Grant Details

The purpose of the Title IV, Part B: 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program is to provide opportunities for communities to establish or expand activities in community learning centers that:

• Provide opportunities for academic enrichment, including providing tutorial services to help students, particularly students who attend low-performing schools, to meet the challenging state academic standards;
• Offer students a broad array of additional services, programs, and activities, such as youth development activities; service learning; nutrition and health education; drug and violence prevention programs; counseling programs; arts, music, physical fitness, and wellness programs; technology education programs; financial literacy programs; environmental literacy programs; mathematics, science, career, and technical programs; internship or apprenticeship programs; and other ties to an in-demand industry sector or occupation for high school students that are designed to reinforce and complement the regular academic program of participating students; and
• Offer families of students served by community learning centers opportunities for active and meaningful engagement in their children's education, including opportunities for literacy and related educational development.

The SCDE has established five competitive priorities for this funding cycle. Applicants must complete the competitive priorities section of the online application to qualify for the competitive priority bonus points.

• Priority 1: South Carolina Priority Schools (5 points): Five bonus points will be awarded to applications that propose to serve students who attend one of the SC priority schools.
• Priority 2: ESSA Targeted Services Priority (5 points): Five bonus points will be awarded to applications that:  
  • Will serve students, and the families of those students, who primarily attend schools that are implementing comprehensive support and improvement activities (CSI) or additional targeted support and improvement activities (ATSI).
  • Will enroll students who may be at risk for academic failure, dropping out of school, involvement in criminal or delinquent activities, or who lack strong positive role models.
• Priority 3: Expanding Services Priority (5 points): Five bonus points will be awarded to applications that demonstrate that the activities proposed are not accessible to students who would be served or would expand accessibility to high-quality services that may be available in the community.
• Priority 4: 15 Hours per Week Operations (5 points): Five bonus points will be awarded to applications that propose a program that will operate a minimum of 15 hours per week, Monday through Friday.
• Priority 5: Increasing Geographic Equity (10 Points): Ten bonus points will be awarded to applications that propose to serve an eligible school or schools in a South Carolina public school district/LEA that is not being served with a 21st CCLC subgrant in 2023–24 (see list below).
  • ?Abbeville
  • Anderson 3, 4, or 5
  • Bamberg
  • Chesterfield
  • Dillion 3
  • Dorchester 2
  • Edgefield
  • Fairfield
  • Florence 4
  • Greenville
  • Greenwood 52
  • Hampton
  • Horry
  • Kershaw
  • Laurens 56
  • Lexington 4
  • McCormick
  • Saluda
  • Spartanburg 1, 4, 5, 6, or 7
  • Clover/York 2, 3 or 4
  • Rock Hill/York 3
  • Fort Mill/York 4

Applicants must clearly meet the specified criteria for each priority to earn additional points for each category, up to a maximum of 30 points. Applicants are not eligible for competitive points unless their application earns an average score of 80 points or higher.

Target Population - Applicants must propose to serve students who primarily attend schools that:

• are implementing comprehensive support and improvement activities or targeted support and improvement activities under Sec. 4203(a)(3)(A)(i), , and
• other schools determined by the LEA to be in need of intervention and support to improve student academic achievement and other outcomes, and
• the families of these students (see Section 4203 (a)(3)(A)(ii)).

Applicants may propose to serve students who attend one or more of the schools identified as FY 23 Title I Schools Served at https://ed.sc.gov/districts-schools/student-intervention-services/21st-century-community-learning-centers/title-i-fy-23-schools-served/ 

Academic Focus¾21st CCLC must operate in a manner that maximizes the program's impact on the academic performance of participating students. Applicants must propose academic instruction and enrichment activities to help students meet and exceed state and local standards in ELA, reading, and mathematics. Applicants may also provide academic instruction in other core content areas, targeted to the students' needs and aligned to the instruction received during the school day.

Prammatic Operation - 21st CCLC's services must be provided outside the regular school day or during periods when school is not in session (i.e., before school, after school, evenings, weekends, holidays, or summer). A program may offer services to students during normal school hours on days when school is not in session (i.e., school holidays or teacher professional development days). Activities targeting adult family members may take place during regular school hours, as these times may be the most suitable for serving these populations. Services and benefits provided to private school students must be secular and non-ideological. If services are to be provided in a location other than a public school, the location must be at least as available, safe, conducive to learning, and accessible as a public school. SCDE staff may visit and tour locations that are not public schools prior to finalizing an award. Applicant is responsible for adhering to any local zoning and/or safety permits requirements.