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Preschool Development Grants – Overview Webinar Transcript

August 20, 2014

Operator: Good day, everyone, and thank you for holding. We want to welcome 

you to the Preschool Development Grant general overview webinar. I would now 

like to turn the call over to Dr. Libby Doggett, Deputy Assistant Secretary for 

Policy and Early Learning at the U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Doggett, you 

may now begin.

Dr. Doggett: Good morning, everyone, and good afternoon. Thank you so much 

for taking time to join us with this webinar. We're delighted to be at this point. As 

you all know, this webinar is intended to provide you an overview of the Preschool 

Development Grants, which are based on the Departments of HHS and ED because 

this is jointly administered, and the released NIA, a Notice to Accept, to Invite 

Applicants. We send out the NIA, the applications, and the Executive Summaries. 

They’re all posted. They were posted on August 13th to the ed.gov website. And

then on August 18th, the NIAs were published in the Federal Register. This general 

overview will cover both the Development Grants and the Expansion Grants.

On August 25th, I hope you'll take note, we will have a more in-depth technical 

assistance webinar for State applicants eligible for the Development Grants and

then the next day, on August 26th, we'll have a more in-depth technical assistance 

webinar for State applicants eligible for Expansion Grants. Invitations to these 

webinars have been sent to the Governor's office in your State and the webinar is 

by invitation only.

The webinar slides, the transcripts and recordings for those two webinars and for 

today's webinar will be posted on the Preschool Development Grants website. I 

want to thank you all for the thoughtful comments you provided as we were 

developing this Notice Inviting Application. We received over 600. That was great. 

I think you'll see that we really took your input to heart. This is an exciting grant 

competition. It's meant to be a partnership between the Federal government and 

States to provide high-quality early learning opportunities for four-year-olds from 

low- to moderate-income families.
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We're encouraging every State to form partnerships with local communities and 

begin drafting your proposals. We hope that all States will take advantage of this 

historic opportunity. Just a reminder that during today's webinar we can only 

answer questions of a general nature. So, if you have a question that you'd like us 

to answer, please submit it to PreschoolDevelopmentGrants.Competition@ed.gov

and we'll respond to your questions during our webinars. Next slide please.

Fortunately, we have a wonderful team backing me up. You'll hear from a few of 

them today that are going to give a really in-depth overview of the Preschool 

Development Grants competition. We have Chrisanne Gayl, Senior Policy Adviser 

at ED and Steven Hicks, also a Senior Policy Adviser at ED, and Richard 

Gonzales, our wonderful colleague who's a Senior Policy Adviser at HHS. So, now 

I'm going to turn it over to Steven. Thank you all.

Steven Hicks: Great. Thanks so much Libby. Let's start with a few housekeeping 

specifics. You should have downloaded and read the application, the Executive 

Summary, Notice Inviting Applications and the FAQs. It will make it much easier 

to follow along. Of course the slides are posted and you could have downloaded 

those as well. During the presentation, all the phone lines will be placed on mute to 

avoid feedback during the presentation. Please use the chat feature to submit 

questions which we may answer after the presentation. Any unanswered questions 

today will be followed up with additional guidance.

And as Libby indicated before, if you have other questions that you weren't able to 

ask, you can email us at PreschoolDevelopmentGrants.Competition@ed.gov and 

we'll respond to your questions during, afterwards. And that email is also on the 

Preschool Development Grants website so you can look it up there as well. The 

slides, transcript and recording from today's presentations will be posted at the 

Preschool Development Grants website and that link is right there on the slide for 

you.

We want to remind you that grants.gov Submissions Procedures and Tips for

Applicants may be found of page 24 of the application. To facilitate your use of 

grants.gov, this Tips for Applications section includes important submissions 

procedures you need to be aware of to ensure your application is received in a 
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timely manner and accepted by the Department. Also, please register early. We 

can't say that enough. Register early to grants.gov.

The registration involves many steps and includes registration on SAM, which is 

www.sam.gov, which may take approximately one week to complete, but could 

take upwards of several weeks to complete depending upon your completeness and 

accuracy of the data entered into the SAM database by the applicant. You may 

begin working on you application while completing the registration process, but 

you cannot submit an application until all the registration steps are complete. So, 

please register early.

