OSEP 84.325M FY2025 Grant Applicant Webinar PowerPoint Presentation

Hello, welcome to the US Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs applicant orientation for 84.325M, preparation of special education, early intervention and related services personnel at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities and other Minority Serving Institutions. My name is Tracie Dickson and I am the competition manager for this competition. The information that I am about to present is for guidance only and cannot replace the notice inviting applications. Therefore, please read the entire Notice Inviting Applications, including all of the footnotes, all of the notes, all of the links, the instructions and all other related statutes regulations and references. All applicants are required to respond to the NIA. The instructions are comprehensive and we recommend that you read them in totality Please do not make assumptions that information in NIA, links, instructions, etc. do not change from year to year. This webinar does not cover the NIA in its entirety, and it does not cover the application instructions in entirety either. It is a broad summary of the NIA and the process. Please review the recorded webinar linked in this slide for more information about applying for OSEP grants. The notice inviting applications for 84. 325 M was published in the Federal Register on May 27, 2025. Please note that applications are due no later than 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time on June 26, 2025. We do not accept applications submitted after that time. Please refer to the link In this slide for the published notice. This year we have made some changes to the application package that you can find on grants.gov. The package is now called application instructions. The application instructions now include the following information program: competition overview, timeline and general information important dates, notification of intent to apply, which is optional. The priority and its requirements and the application form as well as the instructions --all you can find on grants. gov. Please note that the NIA and the application materials are linked within the application instructions but are not included in the application instructions file. Therefore, please read the application instructions carefully and click on all of the links in the document and read those carefully as well. The purpose of the 325M is the same as the previous years. It is to help address state identified needs of personnel preparation and to ensure that the personnel have evidence-based skills and knowledge to provide services to children with disabilities and their families. We have $4.5 million and we expect to award 18 awards. Under the 325 priority, the department will fund grantees from HBCUs, Tribal Colleges and other MSIs that prepare scholars in special education, early intervention and related services at the bachelor's degree, certification, master's degree, educational specialist degree or the clinical doctorate degree. Please review the footnotes in the priority for definitions of key terms. You will also be able to check whether or not your IHE is eligible by clicking on the link in this slide. Personnel preparation degree programs that prepare all scholars to be duly certified can qualify under this priority application. Under this priority, IHEs may not submit the same proposal under preparation of early intervention and special education personnel serving children with disabilities who have high intensity needs, also known as 84.325K. Applicants may submit substantially different proposals under ALN 84.325M and 84.325K. OSEP will not fund similar personnel preparation projects within the same IHE across 325K and 325M competitions. Please note that eligible applicants may submit only one application under this competition. The eligible applicant is the IHE and not the proposed project director. We recommend that you coordinate with your IHE to coordinate 84.325M. The absolute priority of the 325M is to prepare personnel in special education, early intervention and related services at HBCUs, Tribal colleges and minority serving institutions. Again, the eligible degree programs include the bachelor's degree certification, master's degree, educational specialist degree or the clinical doctorate degree in early childhood, special education or related services or special education. There are approximately 11 footnotes in the NIA and we recommend that you read all of them as they contain important information within those 11 footnotes. For the purpose of this priority and this webinar we are providing key definitions in footnotes one through seven and I recommend that you read all of them-- all 11 of them- but seven of them have key definitions. If you are unsure of your MSI status, please refer to the link at the bottom of this slide. Just to highlight a few definitions-- earlier I said that certification programs are allowed to apply under 325M. By certification, we mean programs of study that lead to state licensure, endorsement, or certification that qualifies graduates to teach or provide services to children with disabilities. Many universities have certificate programs available as part of their continuing education programs but they do not lead to the state licensure endorsement or state certification. Those do not qualify under this priority. The 325M grant program defines a scholar as a student who is enrolled in a program that leads to certification, licensure, endorsement that's needed to serve eligible children with disabilities. Scholars are not those individuals pursuing degrees in Gen. Ed or general early childhood education. Upon graduation, scholars are expected to be able to be employed in a position that serves children with disabilities for a minimum of 51% of