must continue to meet the federal definition of a charter school throughout the grant period in order to remain eligible for the grant. We will cover the federal definition in a few slides. Subchapter C campuses are district
005authorized charter schools. These are charter schools authorized by the local board of trustees pursuant to Texas education code chapter 12 subchapter C as a new charter school or as a charter school does it that is designed to replicate a new charter school campus based on the educational model of an existing highquality charter school and that submits all required documentation as stated in the RFA. Additionally, the charter campus must open prior to Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026 to be eligible for a CSP award. Please note, a charter a campus charter school must apply through its public school district and the application must be signed by the district superintendent or the appropriate design. Subchapter D campuses are state authorized charter schools. These are open enrollment charter schools that have been designated by the commissioner of education for the
0062425, 2526 or 2627 school year as a highquality campus and does not have a current CSP grant. The open enrollment charter campus must have submitted an expansion amendment and corresponding highquality designation amendment for the 2526 or 2627 school year by the application due date of September 22nd, 2025. Please note that both of these amendments must be approved in order to be eligible for award. Additionally, the charter campus must open prior to Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026. These subchapter D charter schools in order to expand or replicate must one submit non-expansion amendment for highquality designation which must be approved. Two submit an expansion amendment for an additional campus which must be approved. Please note again that the commissioner must approve the submitted expansion amendment and highquality campus designation amendment. This means if an applicant scores high enough
007to be awarded but one or both of the amendments are denied, the application will be deemed ineligible for award. And then three never have received CSP funds for the proposed campus and four begin serving students by September 2nd, 2026. The following is a partial list of requirements for subd charter to receive a highquality designation. The charter must be accredited, have 50% of their students in tested grades, be evaluated under standard accountability, be rated A and or B for three consecutive years, have all of their campuses receiving an A or B rating, have no campuses with federal interventions in progress, and have a highquality amendment that is paired with an expansion amendment. If you have any questions regarding the highquality campus designation amendment or expansion amendment or are looking to submit these amendments, please contact your
008TEA portfolio coordinator as they handle the amendment processes. Moving into the federal definition of a charter school as defined by ESS. I will give you a few moments to review this partial list. And then we will come back and highlight some items on the list. vote to highlight. I would like to highlight line D as you must provide some level of elementary or secondary education which means you cannot be a prekonly program. Additionally, line F as you may not charge tuition of any kind even if your program includes early childhood. Moving into the remainder of the definition, we'll give you another moment to review this information, but please note that your campus must continue to meet all aspects of this federal definition throughout the grant period to continue receiving CSP funding. moving in to additional
009CSP grant requirements. You must have policies aligned to the code of federal regulations under Edgar for procurement, depreciation, conflict of interest, and disposition of assets. You must have sufficient internal controls, including segregation of duties to mitigate the risk of waste, fraud, and abuse, and must appropriately tag and maintain effective control over assets purchased with grant funds. Additionally, you must comply with the Open Meetings Act, must have all required postings on the school's website while receiving grant funds. More details can be found about this in the program guidelines. And you must participate in monitoring activities such as but not limited to on-site visits, desk reviews, and annual evaluations. Now we will get into application elements, specifically the grant and application information. Important grant dates. The application post date was August 8th, 2025. We have optional application
010office hours on August 22nd, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. and August 29th, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. And the application due date as September 22nd, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time. The estimated grant start date is November 17, 2025 and the grant end date will be September 30th, 2026. The process for the grant competition is as follows. First, you will complete a CSP grant application. TEA staff will then determine the eligibility of all applicants submitting applications. Eligible applications are then scored by external evaluators contracted by TEA. Applications that meet the cut score after review are evaluated to determine if priority points are to be awarded. Once the priority points are added to all applications that met the cut score, grant awards are generally made starting with the highest scoring application and continuing to the next scoring
011application until funds are exhausted or until the applications with the minimum percentage score or higher are funded, whichever is the case. Negotiations then take place between TEA and the applicant. Once those negotiations are complete, the grantee will receive their notice of grant award abbreviated as NOGA and can start requesting reimbur reimbursements for allowable aligned expenditures. The grant start date is the date that an LEA can start incurring costs related to the grant. The NOGA date or notice of grant award date is the date that the NOGA is approved and the LEA can start entering expenditures for reimbursement. So let let's say that campus A gets their NOGA 2 months after the start date. The subgrantee is able to request reimbursement for any allowable expenditures incurred from the grant start date to the NOGA date. The