We are not able to address individual applicants' questions. We are restricted to 

responding to technical and logistical questions. For more specific guidance on the

Preschool Development Grants Development and Expansion Grant Programs, 

please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions document, posted on the Resource 

page at the Preschool Development Grants website. 

We're absolutely thrilled that we're able to present information on the Preschool 

Development Grants to you today. And we want to especially thank Congress for 

providing the funds to advance the work that many of you are already doing in 

your States and communities.

Today, we'll be outlining, in broad parameters, the information contained in the 

Notices Inviting Applications for the two kinds of Preschool Development Grants, 

Development Grants and Expansion Grants. Throughout the call, you will be able 

to ask questions through the webinar chat feature on your screen and we will 

attempt to answer these at the end of the call. We may be able to answer a limited 

number of questions about the information contained in the Notices Inviting 

Applications today for the two competitions, but cannot answer questions specific 

to your applications. Any questions that we do not get to, we may be able to 

provide guidance at a later date. And now, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague 

at the U.S. Department of Education, Chrisanne Gayl.

Chrisanne Gayl: Thank you very much, Steven. Let's go ahead and take a look at 

the overall big picture that's currently outlined in the Notice Inviting Applications. 

Overall, the competition is designed to develop or enhance State capacity to deliver 
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a high-quality preschool program and to implement and sustain high-quality

preschool programs for eligible children in high-need communities.

We encourage you to review these definitions specifically: “high-quality preschool 

program”, “eligible children” and “high-need communities”, in the Executive 

Summary before beginning to write your application. As Steven noted, there are 

two types of grants, per the direction of Congress in a 2014 appropriations report 

that accompanied the bill. That report language suggested that these funds be 

allocated for two types of grants: Those for low capacity States with small or no 

State-funded preschool programs, which we’re calling Development Grants; and 

for high capacity States that have a larger State-funded preschool program already, 

which we're calling Expansion Grants. All States, and D.C. and Puerto Rico, are 

either eligible for a Development Grant or an Expansion Grant. The appropriate 

grant for which a State can apply is to be based on two factors: The percentage of 

four-year-old children currently served in a State-funded preschool program; and 

whether or not the State has received already a Race to the Top Early Learning 

Challenge grant. No State is eligible to apply for both grants. 

The amount of funding that a State is to be eligible to receive, is based on their 

population of four-year-old children from families at 200% of the Federal poverty 

level and below. The Governor is the entity that applies and designate a lead 

agency to administer the program. That lead agency could be the State Education 

Department or could be a different State agency. 

The grant period will be up to four years. States will receive only their first year of 

funding in the first year of the grant, but they must present, in their applications, a 

budget for all four years. Funding will be provided annually on a continuation 

basis, rather than all funds being received up front. As is the case with many of our 

grants at ED, continuation funding is subject to continued appropriations by 

Congress.

Let's look specifically at the Development Grants. Approximately $80 million of 

the $250 million is allocated for these types of grants. These State awards will 

range from $5 million to $20 million per year for a total grant award of $20 million 

to $80 million over the four-year period, depending upon the size of the State. To 

be eligible for a Development Grant, the State would have to currently be serving 
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less than 10% of its four-year-olds in State-funded preschools and not to have 

received a Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grant. These States are 

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, 

Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, 

Utah, and Wyoming.

And, again, the maximum amount of funding that a State would be eligible to 

receive is based on their population of four-year-olds from families at 200% of the 

Federal poverty level and below. We have grouped States in relative funding bands 

as you can see in the Executive Summary.

For the Expansion Grants, $160 million of the $250 million is allocated for these 

grants. These State awards will range from $10 million to $35 million per year, for 

a total of $40 million to $140 million for the four-year grant period. These grants 

are for States that are serving 10% or more of the State's four-year-olds in Statefunded preschools or have already received a Race to the Top Early Learning 

Challenge Grant and these States are listed on the slide. Overall, I think there are

36 of them that are eligible for this award, for this type of grant.

For these grants, we do plan on distinguishing between the two groups of States: 

Those that have received a Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grant and 

those that have not. And the Secretaries do reserve the right to distribute grant 

awards between those two groups.