their time or caseload. Lastly, scholars must be able to fulfill service obligation requirements. You can find the information about service obligation in the link on this slide and it is important to understand these requirements before you submit your application. Eligible applicants are IHEs, nonprofit organizations or IHEs and nonprofit organizations that have legal authority to enter into grants and cooperative agreements with the federal government on behalf of an IHE. The eligible applicant is not the project director that is proposed in the application. The eligible applicant is the IHE. Under competitive preferences, there are two priorities in 32M. An applicant must demonstrate the project will be implemented by or in partnership with one or both of the following entities identified in competitive preference priority one. In competitive preference priority one eligible applicants that can receive five points are HBCUs as defined in this notice or Tribal colleges as defined in this notice. Under competitive preference priority two, there is a competitive preference for applications from new potential applicants. We will give five additional points to applicants that have not had an active 325K, 325M, or 325R grant in the last five years. Applicants are institutions of higher education, not a department or program within the institution, and not the proposed project director. A grant is considered active until the end of the grant funding period, including any extension periods. A 325M application is funded up to $350, 000 per year for up to five years not to exceed $1,250, 000 / 5 years or over the entire project period. 65% of the award at a minimum must be used for scholar support. Applicants may use up to the first 12 months of their performance period and up to $100, 000 of their first budget period for planning purposes. Applicants proposing to use year one for program development must ensure that 65% of the total award minus funds allocated for program development will be used for scholar support. This is a new note this year. This is an example of why it is important to read the entire NIA, including notes and footnotes. Please do not make the make the assumption that the NIA is the same as it was last year. This webinar does not replace information in the NIA. All applicants are required to respond to the NIA. This webinar is for informational purposes only. Please make note of this note in this slide. It is also important to read the entire NIA to understand how you can design high quality scholar support for the project. Scholar support does not need to be uniform for all scholars and should be customized for individual scholars needs. Scholar support should include consideration for all costs associated with the cost of attendance, even if that means enrolling fewer scholars. We want quality scholar support that will lead scholars to complete the program and not be challenged by financial barriers. Some examples you can consider in designing scholar support include tuition of fees, student health insurance allowance for books, materials and supplies, an allowance for miscellaneous personal expenses. Allowance for dependent care such as such as child care. Allowances for room and board or travel that is in conjunction with training or conferences and stipends to support scholars' completion of the program. Projections for scholar support should consider tuition increases and cost of living increases over time. If you plan to propose a project that prepares personnel at the bachelor's degree level, scholar support cannot be provided during the first two years of the degree program such as freshman and sophomore years. This is to ensure that scholar support will lead to service obligation fulfillment and that scholars are committed to earning a degree- a degree in special education. Now I will talk about the application narrative and selection criteria required, project assurances and general requirements. Again, it is critical to read the entire NIA, including all the footnotes and all of the notes. The footnotes and the notes contain additional important information that you must respond to. I cannot emphasize enough that this presentation does not replace the NIA and it does not replace the application instructions. There are five areas of selection criteria we ask applicants to address in the application narrative. Those are significance, quality of project design, quality of the management plan, adequacy of resources and quality of project evaluation or other evidence building. You will see assigned points next to each selection criteria. Please note that quality of project design is 45 points and that means that you know you have to be detailed in your descriptions, not that the other points are unimportant. But please keep that in mind. Up to 10 points are available for the significance section. In determining the quality of this section, we will consider the following factors: The project proposed will address the need and the proposed preparation focus area. The proposed project will increase the number of personnel with competencies in the proposed project focus area. And the applicant has successfully graduated students from this program. And the number of students who have graduated in the last five years. The quality of project design is where you will describe the core of the project -the conceptualization of your project- and this section is awarded up to 45 points. If your project will have a planning year, this is also where you would describe your planning activities. Please refer to the NIA because there is a very good description of the activities that are allowable in the planning year. We also want to see your recruitment and retention plans in this section. You should also describe how the project will help scholars build or gain the