Announcements

May is National Foster Care Month. The 2024 theme, Engaging Youth. Building Supports. Strengthening Opportunities, highlights the need to create a child welfare system that authentically engages and supports young people who are preparing to leave foster care. Learn more. 

This information memorandum (PDF, 14 pages) provides guidance to Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) grantees regarding the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) Program. This resource provides information to ensure eligible young adults experiencing or at-risk of experiencing homelessness who have previously been in foster care or are aging out of foster care gain access to these resources. The information memorandum also provides guidance to RHY grant recipients regarding what RHY resources may be used to support young adults as they access the FYI Program. Learn more (PDF, 14 pages).

This webpage contains resources on behavioral health for the following audiences:

• For Parents and Caregivers
• For Teens and Young Adults
• For Providers
• For American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
• For Grant Recipients
• For Individuals Supporting Early Childhood Needs

Additional resources on maternal health, mental health, and substance use are provided. Learn more.

This webpage shares data on the rise in deaths from excessive alcohol use in the United States. The webpage provides tips for helping prevent excessive alcohol use at the individual, community, and state levels. Additional resources are provided. Learn more.

This Dear Colleague Letter (PDF, 9 pages) provides information on young people’s unique developmental stage and suggests approaches and resources for incorporating practices into programs to meet their particular needs. This letter includes information on co-regulation practices, youth peer support, and authentically partnering with youth with lived experience. Learn more.

Date: April 27, 2024, from 10:00am-2:00 pm ET

National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is April 27, 2024. This event is a safe, convenient, and responsible way to dispose of unused or expired prescription drugs at locations in communities throughout the country. The National Prescription Drug Take Back Day webpage shares promotional materials, including social media content, posters, pamphlets, billboards and advertisements, and banners. Learn more.

This webpage contains briefs summarizing a six-part webinar series designed to Raise the Bar for family engagement practices between school and home. The series provided an overview of evidence, highlighted bright spots in the field, and shared resources and evidence-based strategies to support student success with education leaders and practitioners. Briefs include:  

• Family Engagement to Support Student Success (PDF, 4 pages) 

• Family Engagement to Support Student Engagement and Attendance (PDF, 4 pages) 

• Family Engagement to Support Immigrant and Multilingual Families (PDF, 4 pages) 

• Family Engagement to Support Student Mental Health and Well-Being (PDF, 4 pages) 

• Family Engagement to Support Kindergarten Readiness and Early School Success (PDF, 4 pages) 

• Family Engagement to Support College and Career Pathway Success (PDF, 4 pages) 

Learn more. 

This infographic (PDF, 3 pages) outlines the benefits of creating a positive school climate and shares strategies and resources for enhancing school safety, fostering school connectedness and relationships, and enabling a supportive environment. Learn more (PDF, 3 pages). 

This fact sheet (PDF, 16 pages) provides information to help adoptive families support their child in developing a healthy racial, cultural, and ethnic identity and live a vibrant multicultural life. The fact sheet discusses the need for parents and families to examine their thoughts and biases and explores the importance of preparing the child to live in a society where race has a major impact on individual lives. Learn more. 

Application deadline: May 22, 2024 

This program aims to enhance the quality of assessment instruments and assessment systems used by states to measure the academic achievement and growth of elementary and secondary school students. Learn more and apply.  

Application deadline: May 13, 2024 

This program seeks to increase the number of bilingual and multilingual teachers supporting English learners (ELs). Grants awarded under this program may be used for effective pre-service professional development programs that will increase the number and diversity of fully licensed or certified bilingual or multilingual teachers. Learn more and apply. 

This interactive map highlights examples of state, districts, and localities investing COVID relief funds to support students with afterschool and summer programs. Learn more. 

This webpage contains a collection of tip sheets from the Engage Every Student Initiative for state, city, district, afterschool, and summer learning program leaders. Tip sheets include:  

• Collaborating with Municipal Officials to Support Afterschool and Summer Learning (PDF, 2 pages) 

• Sharing Your Story through Stakeholder Visits (PDF, 2 pages) 

• Responding to American Rescue Plan (ARP) ESSER Myths (PDF, 2 pages) 

• Research and Out-of-School Time Learning (PDF, 2 pages) 

Learn more. 