Going back to Development Grants, I'm looking at the Absolute Priority, which is 

the focus of the competition. For Absolute Priorities, the applicants must meet this 

Priority in order to receive the grant award. For Development Grants, this Priority

is to build a high-quality preschool program. In order to meet the Priority, the 

State's application must demonstrate how it will increase access to high-quality

preschool programs for eligible children by having an ambitious and achievable 

plan to: (1) to begin serving eligible children no later than year two of the grant 

period; (2) subgrant at least 65% of its Federal grant funds received over the grant 

period to one or more subgrantees to implement and sustain voluntary high-quality

preschool program for eligible children in one or more high-need communities in 

the State; and (3) use no more than 35% of its Federal grants received over the 

grant period to develop or enhance State preschool program infrastructure at the 
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State-level to make quality improvements such as those described in Selection 

Criteria C1, and to also build the capacity to deliver high-quality preschool 

programs.

Note that for Development Grants, States can begin serving earlier than year two. 

They can also subgrant more than 65% of their funds to implement high-quality

preschool programs. They may not use more than 35% of their funds over the grant 

period for infrastructure. Also please note that these percentages are averages over 

the four years so a State may choose to spend more than 35% one year and less 

another year.

For Expansion Grants, the focus will be on increasing access to high-quality

preschool programs in high-need communities. Again, Expansion Grant applicants 

must meet this Absolute Priority in order to be eligible to receive an award. To 

meet this Priority, the State applicant must demonstrate how it will increase access 

to high-quality preschool programs, again, for eligible children, by having an 

ambitious and achievable plan to: (1) begin serving eligible children no later than 

in year one of the grant period; (2) subgrant at least 95% of its Federal grants 

award to a subgrantee or a subgrantees to implement and sustain high-quality 

preschool programs to reach and serve additional eligible children in two or more 

high-need communities; and (3) use no more than 5% of its Federal grants awards 

for its preschool program infrastructure and quality improvement.

Note that States can subgrant more than 95% of their funds to implement highquality preschool programs, but they may not use more than 5% of their funds over 

the grant period for infrastructure. And again, this is an average over the four 

years, so a State may choose to spend more than 5% one year and less another 

year. In addition, Expansion Grant applicants will also need to meet Absolute 

Priority 2 or Absolute Priority 3.

In selecting Preschool Development Grants Expansion Grantees, the Secretaries of 

Education and HHS may consider high-ranking applicants meeting Absolute 

Priority 2 and Absolute Priority 3 separately to ensure that a variety of States 

benefit from the Preschool Development Grant competition and that States that 

have already received Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge awards are not 

unfairly advantaged in the competition. Absolute Priority 2 is for a State that has 
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received an award already under the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge 

competition. Absolute Priority 3 is for a State that has not received an award under 

the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge competition and serves 10% or more 

of four-year-old children in a State preschool program. Absolute Priority 2 and 

Absolute Priority 3 are simply ways for us to distinguish between the groups of 

State that already have received Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grants

and those that have not.

And now, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague at HHS, Richard Gonzales, 

who will talk about the Competitive Priorities and the Selection Criteria.

Richard Gonzales: Thank you, Chrisanne, and hello everyone. Let's start by 

identifying the three Competitive Preference Priorities, which are identical in both 

Development and Expansion Grant competitions. In both cases, applicants may 

earn additional points if they choose to address these Priorities. The first 

Competitive Preference Priority is for non-Federal matching funds, which may 

include State, local and philanthropic funds. We'll give States that commit to 

matching 50% of their grant funds the maximum amount of points, which is ten 

points, and applicants that match less than 50% will receive points based on a 

sliding scale as seen on the slide. So, a State that commits to match between 40-

49% of their grant funds, can receive up to eight points, a match of 30-39% allows 

for up to six points, and so on. 

As already mentioned, applicants may receive up to ten points for submitting a 

credible plan for matching. It is the applicant’s responsibility to provide credible 

evidence to support the promise of the match. For more information about what 

qualifies as a match, please check the FAQ document, and specifically the 

numbered items F1 through F11.

In the second Competitive Preference Priority, an applicant may earn up to 10 

Competitive Preference points for supporting a birth through grade three 

continuum, by demonstrating how it will integrate high-quality preschool programs 

within a broader continuum of supports and interventions. This must be done for,

at a minimum, a defined cohort of eligible children within each high-need

community. To earn up to 10 points, the State must describe how it will foster 

partnerships and leverage resources from existing community agencies that provide 
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early childhood services and how it will insure smooth transitions for children and 

families.

