Direct Student Services Fiscal Year 2026 Funding Opportunity

The Direct Student Services Grant provides local education agencies (LEAs) with an opportunity to create and expand high-quality, meaningful, and engaging programming for low-achieving students. This opportunity is only available to LEAs that are either implementing a new program or expanding a currently provided program to impact a larger audience of students. LEAs should target the lowest-achieving students but can expand to all students while evaluating different program options to best serve students and parents.

This grant will support the costs of implementing or expanding access to high-quality, qualified artificial intelligence tutoring providers to expand access for students in the state of Arizona. This can help assist teachers and provide effective study practices for students across the state. Artificial intelligence can assist educators with this process by simplifying workflow, identifying student struggles, synthesizing data, and assisting with lesson planning. There are other programs available for LEAs to apply for, too.

The grant opens for competition on July 1, 2025, and is set to close for applicants by the end of business on August 31, 2025. Grant applicants should read the Direct Student Services Grant information document, which can be found on the Direct Student Services website.

June 2025 Updates (6/1/2025)

Year-End Closeout:

• In preparation for the fiscal year close-out, the GME system will not accept reimbursement requests after 06/15/25 and before 07/02/25. Please be sure to have any reimbursement requests that you plan to have processed submitted to Grants Management in approvable form by 6/15/25.
• This will be the final opportunity to draw down for state reverting grants (i.e. CTE State Priority, etc.). If you are not sure whether a grant is state reverting, please reach out to the Program Area overseeing the project. Drawdown of funds for state reverting grants cannot be done on the Completion Report, and carryover is not allowed.
• On 07/02/25, LEAs can resume submitting reimbursement requests for grants ending on 9/30/25.

Advances:

• Advances can be requested on state grants to cover expenses between the reimbursement request cutoff in GME and the project end date (06/30/25) if an approvable request is received by 06/15/25.
• Federal grant advances are not allowed for high-risk LEAs.
• Additional documentation substantiating the advance request is required.

FY25 Funding Application Revisions:

• Funding application revisions must be Director Approved prior to the end of each project (either 6/30 or 9/30), or they will be cancelled.
  
• LEAs must submit their final revisions to Program Areas early, to allow sufficient time for review and approval, as well as any potential edits.
• A Completion Report cannot be started if the funding application is not in Director Approved status or if the LEA has a pending reimbursement request.

Completion Reports (CRs):

• CRs for most awards open as of 07/01/25.
• CRs are due by the end of the 90-day liquidation period following the project end date.
• Some funding applications have a limit to how much (if any) carryover is allowed. Please check with your program area to see if carryover is allowed before submitting the CR.
• Outstanding CRs may result in holds on open projects and delays in processing your Reimbursement Requests. If you have any outstanding CRs, please submit them as soon as possible.

FY26 Funding Applications:

• Funding applications opened on 04/01/25.
• Please contact your program area if you have questions about your FY26 funding application.
• Transferability for ESEA Consolidated grants will be unavailable until 07/01/25, to allow for compliance with the Maintenance of Effort (MOE) requirements.

FY26 Indirect Cost (IDC) Available in GME Supplements:

• ENDING SOON: The FY26 IDC Supplement will be available in GME only through 06/30/25.
  
• If your organization does not request an indirect cost rate prior to 06/30/25, ADE will not be able to provide your organization with a rate for FY26.
• Counties, colleges, and other government offices must request to be added to the Indirect Cost – Counties, IHEs, and Other Gov’t supplement in GME via Help Desk. Once added, the entity may apply for IDC directly through the Counties, IHEs, and Other Gov’t option.

Fiscal Monthly Reports:

• Fiscal Monthly Reports are available by the 15th in your LEA Document Library. Please view these reports each month to see how your LEA is doing with drawing down remaining available grant funding.
• Grants Management recommends submitting regular Reimbursement Requests for all open grants (ideally once a month or more often).

Virtual Technical Assistance:

• If you would like to request 1:1 assistance and support with submitting Reimbursement Requests, Completion Reports, or other processing needs, please contact your assigned Grants Coordinator at 602-542-3901, option 2. We are here to support you with closing out FY25.

FY24 Single Audits:

• The FY24 Single Audit Reporting Package (SARP) was due to ADE within 30 days of receiving the report or 9 months after the organization’s fiscal year-end date, whichever came first. For organizations with a 6/30/24 fiscal year end date, the deadline to submit the complete SARPs was 03/31/25. Organizations with outstanding SARPs have been placed on fiscal hold and will remain on hold until their SARP has been uploaded in GME.

 GEPA

As of July 1, 2023 all federal grant funding applications in the GME system will include a section to which will satisfy the requirements of Section 427 of the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA) (20 U.S.C. 1228a).

Section 427 requires each applicant for funds to include in its application a description of the steps the applicant proposes to take to remove barriers and to ensure equitable access to, and participation in, its Federally-assisted program for students, teachers, and other program beneficiaries.

What you need to know for FY24:

·         The GEPA page will only be visible once the application is in Revision status

·         The page will be found in the section titled General Education Provisions Act (GEPA).

o   Will not impact original applications

o   Required with first revision

o   A validation error will prevent application status from being changed to CR Draft started if the GEPA page is not completed.
·        There is not a minimum word count for a GEPA statement

What you need to know for FY25 and forward:

·         The GEPA page will be part of the Original application and will be required on initial funding application submission

We are thrilled to announce our 2025 Grants Management Forum!

Please see below for our June training schedule!