012grant end date is the date by which the LEA must expend funds and utilize items or services purchased with grant funds. The CSP grant is a reimbursement grant. Grantees will incur expenses out as outlined in their approved grant application and submit payment requests through the expenditure reporting system for reimbursement. Funds are not front-loaded to the grantee. We will now go over each of the questions you will need to answer in your application part one document. The first narrative section asks you to list up to three quantifiable needs identified in your needs assessment. Once you have identified a need, you will need to create a corresponding plan to address that quantifiable need. So in the example here under quantifiable need it the example named the data that was used to identify the area of need. It
013names the student group that was identified as having a need and it names the gap that was identified when looking at the data. Then the example plan for addressing the need states what would be used to close the specific gap that was identified. It states why the plan was chosen proven past success and provides details about the plan. A moment to continue reviewing this example here. The next portion of the application will have you describe the summitative smart goal you have identified for the CSP grant. This is a goal that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely and is related to student outcomes and consistent with the purpose of the CSP grant. The smart goal is a summitive goal, meaning that the goal is the desired outcome of the overall grant period, which the grant
014ends September 30th of 2026. Quarterly benchmarks will be used to determine progress towards this goal throughout the duration of the grant. A smart goal should be stated in the following format and tells us who, what, when, and how much that is associated with the goal. So by a specific date percent of all students or a specific student group or student groups will achieve a level of performance on the specific assessment. So an example smart goal is that in September 2026 80% of all students who are assessed will have achieved acceptable performance on the reading ELA examinations that are part of the state of Texas assessment of academic readiness or star. A non-example would be by September 2026, students in grades 3 through 5 will be reading on or above grade level. So this non-example was
015not sumitative, does not include the percentage of students, and does not include the specific assessment that will be used. Smart goals should support the overall purpose of the CSP grant, which is to improve academic outcomes for educationally disadvantaged students and increase the number of A and B rated charter campuses in Texas. Moving into implementation smart goals portion of the application. You'll describe three to five smart goals you have identified for the CSP grant which is again a goal that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely related to implementation of the grant. The implementation smart goals are used to measure your progress towards grant project implementation. Progress measures will be included to determine progress goals, progress towards these goals throughout the duration of the grant. Each goal must occur within the grant period and should align
016to the student outcome smart goal um purpose of the CSP grant and your planned expenditures. Within the application, you will identify the benchmarks that you will use at the end of the first three grant quarters to measure progress towards meeting the process and implementation goals defined for the grant. These should be obtainable yet ambitious benchmark goals that align with the student outcome smart goals established earlier on in your application. And these goals should all be measurable and we recommend writing them in the smart format. So the first three quarter dates are there and we um a tip from us is to plan backwards from the summitive goal. The project evaluation and modification portion of the application will have you describe how will you how you will use project evaluation data to determine when and how
017to modify your program. If your benchmarks do not show progress towards meeting your summitive smart goal, describe how you will use evaluation data to modify your program for sustainability. So please describe specifically what data will be collected, when and how it will be collected, who will collect it, and how they will analyze it. Also include methods to solicit feedback and monitor effects of the grant. Finally, specifically describe the process for making modifications or correcting deficiencies. The program asurances portion of the application will be all applicants. One is supplement supplant two the family educational rights and privacy act or furpa. Three, statutory requirements, TEA program requirements, performance measures and performance data. Four, every student succeeds act provisions and asurances. And five, electronic information resources, EIR. These statutory requirements, all applications must answer 1 through nine. and
018the language is taken directly from ESSA title 4 part C. So number one describe the roles and responsibilities of the eligible applicant any partner organizations and charter management organizations as applicable including the administrative and contractual roles and responsibilities of such partners. For number one, clearly describe the roles and responsibilities of the charter operator, the district if applicable, and the CMO if applicable. Clearly describe how grant funds will be managed and who will manage them. Also describe each entity's role in progress monitoring and decisionm. Number two, describe the quality controls agreed to between the eligible applicant and the authorized public chartering agency involved, TEA, such as a contract or performance agreement. How a school's performance in the state's accountability system and impact on student achievement, which may include student academic growth, will be one of the