In the third Competitive Preference Priority, point allotment is different. Whereas 

in the previous two Priorities you could earn up to ten points, an applicant who 

chooses to write to this Priority may earn either 10 points or zero points, nothing in 

between. The determination is based on how well a State demonstrates it will use 

at least 50% of its Federal grant award to create new State preschool program slots, 

increasing the overall number of new slots meeting the definition of high-quality

preschool programs in State preschool programs. Again, this is an all-or-nothing 

awarding of points.

There are seven Selection Criteria for this competition. Selection Criteria are the 

Criteria against which the reviewers will evaluate and score applications and most 

of these criteria are the same for both the Development and Expansion Grants, but 

we will highlight some of the differences as we go along.

The first Criterion, is Selection Criterion A, an Executive Summary of the plan. 

The Executive Summary must include the elements listed on this slide. Note that 

numbers two and seven are slightly different for the Development Grants and 

Expansion Grants and we'll talk a little bit more about those in a moment. But 

first, let's look at the common elements. The Executive Summary must include:

 the State’s progress to date, (1); 

 (3), increase the number and percentages of eligible children served in highquality preschool programs; 

 (4), characteristics of high-quality preschool programs; 

 (5), set expectations for school readiness; and

 (6) show support by a broad group of stake holders.

Now to those elements that are a little bit different. For (2) of the Development 

Grants, the State must provide high-quality preschool programs in one or more 

high-need communities. For Expansion Grants, the State must provide high-quality

preschool programs in two or more high-need communities. When we get to 

allocating funds for Development Grants, the State may allocate funds for 

activities to build or enhance infrastructure using no more than 35% of the funds, 

and then subgranting at least 65% of the funds. And for Expansion Grants, the 
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State may allocate funds for activities to build or enhance infrastructure using no 

more than 5% of the funds, and subgranting 95% of the funds.

For Part B Selection Criteria, Part B is about past commitment. So, for 

Development Grants, it is about commitment to high-quality early learning 

programs. For Expansion Grants, it is about commitment to high-quality State

preschool programs. In this section, States would need to demonstrate a 

commitment to high-quality preschool programs for eligible children as evidenced

by such things as identified on this slide. So, 

 the State’s early learning and development standards;

 the State’s financial investment, if any;

 the number of percentage of children, including eligible children, served in 

State-funded preschool programs over the last four years;

 enacted or pending legislation, policies and/or practices that demonstrate the 

State's current future commitment to increasing access to high-quality

preschool programs for eligible children;

 the quality of existing early learning programs for Development Grants, or 

the quality of existing State preschool programs for Expansion Grants;

 the State's coordination of preschool programs and services;

 and the role in promoting coordination a preschool programs with other 

sectors.

Under Selection Criterion C, applicants need to demonstrate how they will ensure 

program quality. Some examples include how they will use grant funds for 

program infrastructure and quality improvements at the State-level, how they will 

implement the system for monitoring the subgrantees that are receiving funds to

implement preschool services, or how the State will measure the outcomes of 

participating children using an assessment. All of these are examples and you may 

be thinking of others as well. Again, this is a place where it is slightly different for 

Development Grants and Expansion Grants. A Development Grant applicant may 

use 35% of funds for State program infrastructure over the four year grant period 

and an Expansion Grant applicant may use up to 5% over the four year grant 

period.
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Under section, or Selection Criterion D, applicants will be evaluated based on the 

State's plan to expand high-quality preschool programs in high-need communities. 

Under Selection Criterion D1, a Development applicant's plan will be evaluated 

based on the extent to which they've selected or will select the high-need

community. If the State has selected the community, they can earn up to eight 

points. If the State describes how they will select the high-need community, they 

can earn up to four points.

Expansion Grant applicants' plans will be evaluated based on the extent to which 

the State has selected their high-need communities and will be eligible for up to 

eight points. In this case, if the State is a Federally-recognized Promise Zone, a 

State must choose a Promise Zone as a high-need community to be eligible for the 

full eight points. If the State has a Federally-recognized Promise Zone and does not 

choose a Promise Zone as a high-need community, then the State will only be 

eligible for six points. This provision only affects the States of California, 

Kentucky, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas.

