Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII): Expanding Opportunity Through Quality Charter Schools Program (CSP): Grants for Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities CFDA Number 84.354A

performance measures, priorities and program contact information. For the addresses for obtaining and submitting an application, please refer to our Common Instructions for Applicants to Department of Education Discretionary Grant Programs, published in the Federal Register on February 12, 2018 (83 FR 6003) and available at www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-02-12/pdf/2018-02558.pdf. Purpose of Program: The Credit Enhancement program provides grants to eligible entities to demonstrate innovative methods of helping charter schools to address the cost of acquiring, constructing, and renovating facilities by enhancing the availability of loans and bond financing. Background: Since FY 2002, the Department has made new Credit Enhancement grants each year, which has resulted in a portfolio of grantees using Federal funds to enhance the credit of charter schools so that they can access private-sector and other non-Federal capital in order to acquire, construct, and renovate facilities at a reasonable cost. This notice contains application requirements from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA),\1\ and selection criteria and a competitive preference priority for charter schools operating in high-need communities and geographic areas from program regulations at 34 CFR part 225. This notice also includes an invitational priority that encourages applicants to partner with other entities to leverage new or previously untapped capital and other resources to expand support to more schools and students as well as improve their ability to support schools and students. Under this priority, an applicant could propose, for example, to partner with a newly created State-funded credit enhancement program designed to improve charter schools' credit ratings on bonds, thereby enabling charter school facility financing at lower interest rates and lower borrowing costs. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ Unless otherwise indicated, references to the ESEA are to the ESEA, as amended by the ESSA. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number 84.354A.