The Escambia Children’s Trust board voted unanimously Tuesday morning to move forward with a new $3.5 million grant program called Bright Pathways, replacing the existing Out of School Time grants that expire this year. The Request for Proposals will be released Thursday, Feb. 12.
Note: Executive Director Lindsey Cannon told the board that she plans to bring to the board at future date an RFP for $3.5 million for programming for ages 0-5.
- “How is Miami beating us in the graduation rate? What is happening in Miami?” said Cannon. “And every one of them in those communities has said we invest heavily in our 0-5 population to get them ready for school.”
Bright Pathways comes with significantly more structure, prescribed requirements and accountability measures than its predecessor — a shift the staff says is designed to produce better, more measurable outcomes for children across Escambia County.
$3.5 Million Budget, $350,000 Cap Per Program
Director of Programs and Performance Deborah Ray walked the board through the details of the RFP, which covers K-12 after-school and summer programming. Read Bright Pathways RFP.
The trust has set aside $3.5 million for Bright Pathways. Individual programs can receive a maximum of $350,000 annually, with funding tied directly to the number of participants served — $2,500 per child for a full-year program, broken down as $2,000 for the school year and an additional $500 for summer programming.
That per-participant model is a departure from past practice.
- “It wasn’t a firm breakdown per program in the previous OST,” Ray said. “We looked at the trends, the spending trends, what our larger programs were spending and the reimbursement rate to make sure it would be fair.”
Tighter Requirements for Providers
Under the new RFP, providers will face far more requirements than in previous grant cycles.
- School-year programs must operate Monday through Friday, with a minimum of 100 program days annually and at least two hours of programming per day. Summer programs must run at least 24 days with a minimum of four hours per day of structured activities. Target attendance is a minimum of three days per week during the school year.
“There was not a prescribed time,” Ray said of the previous program. “Each of the providers or the applicants were able to set their own goals as far as attendance as well as their outcomes.”
- Staff-to-student ratios are also now spelled out: a minimum of one staff member per 15 students, with maximums of 1-to-18 at the elementary level, 1-to-22 for middle school, and 1-to-25 for high school.
Standardized Curriculum and Data Collection
One of the most significant changes is the introduction of IXL, a pre-K through 12 supplemental curriculum platform for math and English Language Arts that the trust will provide to all funded programs at approximately $18.75 per participant.
- “It really gives us across-the-board apples-to-apples data that we would have access to,” Ray said. “Our staff would be trained as well as each of the providers.”
The trust will collect baseline, mid-year and end-of-year assessments through IXL, supplemented by school district data on attendance, discipline and formal state assessments.
- Programs will also be evaluated on social-emotional learning, attendance and discipline metrics, arrest and juvenile justice data, and career and workforce readiness measures — with data collected through a combination of provider logs, district records, surveys and Escambia County juvenile justice data-sharing agreements.
Priority Points for Underserved Areas
The RFP awards additional points to applicants proposing to serve residents in Century, Warrington, Navy Point, Brownsville, Ensley and other underserved neighborhoods. Secondary programs serving middle and high school students will also receive bonus points in the scoring process.
- Applicants must have a confirmed site for services or a memorandum of understanding with another entity, such as a school, before applying.
New Evaluation System Coming
Ray told the board the staff is developing a new evaluation system that will assess programs across three areas — program quality, financial compliance and site audits. Programs that fall short could be placed on improvement plans.
“We have a lot of measures and quality program assurances in place, so we’re excited about that,” Ray said.
Timeline
The RFP will be released Thursday, Feb. 12, with a mandatory information session scheduled for Feb. 18 from 1 to 3 p.m. Proposals are due April 10, with the grants committee meeting set for April 28. Funding recommendations go to the full board on May 12, with an anticipated contract start date of Aug. 1.
Board member Stephanie White noted the per-participant funding model also encourages providers to diversify their funding sources.
- “I think it also forces our providers to also look for other sources besides just us to help,” White said.