necessary competencies in the proposed project. The selection criteria the applicant intends to use must ensure equal access and treatment of all applicants seeking admission to the program and must be consistent with applicable law, including federal civil rights laws. Up to 20 points are available for the quality of the management plan. In this section we want to see how the project director and other key project personnel are qualified to prepare scholars in the project's preparation focus area. We want to see how the project director and other key project personnel will manage the components of the project. And whether the time commitments of the project director and other key project personnel are adequate to meet the objectives of the proposed project. Up to 10 points are available for the adequacy of the resources section. This section is where you can elaborate on your plans for scholar support as well as the adequacy of your budget. Lastly, up to 15 points are available for the project evaluation section. Required project assurances. Please read the entire NIA and make note of the required project assurances, including the service obligation requirements and assurance that all the course syllabi will be provided if requested by OSEP and the idea statutory requirements. In the application, applicants are required to submit a table that lists the project's required coursework that includes the course title, a brief description, learning goals and relevant state or national professional organization personnel standards for each course. And include, for example, core courses required by the degree program that reflects evidence-based practices across various content areas. Additional project assurances emphasize the 65% scholar support requirement. Also, please ensure that scholar support costs are not based on the condition that the scholar works for the university. Applicants also should ensure that a revised budget will be submitted if the project plan for recruitment or enrollment changes. Or if the project is awarded and additional changes are required in the budget. Once funded, grantees are required to attend our annual project directors meeting, and it's usually held in the summer. Funded projects are also required to participate in cross project collaboration and learning opportunities. If you build a website for the project, please ensure that it is accessible. If you don't, you'll hear from us. The funded projects must meet the annual scholar data reporting requirements. Here are general requirements related to the employment of individuals with disabilities, engagement of individuals with disabilities and equal access. This is OSEP so we do appreciate when individuals with disabilities are involved with our funded projects. You must make assurances that you will make efforts to employ individuals with disabilities, involve individuals with disabilities in implementation and describe steps to ensure equitable access to your program for all scholars and all personnel on the grant. Again, this is OSEP so we do appreciate having individuals with disabilities involved in our projects. In this last section, I will talk about application submission tips and ineligible applications and share some helpful resources. Applications must be submitted electronically. We do not take paper applications and we do not take applications via e-mail. Applications must be submitted in grants. gov. The due date is June 26, 2025, 11:59 PM Eastern Time. Please make adjustments to your time zone. All application sections and attachments must be uploaded and PDF read only format. Again, you must admit your applications in grants.gov, it is due 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time on June 26. Make note of that, and all application sections and attachments must be uploaded in PDF read only format. Please register early --like as soon as you get off this webinar. Please register early on grants.gov. Grants. gov registration involves many steps and usually takes approximately 7 to 10 business days to complete-- and it can take longer. This is a quick turn around. We have less than a month from today to get your application submitted. So if you haven't registered on grants. gov, you should do so immediately. Submit early and also verify that your submission went through. Highly recommend that you do not wait until the last minute. There's always technology glitches. Something always goes wrong. So if you can submit early, that is what we suggest that you do. Again, applications will not be accepted late if you have technology glitches-- we cannot accept your application and if it is late. Please follow the formatting requirements and recommendations. You can find this information in the application instructions and this information is in the NIA. Ineligible applications are: duplicate applications and applications that do not meet the application deadline or applications that do not address the priority. In addition, if an IHE submits more than one application under 325M, we will ask the institution to select one application for review and all other applications will be ineligible. Please read the NIA in its entirety. You may use this pre application webinar as an additional resource when you're reading the NIA. Please please read the footnotes and the notes. There is important information in both of those places. Please do not skip that information. This concludes the pre application information webinar for 84.325M. Again, I'm the competition manager and please feel free to e-mail me at any time that you have questions. Don't wait. Don't try to make assumptions. If you have a question, no matter how big or small it is. No matter how many emails you send to me I will be happy to help you with NIA clarification and the application process. Thank you again and good luck.