019most important factors for renewal or revocation of the school's charter, and how the authorizer will reserve the right to revoke or not renew a school's charter based on financial, structural, or operational factors involving the management of the school. Clearly describe how the authorizing agency will monitor the campus performance, operations, and finance. Number three, describe how the autonomy and flexibility granted to the proposed charter school campus is consistent with the definition of a charter school in section 4310, including how the proposed charter school campus will have a high degree of autonomy over budget and operations and personnel decisions. include a detailed description of the ways in which the proposed charter school campus will be permitted to govern autonomously as evidenced by the day-to-day decision makers at the campus and their input with regards to the school's
020curriculum, calendar, budget, and daily operations. For subchapter C charters, describe how the autonomy is above and beyond the flexibility and autonomy afforded to traditional campuses within the school district. Number four, describe how the planned academic program will support improved academic outcomes for educationally disadvantaged students. Your response should align to the SMART goal and benchmarks, correlate to the grade levels the campus plans to serve, and include specific information about how the academic program will impact educationally disadvantaged students. Number five, describe how the eligible applicant will solicit and consider input from parents and other members of the community on the implementation and operation of the proposed charter school campus. Clearly describe the strategies used to gather input from parents and community members and include how the input will be used in decision-m. This response should include strategies
021from gathering feedback on both implementation and operation. And number six, describe the eligible applicant's plans for ongoing effective parent and community engagement. Clearly describe a variety of strategies for parent and community engagement. Describe the plan for communicating and engaging with parents and community members. These plans should be ongoing and not include any activities that are unallowable in the CSP grant, such as purchasing food or gifts for attendees. Number seven, describe the eligible applicant's plan for meeting the transportation needs of the students at the proposed charter school campus. Charter schools in Texas are not required to provide transportation to their students. However, charter schools are required to meet the transportation needs of one, students receiving special education who would be unable to attend classes without transportation services. as outlined in their IEP. And two, students eligible
022under section 504 of the federal rehabilitation act who will be unable to attend class without special transportation services. 8 A describe the eligible applicants planned activities and expenditures of grant funds for planning activities. 8B, describe the eligible applicant's planning activities and expenditures of grant funds for implementation activities. And 8 C describe how the eligible applicant will maintain financial sustainability after the end of the grant period. Please ensure what you describe in narrative 8A and 8B align with your proposed budget because program staff will review language in this narrative and compare it to what is budgeted in the application. Please be as specific as possible when describing planned activities and expenditures of grant funds. And nine describe and justify any requests for waiverss. waiverss of any federal, statutory, or regulatory provisions that the eligible applicant believes
023are necessary for the successful operation of the charter school and a description of any state or local rules generally applicable to public schools that the applicant proposes to be waved or otherwise not apply to the school. For statutory requirement number nine, most applicants state that they are not requesting any waver waiverss of federal or state provisions. If you are not requesting any waivers, do not leave the section blank. State something along the lines of no waivers will be requested. Questions 10 through 14 will only need to be answered if you are applying for a grant for a subchapter C charter campus. So number 10, describe the educational program at the proposed charter school campus, including how the program will enable all students to meet challenging state student achievement standards, academic achievement standards, the grade levels
024or ages of children to be served, and the curriculum and instructional practices to be used. If the district has partnered with an entity to replicate a highquality charter school model, the description of the educational program must contain the name of the high-quality charter school that is being replicated along with the additional pertinent information to demonstrate that the charter school meets the definition of a highquality charter school. Number 11, describe how the district authorizer will monitor the proposed charter school campus and recruiting, enrolling, retaining, and meeting the needs of all students, including children with disabilities and English learners. You will need to clear clearly describe how the district will monitor the recruitment of students with disabilities and English learners. That the charter is properly enrolling those students and monitoring that the charter is meeting the needs
025of all students including special populations. Finally, you will need to describe district actions should deficiencies be found. 12. Describe the manner in which an annual independent financial audit of the campus is to be conducted. The campus charter must have a plan for an audit that is separate and apart from the district's annual financial audit. You will need to explicitly describe how the annual audit is separate and apart from the district's annual financial audit. Please state who will conduct the audit and how it will be shared with the district. 13. Describe the manner in which the campus will provide information necessary for the school district in which it is located to participate as required by Texas Education Code TE chapter 12 subchapter C or by SBOE rule and the public education information management system or PES.
026Clearly describe the process for how the charter will report PES information to the district and the student information systems that will be used. Number 14, describe the manner in which the district will flow other federal and state funds to the proposed charter school campus. Describe the timelines for flowing these funds to the campus that will ensure students are promptly receiving the benefit of services that appropriate federal and state funds can provide. include when state and federal funds will be flowed to the campus, how the district will will determine the amount of funds the campus will receive, details about the process in which the federal and state funds will be allocated after the district receives them. No administrative fees may be retained by the district from the CSP grant. Moving on to the TEA program requirements
027within the application. One will include projected population to be served in 2026 2027. Projected number who would attend an F-rated campus in 2026 2027. the names and CDC numbers of the F-rated campuses if applicable and census track numbers if a campus will be located in a qualified opportunity zone if applicable. A map with qualified opportunity zones is linked from the program guidelines. If your campus will not be located in a qualified opportunity zone, please do not leave the section blank. Input none or NA. If more students apply than you are able to accommodate, describe your lottery procedures to admit students. Our next slide will detail these lottery procedures in more detail. So, the charter school receiving CSP funds must use a lottery to enroll students if more students apply than there are seats available. Lotteryies
028must include all eligible applicants and be random in nature. Gender-based lotteryies and weighted lotteryies are not allowed. And then some exemptions from the lottery apply which can be found in the program guidelines. Attachment number one in the application must be filled out by sub D and sub C applicants. SubC applicants will also need to submit attachments 2 through 5. Before awarding CSP funds, TEA must be able to confirm without a doubt that the charter school was authorized in accordance with state law. These documents are critical for support for school districts that are applying for this grant opportunity. Attachment five will allow TEA to determine if the campus charter should receive priority points. Attachment one is the federal definition. Attachment two is a documentation of authorization to charter. Attachment three is the board of trustees approval.
029Attachment four is the narrative description from superintendent. And attachment five is priority points for subchapter C. Again, attachment one must be filled out by sub subchapter D and subchapter C applicants. And then subchapter C applicants will also need to submit attachments 2 through 5. Now we will move into the budget and use of funds elements of the application. The grant start date will depend on when the funding memo is released to the public. All expenditures and services must take place within the grant period. Subgrantees will have access to their notice of grant award and be able to submit requests for reimbursements after negotiations are complete. Requests for reimbursements are entered through the expenditure reporting system and require proper source documentation for approval. Amendment requests must be submitted and approved before the proposed activity or budget
030can take place. The CSP grant is broken into two phases, planning and implementation. Planning activities are related to the planning and program design of the charter's educational program. These activities usually take place during the period from the grant start date to the first day the campus starts serving students. Planning activities cannot occur for more than 18 months. Implementation activities are related to the implementation of the charter's educational program. These activities usually occur between the first day the campus between began serving students and the grant end date. The image below is a representation of the timeline planning first day of school implementation. Budgeted expenditures are tied to the type of activity, not when the expenditure occurs. We have a planning activity and an implementation activity. Some purchases that are allowable during the implementation phase may be
031purchased before the first day of school. These will still be budgeted as part of implementation. The phase in which a purchase is allowable is determined by the type of activity and not necessarily when the purchase is made. An example of this is classroom furniture such as desk or smartboards. These purchases are considered implementation activities but are necessary to purchase before students arrive on campus. So you can purchase it during the planning phase although it is tied and it it is an expense tied to implementation. So planning versus implementation. Some activities are only allowed as planning activities. Some activities are only allowed as implementation activities. And then some are allowed as both. Salaries, contracted personnel, and rent are only allowed under planning activities. Textbooks, technology, and equipment and classroom furniture are only allowed under implementation. and
