Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) Grant for Credit Enhancement of Charter School Facilities

(a) A public entity, such as a State or local governmental entity;
(b) A private, nonprofit entity; or
(c) A consortium of entities described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section.

Purpose of Program: The Grants for Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities (Credit Enhancement) program provides grants to eligible entities to demonstrate innovative methods of helping charter schools to address the cost of acquiring, constructing, and renovating facilities by enhancing the availability of loans and bond financing.

Background

Since FY 2002, the Department has made new Credit Enhancement grants each year, which has resulted in a portfolio of grantees using Federal funds to enhance the credit of charter schools so that they can access private-sector and other non-Federal capital in order to acquire, construct, and renovate facilities at a reasonable cost. In December 2015, the Credit Enhancement program was reauthorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (20 U.S.C. 7221c). This notice contains application requirements from the ESEA, as amended by the ESSA,\1\ and selection criteria and a competitive preference priority for charters operating in high-need communities and geographic areas.
This notice also includes an invitational priority that encourages applicants to partner with other entities to leverage new or previously untapped capital and other resources to expand support to more schools and students as well as improve their ability to support schools and students. For example, under this priority, an applicant could propose to partner with a newly created State-funded credit enhancement program designed to improve charter schools’ credit ratings on bonds, thereby enabling charter school facility financing at lower interest rates and lower borrowing costs.
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\1\ Unless otherwise indicated, references to the ESEA are to the ESEA, as amended by the ESSA.
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Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 84.354A.

Applications for grants under the Credit Enhancement program, CFDA number 84.354A, must be submitted electronically using the Governmentwide Grants.gov Apply site at www.Grants.gov. Through this site, you will be able to download a copy of the application package, complete it offline, and then upload and submit your application. You may not email an electronic copy of a grant application to us.
You may access the electronic grant application for the Credit Enhancement program at www.Grants.gov. You must search for the downloadable application package for this competition by the CFDA number. Do not include the CFDA number’s alpha suffix in your search (e.g., search for 84.354, not 84.354A).