Grants.gov Deadline: May 21, 2024, 11:59 pm ET
JustGrants Deadline: June 4, 2024, 8:59 pm ET

NIJ seeks proposals for rigorous research and evaluation projects that inform policy and practice in the field of youth justice and delinquency prevention. Proposed studies should advance knowledge and understanding in the following two categories:

• Youth Justice Reinvestment Studies which evaluate the effectiveness, including cost-effectiveness, of youth justice system reforms and subsequent reinvestments into programs that serve youth in their communities.
• Prevention and Intervention Program Effectiveness Studies which evaluate the effectiveness of school and community-based prevention and intervention programs.

Learn more and apply (PDF, 41 pages).

This virtual training series will highlight key findings and implications of the National Threat Assessment Center’s (NTAC) research on school violence prevention. Attendees will learn about the background, thinking, and behavior of school attackers and how some schools discovered and stopped plots before violence occurred. This series will also provide guidance on how schools may develop or improve existing violence prevention programs utilizing a behavioral threat assessment model. Webinar dates include: 

• May 8, 2024, 12:00 - 2:00 pm ET 

• July 11, 2024, 12:00 - 2:00 pm ET 

• September 12, 2024, 12:00 - 2:00 pm ET 

 Learn more and register. 

Application deadline: May 15, 2024 

This program provides competitive grants to support and demonstrate innovative partnerships to train school-based mental health services providers for employment in schools and local educational agencies (LEAs). The goal of this program is to increase the number and diversity of high-quality, trained providers available to address the shortages of mental health services professionals in schools served by high-need LEAs. Proposed partnerships must include one or more high-need LEAs or a State educational agency (SEA) on behalf of one or more high-need LEAs and one or more eligible institutions of higher education (eligible IHE). Applications will be accepted under three absolute priority areas: 

1. Absolute Priority 1—Expand Capacity of High-need LEAs 

2. Absolute Priority 2—Applications From New Potential Grantees 

3. Absolute Priority 3—Applications from Grantees that Are Not New Potential Grantees 

Learn more and apply. 

This 12-week program provides students with opportunities to work alongside highly skilled intelligence or cybersecurity professionals at DHS, gain hands-on technical experience, interact with experts and peers at professional development events, and expand their professional network at national conferences. Participants will be immersed in a federal work environment by collaborating with subject matter expert mentors on projects and performing assigned tasks on the intelligence and cybersecurity track. Learn more and apply. 

This learning community will focus on the behavioral health needs of military-affiliated youth. The community will underscore the importance of understanding risk and protective factors, illustrate ways to offer support through community efforts, and provide tools and resources to navigate the myriad of supports available. Objectives of this learning community include: 

• Examining risk and protective factors for substance use among military-affiliated youth 

• Discovering how communities can support their behavioral health needs 

• Identifying substance use prevention resources that are specifically tailored for military-affiliated youth 

The learning community will meet monthly for three sessions beginning in March 2024 via Zoom. Learn more and register. 

This suite of resources helps state and local education agencies develop and sustain school mental health programs that improve the mental and behavioral well-being of all students. Resources include data on the prevalence of common behavioral health issues along with information and customizable tools to promote student mental health. Learn more. 

Application deadline: April 30, 2024 

This program provides competitive grants to State educational agencies (SEAs), local educational agencies (LEAs), and consortia of LEAs to increase the number of credentialed school-based mental health services providers providing mental health services to students in LEAs with demonstrated need. Funding is intended to: 

• Increase recruitment and retention-related activities and incentives, particularly in LEAs and SEAs that have not yet benefited from a SBMH grant 

• Promote the specialization and professional retraining of existing mental health services providers so that they have the credentials needed to provide school-based mental health services in LEAs with demonstrated need 

• Increase the diversity and cultural and linguistic competency of school-based mental health services providers, including competency in providing culturally sustaining and asset-based services 

Learn more and apply.