032professional development and recruitment materials can be found in both planning activities are tied to the planning and design of the educational program which may include refinement of the desired educational results and of methods for measuring progress towards achieving the results and professional development of teachers and other staff who will work in the charter school. Historically, we see charter schools budgeting for planning activities tied to professional development. Implementation activities are tied to the initial implementation of a charter school, which may include informing the community about the school, acquiring necessary equipment and educational materials and supplies, acquiring or developing curriculum materials, and other initial operational costs that cannot be met from state or local sources. So, informing the community about the school. All community outreach materials and items must include campus specific information and registration information. In
033addition to stating that the school is tuitionfree, acquiring necessary equipment and educational materials and supplies. An example of this would be those smartboards. Now we will move into allowable uses of funds. Please note that this list is not all-incclusive and refer to the program guidelines for a list of allowable and unallowable activities. All costs associated with the CSP grant must meet the minimum threshold of being necessary, reasonable, allocable, and allowable. necessary. Is the item needed for the startup of the charter school? When filling out the application, ask yourself, is what you are proposing to purchase necessary to accomplish the goals you established in your application? Reasonable. Would a reasonable person spend that amount on that item? Would it withstand public scrutiny? They um so an example, a school that's only going to serve five students,
034but are requesting $500,000 in admin cost. This would not be necessary or a reasonable request. Allocable is the cost being incurred specifically for the startup and is the cost proportional to the benefit provided. And then allowable is the item allowed under this grant program. Make sure that the outcomes in the application are justified by the amount requested. Allowable costs under planning activities include planning and design of the charter school's educational program, professional development or training for teachers and staff, and special education support. Salaries are allowed for the following positions only: teachers, school leaders, and specialized in instructional support personnel. The reimbursements for salary expenses for teachers, school leaders, and specialized support personnel are allowable. What constitutes specialized instructional support personnel will be clarified in the program guidelines posted along with the grant opportunity on the
035TEA grant opportunities page. Please note that certain conditions apply. Salaries cannot be paid for activities related to ongoing operations. Only payroll expenditures for activities that support the planning or program design of the applicant campus are allowed to be reimbursed with CSP funds. No payroll expenditures are allowed beyond the 30th calendar day after a campus begins serving students. Please note if personnel split their time between ongoing operations activities and planning activities only that portion of time associated with conducting the planning activities is allowable as an initial operational cost. The charter school campus must maintain accurate time and effort records to document the amount of time each employee works on task related to the planning activities with the charter school campus. Contracted personnel may be reimbursed through the grant startup date to 30 days after the campus
036begins serving students. Please note reimbursement for contracted personnel is only allowable during the planning phase. Certain contracted services are allowable in both the planning and implementation phase. You can also reimburse rental or occupancy cost for the school facility up to 30 days after the campus begins serving students. This image visualizes what was discussed on the previous two slides. The planning activities of personnel salaries, personnel salaries, contracted personnel, and rental occupancy costs are only allowed to be reimbursed up to 30 days after the campus begins serving students. Once you reach that date, reimbursement for these planning activities is no longer allowable. Please keep this in mind when crafting your application and corresponding budget. Moving on to allowable costs for implementation activities. You can make one-time startup equipment purchases necessary to implement a charter school which may
037include desk, chairs, computers, equipment related to technology such as smartboards for classrooms, computers and tablets for students, physical education and art, and playground equipment. Non-consumable supplies and materials for startup activities are allowable implementation activities. These supplies include these supplies and materials include textbooks, library books, reading materials, and teaching materials. Please note that expenses for consuming material materials are not eligible for reimbursement via the CSP grant. Consumable materials are items that cannot be reused, such as onetime workbooks, pens, pencils, and paper. Installation costs for computers, data systems, networks, and telephone systems are allowable implementation activities and are re eligible for reimbursement through the CSP grant. The following are also allowable implementation activities. One-time startup cost associated with providing transportation to students. You can purchase a school bus or passenger van with CSP grant funds. Additionally, cost
