The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) was awarded a five-year, almost $55 million Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The funding will be used to advance literacy skills for preschool through grade 12 with an emphasis on disadvantaged children, including children living in poverty, English learners and children with disabilities.
“This is the largest federal CLSD grant Kentucky has ever received,” said Commissioner of Education Robbie Fletcher. “To be awarded this grant is an honor, not only because there were the most applicants in the history of the program, but also a panel of literacy experts scored our application so highly. We are excited for the opportunities this grant will provide in advancing literacy skills in Kentucky.”
The CLSD discretionary grant program – renamed Kentucky Comprehensive Literacy 2025 (KyCL 25) – will provide competitive funding to districts to strengthen high-quality instructional resources (HQIRs) and curriculum-based professional learning for all levels. KyCL 25 will focus on increasing student literacy achievement through four project goals.
- Instructional staff will use evidence-based, literacy HQIRs to deliver coherent and aligned instruction to all students.
- Instructional staff will use evidence-based, literacy HQIRs to support struggling readers to narrow the achievement gap for the target populations in a cycle of continuous improvement.
- Instructional staff will be engaged in sustained, aligned, job-embedded, high-quality curriculum-based professional learning focused on a literacy HQIR.
- Schools will increase family engagement in the literacy development of their student(s) and awareness of resources to aid in supplemental literacy instruction at home.
The KDE Office of Teaching and Learning has issued a request for application (RFA) for subgrantees for the KyCL 25 grant that can be found on KDE’s Competitive Grants webpage. Funding will be based on the number of students in each district feeder system designated as small, medium and large. The number of awards will depend on the number and size of the awarded applicants.
KDE anticipates funding approximately 40 districts. The four-year award for small districts would be $1,065,000, medium districts would be $1.3 million and large districts would be $1.56 million. All public-school districts and state schools can apply. No matching funds are required.
RFAs should be submitted by Dec. 18 at 4 p.m. ET. Funding for this grant will begin on July 1, 2025, and end on Sept. 30, 2029.
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