- Cama-i, quyana tailuci!
- (Central Yup’ik)
- "Greetings, thank you for coming!"
21st Century Community Learning Centers
Overview
The purpose of the Alaska 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program is to provide competitive grants to organizations that are working in partnership within their community and schools to provide expanded learning and enrichment opportunities for children and their families outside of regular school hours. The program is designed to target funds to communities that have low achieving students and high rates of poverty but lack the resources to establish after school centers. Funding for Alaska’s 21st CCLC program is provided by federal funds from ESEA, Title IV, Part B.
Competitive Grant Opportunities
4.30.20 In February, DEED released its FY21 Alaska 21st CCLC Request for Applications (RFA) for competitive grants that would begin providing out-of-school time programming in the fall of the 20-21 school year. Awards are made for five years, contingent upon federal congressional funding and adequate progress meeting grant goals. We hope to award $2,700,000 in federal funding.
On March 27, to allow people to focus on supporting their community during the COVID-19 epidemic, we changed the due date of the 21st CCLC RFA to Friday, May 15. At that time, we revised the RFA to include updated logistical information, recorded webinar links, and two slightly revised forms.
There will be no further postponements. The RFA is due May 15, 2020 at 1:00 pm.
RFA Technical Assistance Webinar Captioned Recordings
In late February, DEED offered two optional online technical assistance webinars, one aimed at new applicants and the other for all applicants. Both webinars were recorded and captioned and are now available to all applicants:
Technical Assistance Webinar Recording #1 for New Applicants
Recorded Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Topics: Target audience for funds, academic focus, best practices, viable staffing, necessary community partnerships, and overview capacity to deliver programming
Technical Assistance Webinar Recording #2 for All Applicants
Recorded Thursday, February 27, 2020
Topics: Application requirements, tips, and changes to this application.
Support Documents for Applicants
- 21st CCLC DEED School Data Sheet (Excel)
- Alaska 21st CCLC Evaluation Technical Assistance (MS Word)
- Meeting Alaska’s Education Challenge Together
- Alaska 21st CCLC Guidelines for Equitable Services for Private Schools (MS Word)
- Sample Affirmation of Consultation and Agreement with Private School Officials (MS Word)
Check back soon for updates!
External Organization Partner Pool
In order to increase the capacity of Alaska’s communities to offer high-quality 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) applications and programs, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development (DEED) to make available a list of potential Alaska non-profit “external organizations” that 21st CCLC applicants may be interested in partnering with when building a 21st CCLC out-of-school-time program. Community partnerships within 21st CCLC programs are strongly encouraged as they have the potential to increase program quality, variety, and sustainability. The term "partnerships" in this instance is used loosely and may involve for-pay contracted services, in-kind services, etc.
Grantee Documents and Links
- Federal Equal Treatment Regulations
- 21st CCLC Federal Data Collection Site (21APR)
- 21st CCLC Federal Statute-ESEA, Title IV, Part B as amended by ESSA - see pg. 226-238 (pdf)
- 21st CCLC Federal GPRA Measures (pdf)
- 21st CCLC Federal Non-Regulatory Guidance (pdf)
- 21st CCLC Federal Guidance on Credit Recovery (pdf)
Current State Grantees
Alaska 21st CCLC Fact Sheet FY19 (pdf)
Alaska 21st CCLC Statewide Evaluation Report FY19 (pdf)
DEED to request waiver to 21st CCLC restrictions;
public comment period closes October 7
Due to the extraordinary circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Education is offering states flexibility in their federally-funded programs in order to best meet the needs of students, families, and educators during this national emergency.
Currently, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, Section 4201(b)(1)(A) restricts activities provided by programs funded under the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers program (21st CCLC) to activities provided only “during non-school hours or periods when school is not in session (such as before and after school or during summer recess).” The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development plans to apply for a waiver to the above restriction, for the 20-21 school year only, which will advance student academic achievement by authorizing academic enrichment activities and other allowable 21st CCLC activities to occur during times when school is in session. This will include times when students are attending school remotely, virtually, and/or through independent completion of classwork instead of in person due to disruptions caused by COVID-19. All other requirements of a 21st CCLC program will continue to apply, and programs will, of course, be allowed to continue to additionally or exclusively provide 21st CCLC programming during hours when school is not in session.
Through this announcement, the Alaska Department of Education and Early is providing the public, school districts, and 21st CCLC grantees in Alaska with notice and an opportunity to comment on the plan to pursue the waiver described above. Comments are due via email to courtney.preziosi@alaska.gov by 5:00 PM on Wednesday, October 7, 2020.
Resources for Afterschool
- Afterschool Alliance
- Alaska Afterschool Network (AAN)
- Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game Educator's Page
- Alaska's Adopted Academic Standards
- Alaska's Adopted Employability Standards
- APICC Youth Employability Skills
- APS Award Checklist
- Assessing Youth Program Quality: A Guide to Assessment Tools
- Building and Managing Quality Afterschool Programs
- CDC's Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-Serving Organizations
- Click2Science
- Community Schools Evaluation Toolkit
- DEED Teacher Toolbox
- DEED's USDA Child Nutrition Programs
- Doing What Works
- Foundations, Inc.
- From Soft Skills to Hard Data: Measuring Youth Program Outcomes
- Harvard Family Research Project – Afterschool Evaluation 101
- Lights On Afterschool
- Measuring Social and Emotional Learning: A Brief Guide
- NAA Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Standards
- NYSED List of Model Prevention Programs Supporting Academic Achievement
- SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices
- SEL Assessment Toolkit
- The Fourth R
- You for Youth (Y4Y)
Important Dates
- 2020 Alaska Afterschool Conference
Juneau, Alaska- November, 2020
Contact Us
- 21st CCLC Program Manager
- Jessica Paris:
(907) 465-8716
- Jessica Paris: