May 25, 2018 The Honorable Scott H. Peters U.S. House of Representatives 1122 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Peters: Subject: Education for Homeless Children and Youth Federal Grant Application Thank you for your letter dated May 15, 2018, regarding the Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) federal grant application from the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD). SDUSD submitted an application for the EHCY grant, but the grant application lacked one of the required signatures for Attachment 3: Assurances and Required Signatures. Unfortunately, incomplete applications are unable to submit appeals. According to the California Department of Education (CDE) Funding Handbook 2018, requests for applications (RFA) are required to have a signature page showing a commitment to comply with the assurances, certifications, term, and conditions associated with the grant and grant application. Regrettably, the CDE does not receive sufficient EHCY federal funds to fund all applicants. During the most recent RFA period, 128 local educational agencies (LEAs) submitted applications. Of those, 15 of the applicants did not follow the required RFA format and content requirements. Letters were mailed from the CDE to those LEAs indicating the reason for not meeting those requirements. At the same time, the CDE sent letters to the 40 LEA applicants that did not score high enough to be funded, and to the 73 LEA applicants that scored high enough to be funded for the 2018–21 three-year grant cycle. These letters included information regarding the appeal process and deadline. The Honorable Scott H. Peters May 25, 2018 Page 2 The 73 LEA applicants with high scores have been notified that their application was approved and to expect grant award notifications after July 1, 2018. It is important to note that the San Diego County Office of Education, as well as three other LEAs within San Diego County, have been promised these funds. The intent of EHCY is to encourage and foster coordination and collaboration not only within the LEA, but with other LEAs. The next EHCY funding cycle will be for 2021–24, and the RFA will become available in the fall of 2020. It is worth noting that during the 2016–17 fiscal year, the CDE received just over $8 million in EHCY federal funds which were allocated to LEAs with successful applications. That same year, California’s LEAs enrolled 268,699 homeless children and youth from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. Based on California’s 2016–17 allocation, only $29.50 was available for each homeless student for 12 months of support. The CDE would welcome the opportunity to work with your office to look for ways to increase funding levels for EHCY. If given funding to support all homeless youth in California, the CDE would fully support moving from the existing competitive grant process, which denies school districts, county offices of education, and homeless students of funding and services that are needed. Thank you for your interest in and support of homeless children and youth in California. We look forward to working on bringing additional resources to support this population. If you have any questions regarding this subject, please do not hesitate to contact Marguerite Ries, Federal Policy Liaison, Government Affairs Division, by phone at 916-319-0650 or by e-mail at mries@cde.ca.gov. Sincerely, Tom Torlakson TT:mr cc: Cindy Marten, Superintendent, San Diego Unified School District