In D2 and D3, States will also address how each high-need community is underserved and it will address the outreach conducted within that State in D4.

For Selection Criterion E, a State's plan will need both to clarify roles and 

responsibilities of the State and each subgrantee, as well as show how it will ensure 

strong partnerships between subgrantees and LEAs or other early learning 

providers, as appropriate. This includes how each subgrantee will partner to carry 

out activities that will provide children with successful transitions from preschools 

into kindergarten and undertake other coordination and collaboration on activities 

such as professional development, family engagement, health services and so on.

Under Selection Criterion F, applicants will also need to describe the plan to align 

high-quality preschool programs supported under the grant, with programs that 

serve children from birth through age five, as well as in kindergarten through grade 

three, to ensure strong continuum of learning.

Finally under Criterion G, the applicant will need to describe, through a budget 

narrative and tables, its plan to use the funds from this grant and any matching 

contributions to serve the number of eligible children described in its ambitious 

and achievable plan for each year of the plan. It must also coordinate the uses of 
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existing funds that support early learning and development and sustain the highquality preschool programs provided by this grant after the grant period ends.

Now, I'm going to pass the remainder of this presentation back to my colleague,

Steven Hicks. Steven.

Steven Hicks: Great, thank you, Richard. There are five application requirements 

for Development and six for Expansion. Expansion Grants applicants must provide 

a letter of support, or Preliminary Binding Agreement, such as a preliminary MOU, 

and that's F.

Remember that applications must be signed by the Governor or the State, since the 

Governor is the applicant. A letter is needed from the State Advisory Council or 

similar Council if none exists. The budget narrative must include goals and targets

and the Excel spreadsheets, which are downloadable from the Program website, 

must be completed and submitted. Each Selection Criteria or Priority that asks for 

an ambitious and achievable plan in the application must include the eight 

elements listed in E.

Our Notice Inviting Applications requires that States that receive a grant award, 

comply with a number of program requirements, including:

 participate in other early childhood programs;

 participate in ED/HHS TA and evaluation; 

 provide researchers with access to date consistent with all applicable privacy 

laws; 

 have a longitude data system linking early childhood and K-12 data by the 

end of the grant period; 

 serve the same proportion of children with disabilities in programs as in the 

State; 

 supplement, not supplant, Federal, State or local funds otherwise available 

for providing quality or expanding access to high-quality preschool. 

Development Grant applicants must submit a signed MOU with subgrantees within 

180 days, and scopes of work with the State in 90 days and scopes of work with 

the subgrantees within 180 days. Expansion Grant applicants on the other hand 
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must submit a signed MOU with subgrantees within 90 says, and scopes of work 

for the State and subgrantee both in 90 days. 

It's important to become familiar with all the definitions in the notice. We have 

used the conventions of capitalizing the defined terms in the Notice and the 

applications. The definitions are very specific and will need to be integrated in the 

State plan. 

Before closing we want to share with you some of the next steps in the 

competition. We're hoping that States and communities will seize this opportunity 

to begin thinking about and forming their partnerships and drafting their 

applications. We've allotted 60 days to write and submit these applications. We 

want to remind you that grants.gov submission procedures and tips for applications

may be found on page 24 of the application package. To facilitate your use of 

grants.gov, this Tips for Applicants section includes important submissions 

procedures you need to be aware of to ensure your application is received in a 

timely manner and accepted by the Departments.

Also, please register early. Grants.gov registration involves many steps and 

includes registration on SAM, www.sam.gov, which may take approximately one 

week to complete but could take upwards of several weeks to complete depending 

upon the completeness and accuracy of the data entered into the SAM database by 

the applicant. You may begin working on the application while completing the 

registration process, but you cannot submit an application until all of the 

registration steps are complete. Next week, we will have two webinars for State

applicants. These are technical assistance webinars for those writing the 

applications and not intended for the public at large. Each Governor has received 

an invitation to participate. While these are invitation-only, we will post the slides, 

audio recordings and transcripts after the sessions on our Preschool Development 

Grants page.

September 11th is the due date for the Intent to Apply. This is optional, but it is 

very helpful for us in determining the number of peer reviewers we need, and 

appreciate States sending their Intent before or by this date. As a reminder, 

applications are due October 14th, so that we can make awards by December.
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Thank you for joining us today. Here is some important contact information and 

this will conclude our presentation after we answer some questions.

For those of you who have submitted questions, we're going to see if we can 

address some of those now. Others we'll consider in additional guidance we may 

provide at a later date. Note, we're not able to address individual applicant's 

questions. We are restricted to responding to technical and logistical questions. For 

more specific guidance on the Preschool Development Grants, Development 

Grants and Expansion Grant Program please refer to the Frequently Asked 

Questions document, posted on the Preschool Development Grants website.

And now, we're going to try to answer a few of the questions that we have received 

through the chat.

So, here is one of the questions that we received: In my State, the State preschool 

programs are administered by the Department of Education. Are they the only 

organization eligible to apply for this Expansion Grant or the Development 

Grants?

The Governor applies and designates a lead agency to administer the grant. See the 

definition of “lead agency”, which says, “the lead agency is a State-level agency 

that administers public funds related to early learning and development”. Also 

FAQ A5 talks about the lead agency and how the Governor must sign the 

application.

Here's another question: I know States are submitting applications. How much 

input will Districts have?

Please work with your State and coordinate with the lead agency that is designated 

by the Governor.

How much flexibility will Districts have in implementing the plan? Will they be 

able to choose their own material?

The application that is funded will need to be consistent with the State plan. In 

other words, States will have ambitious and achievable plans to ensure program 

quality. You can also refer to Frequently Asked Question B24.

Another question we received: How does a local agency become a subgrantee?
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Please coordinate with your State.

Another question we received: Does sustainability mean the program continues or 

must continue at the Federally-funded level?

In Selection Criterion G3, we talked about sustaining the high-quality preschool 

programs supported by this grant after the grant period ends. So, please look at, 

refer to the definitions of “high-quality preschool program”.

Can you confirm the timeline? If the grant starts in January 2015, can the 

programs begin in the fall of 2015?

As long as this is consistent with the State's plan. Some may be able to start before 

that. Please remember that for Development Grants, States must begin by year two, 

but could begin before year two. And for Expansion Grants, States must begin in 

the first year of the grant.

If our State and District already have a full day preschool program for four-yearolds, can we use the grant funds to serve the three-year-olds that meet the State

criteria?

No. Please refer to Frequently Asked Question B19.

We had a couple of other questions that came in beforehand, before we started our 

webinar. One moment and I'll look at those.

We have received a question regarding where we send the Intents to Apply. The 

Intents to Apply are to be sent to Rebecca Merek. She’s the Programs Officer. 

And it’s Rebecca.Merek@ed.gov and that email address is located in the NIA.

Make sure that if you're cutting and pasting from the NIA or the application that

you don't include a period that might have been at the end of the sentence. 

Sometimes that happens and then the email will not go through.

We've received this question, regarding clarification of the definition of 

subgrantee: Throughout the application, “subgrantee” is referred to as both highquality early learning programs and coordinating early learning providers. Is the 

subgrantee an intermediary or a high-quality early learning provider?
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We think that FAQ B20 addresses this question directly and talks about the 

definition of and the roles of a subgrantee and the early learning provider. Also 

B21 and 22 provides some examples that could be useful for your understanding. 

Please take a look at B20, B21 and B22 in the Frequently Asked Questions and if 

you need help with anything else, please let us know.

We've also received a few questions regarding eligible children. Do special 

education children need to be at or below the 200% poverty level?

Yes. Congress designated this program for children from families at or below the 

200% Federal poverty level.

Do English learner language children need to be at or below the 200% Federal

poverty level?

Yes. All children, to be eligible to be served in this program, must be from families 

at or below the 200% Federal poverty line.

There were a couple of questions on matching. I think the best thing to do is for 

you to look at Section F on matching. There are several FAQs on those questions 

that I think will answer how the matching provision works, but it does need to be 

new funding.

We received a question regarding the language that was in the NIA where we 

talked about the intention of high-quality preschool programs to be delivered 

through a mixed-delivery system of providers that includes schools, licensed

childcare centers, Headstart programs and community-based organizations.

Again, this goes back to the definitions of subgrantees and early learning 

providers. High-quality preschool programs funded under this program can be 

delivered by various early learning providers. States will decide how they want to 

implement their programs.

This question was regarding the budget responsibilities beyond year one. So, you 

write a proposal in your application for four years. This is how our discretionary 

grants typically work. You will receive the first year of funding. If you are a 

highly-rated applicant and are awarded a grant, you'll receive the first year of 
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funding for those four years. And then contingent on appropriations, we'll make 

continuation awards for years two, three and four.

We received this question regarding matching funds: Are matching funds subject 

to the percentages for infrastructure?

Please see FAQ F10. No, they are not. See also F11, the uses of funds that are 

allowable.

We received a question that asked: How would a State with no waiting list, serve 

all of their children?

Please refer to E1 and E2. You can use funds to improve slots. And in the 

Selection Criteria, we talk about the five different ways of improving slots. And 

that is also answered then in FAQ E1 and E2. And those five different ways 

include:

 extending programs from half day to full day;

 limiting class size and decreasing child-to-staff ratios;

 employing and compensating a teacher with a bachelor's degree;

 providing in-service, evidence based professional development, such as 

coaching;

 or, providing comprehensive services. 

Now, these are the five ways funds can be used to improve a slot. The slots also,

though, must meet the definition that we have in the application for high-quality

preschool programs.

We received this question about the funding over the four year program period: 

Are States required to ensure that 95% of the funds they received, this is for 

Expansion Grants, and subgranted to the local level?

So, you can have only 3% use for local subgrants in year one, as long as it evens 

out to 95% at the local level at the end of the four year grant period. So, this is 

talking about the different combinations you could do. So, it's an average over four 

years. This 95% for an Expansion Grants that must be subgranted at a minimum 

and a 65% at a minimum for Development Grants. It's averaged over the four 

years. So, you could have 95%, 95%, 95%, 95%. Or you could have a variation as 
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long as the average, divided by four, would still be 95% at a minimum. Or 65% at 

a minimum. So, it's over the life of the grant. It must even out over the four years.

We received this question: How would public libraries be the primary grantee? 

Will this grant be directed more towards early learning agencies or State library 

agencies?

States are the only grantees and the only eligible entities to apply. They may make 

subgrantees to other entities that will deliver, be able to deliver programs that meet 

the definition of high-quality preschool programs.

Within each annual budget cap, in other words up to $5 million or up to $10 

million, what determines how high within the range the State will receive?

It depends on your ambitions and achievable plan. Please note that you cannot 

propose a plan that is over budget. We explicitly State in the NIA that we will not 

review or award grants to States applicants that propose a budget over those 

funding cap. These are caps.

If the State has a different definition of high-quality preschool, can it be used?

Not for programs funded under this grant. You certainly can use those definitions 

for other programs in the State, but programs funded under this grant must meet 

the definition of high-quality preschool program that we have in the application.

Does a State need to have a completed Statewide Longitudinal Data System SLDS

to apply? We are in a process of creating our SLDS. Thank you. 

This is a program requirement and I would refer you to FAQ B23. And the answer 

is no, as it is a program requirement. As such, at the time of the application the 

State does not need to have these elements in place but must agree to satisfy the 

program requirement during course of the grant period, those four years.

If awards are determined in December, when will the fiscal year begin and when 

are services expected to begin?

We'd like to refer you to FAQ B26 which asks the question: When must a State

begin to serve children in high-quality preschool programs? A State that receives a 

Preschool Development Grants Expansion Grant must begin serving children by no 
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later than the first year of the grant. That means they must serve children no later 

than December 31st, 2015. A State that receives a Preschool Development Grant

Development Grant, must begin serving children no later than the end of the 

second year of the grant and that would be December 31st, 2016. It can be aligned 

to your budget period, but we're going to, we'll be holding to the dates that we have 

in the grant period for the Preschool Development Grants. And you should 

definitely keep in mind FAQ B26. We'll go into more detail on the technical 

assistance webinars that we'll have on the 25th and the 26th.

Those are all the questions that we have. We did receive a couple that we're going 

to have to consult a little on and we may be able to provide some further guidance 

on those on our next webinar. Which again, those are by invitation-only to the 

Governor's office, but they are, we will post the transcript for those as well as the 

recordings and the slides.

So, we want to thank you all for joining us today. And, we appreciate your time, 

we appreciate your interest. We are looking to have all States pull teams together 

and apply for these applications. And we're thrilled that there has been so much 

interest across the country. Thank you very much and please continue to check our 

website for updates. Thank you.