GRANT APPLICATIONS

A discretionary grant is a grant made in support of an individual project in accordance with legislation that permits the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) to exercise judgment in selecting the project, the grantees, and the amount of the award. Applicants may or may not compete for these funds.

The department maintains a web site that provides information about grant opportunities. See (http://www.state.nj.us/njded/grants/discretionary).

To solicit applications, the department releases) a Notice of Grant Opportunity (NGO), (available at the web site noted above). Eligibility guidance can be found in Section 1.2, Eligibility to Apply.

To apply for a grant, you must prepare and submit a complete application. Your application will be a response to the guidelines presented in the Notice of Grant Opportunity. Your application package must also be constructed in accordance with the guidance, instructions, and forms found only in the Discretionary Grant Application (DGA). You must use the DGA in combination with this NGO to prepare a complete application.

The required application forms are listed in Section 3 of the Notice of Grant Opportunity (NGO). Failure to include a required form may result in your application being removed from consideration for funding. Use the checklist in the NGO to ensure that all required forms are included in your application.

(Note: The Application Title Page and all special forms are attached to the NGO. All other forms are part of the Discretionary Grant Application and can be downloaded from the Internet at http://www.state.nj.us/njded/grants/discretionary/)

The department makes the Discretionary Grant Application and the published Notice of Grant Opportunities available in Word format on the Internet. (see above)

Paper copies of the documents are available by calling the Office of Grants Management and Development, Application Control Center at 609-633-6974.

Paper copies of the NGO are distributed to eligible applicants by the sponsoring program office. The Internet copy of the NGO provides the name and phone number of the sponsoring program office in section 1.5, Technical Assistance.

Section 1.5 of the Notice of Grant Opportunity describes scheduled available technical assistance for developing an application. Generally speaking, no additional technical assistance can be provided.

In addition, the Discretionary Grant Application contains instructions and guidance for completing a grant application.

All applications received after the due date and time published in the Notice of Grant Opportunity (NGO) are returned to the applicant without being considered for funding.

No additional information can be submitted after the due date and time published in the NGO.

Applications are screened to ensure that all eligibility criteria published in the NGO have been met. All eligible applications are then forwarded to a reader panel for review.

For any application determined to be ineligible, the Superintendent/CEO of the applicant agency will be notified in writing by the Department. The notification will detail the reason/s for the determination and in the applicant will be provided an opportunity to appeal.

The DGA provides information about the review and/or evaluation of discretionary grant applications. Generally, applications are evaluated based on the Selection Criteria found in Part I: General Information and Guidance, of the Discretionary Grant Application (DGA), and the point values found in Section 3: Completing the Application of the Notice of Grant Opportunity (NGO).

All agencies submitting applications are notified of the status of their applications within 45 days of submitting the application.

The Department maintains a copy of all applications submitted. After the completion of the evaluation process, successful applications are transmitted to the appropriate Program Office for pre-award review and revisions with the applicant.

The Department uses the results of the reader evaluations and any set-asides published in the NGO to identify agencies that will be offered a grant agreement.

After the completion of the evaluation process successful applicants are notified of their eligibility for award consideration. This notification may be followed with a round of pre-award revisions or clarification with the appropriate Program Office. After the completion of the pre-award revision process, applicants will then be notified with a commitment of funding (Grant Agreement).

Any applicant may request a summary of the scoring of their application. Such requests must be on district/agency letter head and must be signed by the Chief School Administrator/Chief Executive Officer

For information on entitlement and discretionary grant programs visit the department web site at http://www.state.nj.us/njded/grants/discretionary/.