038associated with carrying out necessary renovations and minor facility repairs are allowable. Please note that these type of budgeted expenditures may require USDE approval. Examples of minor facility repairs may include repairing a leak in the roof, replacing a broken window, and repairing a furnace or air conditioning unit. In essence, minor facilities repairs neither add to the permanent value of the property nor prolong its intended life, but rather keep it in efficient operating condition. Financial management, software, and training are allowable implementation activities. Please note that the software cost must be a one-time expense. If it is a subscription service, this is considered a reoccurring expense and is unallowable. You can also re uh reimburse the cost of property insurance to cover equipment purchased with grant funds. And finally, you can use CSP funding to reimburse appropriate non-sustained
039costs that cannot be supported from other sources. The CSP grant funds will be divided into planning cost and implementation cost. Please keep in mind the phase in which the expenditure activity is allowed when creating the budget. When you are looking at the CSP grant opportunities page on the TA website, please provide we provide a link to a planning and implementation guide. This guide is an incredibly detailed document that will help you determine if an expense falls under the planning phase, implementation phase, or both. We highly recommend you utilize this resource as you complete your application. So again, there is a planning and implementation guide on the CSP grant opportunity page on the TEA grants opportunity page. Um, and there is a link there to that planning implementation guide that will assist with this process. To
040review, CSP grants support the planning, program design, and initial implementation of public charter schools. All expenses you request to be reimbursed via the CSP grant must be one-time cost, not reoccurring expenses. Now, we will go over unallowable uses of funds. Again, this is not an exhaustive list and more details can be found in the program guidelines. All of the following expenses are unallowable and therefore cannot be reimbured by the CSP grant which includes field trips, hosting or sponsoring of conferences or advisory councils, cost of membership in any civic or community organization, apparel, salaries or contracted personnel beyond the first 30 days of after the campus begins to serve students and debt service lease purchase. Another slide of un unallowable cost. You cannot request reimbursement for any of the following. Rental or occupancy costs for the
041school facility beyond the first 30 days after the campus begins serving students. Purchase or lease of land or real estate. Construction or cosmetic renovations. Consumable instructional or other supplies and materials. accounting bookkeeping services except for the purchase of accounting software to comply with F. And a final list of unallowable costs that cannot be reimbursed. Annual audit services, ongoing food services, other property and liability insurance, interest on loans, deposits of any kind such as security deposits or service deposits, religious instruction, materials or insignia, extracurricular activities such as UIL, competitions, athletic programs that are not part of the state required PE program. Again, an exhaustive list of unallowable costs can be found in the program guidelines. To practice, the information that was previously gone over with allowable and unallowable cost. We have some examples here. So, ABC
042Charter School wants to paint a mural in the cafeteria that includes the school's mission and vision. They have contracted with a local artist who will develop the design and create the mural. ABC Charter also plans to purchase t-shirts for the staff and water bottles for the students that will include the design on the back. This will help create a sense of belonging on the campus and build culture. Is this an allowable CSP expenditure? The answer is that none of these proposed expenses would be allowable. The mural would be a cosmetic renovation which is unallowable and apparel or swag is also not an allowable expense. The next example, ABC Charter plans to host an event at their facility to inform community members and parents about the school. For the event, they will print brochures in English
043and Spanish that will provide information about the school and include instructions for enrollment. They will purchase ad space in the local newspaper to invite the community to the event. The newspaper ad will also include instructions for enrollment. Since the meeting will be held around dinner time, they will purchase sandwich trays, chips, and soda for the event. Is this an allowable CSP expenditure? The answer is that the printing of brochures and the purchase of ad space in the local newspaper is allowable so long as it includes information on how to enroll and states that the school is tuition free. However, food for parents or students is not an allowable CSP expenditure. And a final example, ABC Charter used CSP funds to purchase a new curriculum for the campus that specifically addresses the needs of the student
044population which were identified by the needs assessment conducted by the district. To make sure that the curriculum is implemented with fidelity, CSP funds will be used to pay for a 3-day boot camp to train teachers and instructional support staff on the curriculum and effective instructional strategies to accelerate learning. Is this an allowable CSP expenditure? And the answer is all of the proposed expenses are allowable. Moving into grant resources, here is a screenshot from the TEA grant opportunities page. Anything you need to apply can be found under application and support information. Please read the program guidelines in their entirety before beginning your application. As mentioned earlier, the planning and implementation guide covers what costs are allowable and what activity they are aligned with. We highly recommend you read over this resource before beginning your application and
045again when creating your budget. Now, we'll go over scoring and review with review criteria and priority points. The CR criteria here comes from the general and fiscal guidelines and all application reviews are performed by experienced external reviewers contracted by TEA. So identify and address needs as a possibility of 10 points. Measurable goals and process 10 points. Project evaluation and modification up to five points. Statuto program requirements up to 25 points. and budget up to 10 points with a total of up to 60 points. The specific review criteria um the smart goal should align with the identify address needs and the measurable progress sections of the application. The quantifiable needs, smart goal, and the benchmarks associated with the measurable progress must be able to be met or achieved during the grant period with 10 points possible
046maximum. So, standard review criteria up to 60 points, specific review criteria up to 10 points, and each application can score up to 70 points during review. Grant applicants must receive a score of at least 70% or 49 out of the 70 points available prior to award awarding priority points to be considered for funding. Priority points for sub chapter D applicants will be awarded based on the information provided in the TEA program requirement section part of the application part one. So, a student at least 50 students and tested grades by year two of the grant up to 10 points. Percent of students that would otherwise attend an F rated campus up to 20 points. And proposed charter school will open in a qualified opportunity zone up to 10 points. The data to evaluate priority points for
047district charters will come from attachment five and supported by information and attachments 2 through 4. So strength of district authorizing practices up to 10 points, strength of the operator up to 15 points, strength of need and community demand up to five points, and proposed charter school will open a qualified opportunity zone up to 10 points. Both subchapter C and sub subchapter D charters have the same amount of priority points available resulting in 110 points total. The maximum number of points for charter applicants is 60 points for standard review criteria, 10 points for specific review criteria, 40 points for priority points with that total of 110 points. Selection for funding. Grant awards are generally made starting with the highest scoring application and continuing to the next highest scoring application until funds are exhausted or until the
048applications with the minimum percentage score or higher are funded. Whichever is the case. We'll move into next steps. We have application office hours which are optional on August 22nd, 2025 at 1 p.m. and August 29th, 2025 at 1 p.m. If you have any questions you would like answered during these sessions, please register and the link to do so is in the program guidelines. September 2nd, 2025 at noon Central Standard Time is the last day to submit questions for inclusion in the FAQ. And then September 9th, 2025, the FAQ will be posted to the TEA grants opportunities page. The application due date is September 22nd, 2025 via email at competitive grants at tea.t texas.gov by 11:59 p.m. Central time again. November 17, 2025 is the anticipated grant start date. Any grant end date will be September
04930th, 2026. So, please submit all questions and writing to charter schools at tat texas.gov by 12:00 p.m. Central Standard Time, Tuesday, September 2nd, for them to be included in the FAQ. All questions and answers will be posted on the TA grants opportunities website no later than Tuesday, September 9th, 2025. So, if you have any questions that you would like answered in this FAQ, you're also welcome to enter them in the chat here. But that concludes our 2025 2026 CSP applicant webinar for subchapter C and D. Thank you so much for joining and we hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.