McKinney Vento Homeless Education and 21st Century Community Learning Centers — Family Engagement / Playful Learning Enhancement Grant

Funder: Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Note: To be considered submitted, this grant must be moved through the LEA Fiscal Representative Approved step in GEM$.
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education provides leadership, oversight, funding, support, and accountability for the Commonwealth's approximately 400 school districts that educate close to 1 million public school children each year. We also oversees programs that serve 20,000 adult learners each year.
McKinney Vento Homeless Education and 21st Century Community Learning Centers — Family Engagement / Playful Learning Enhancement Grant
Purpose
The purpose of this federal targeted grant is to provide funding for districts to:
Strengthen, enhance, and sustain effective and innovative family engagement strategies to improve students' attendance, academic engagement, social emotional well-being, and sense of belonging by developing family-school partnerships through the Family Institute for Student Success (FISS) model; and/orSupport the Department's vision for deeper learning by building the collective capacity of districts, schools, and organizations to embed and sustain principles of playful learning into 21st CCLC out of school time programming for students in grades K–3.
Priorities
For applicants for FISS:

• Develop and implement culturally and linguistically responsive family engagement practices.
• Build staff capacity and create sustainable family engagement systems at the district and program level.
• Utilize the FISS curriculum to support improvements in attendance, literacy, social and emotional learning (SEL), and engagement practices.
• For applicants for Playful Learning units:

Provide participating educators, schools, and programs the opportunity to enhance and expand current practices and/or try new approaches to learning in which students are actively collaborating and engaging in playful learning that is coherently aligned to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.
Contribute to the 21st CCLC Learning Library through the development of playful learning units aligned to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.
Funding
For FISS implementation planning: Approximately $150,000 is available. Eligible applicants may apply for up to a total of $20,000.For developing playful learning units: Approximately $100,000 is available. Eligible applicants may apply for up to a total of $8,000/site
Fund Use
For planning and implementation of Family Institute for Student SuccessFISS, funds may be used to:

• Provide stipends for FISS facilitators and recruiters, and 21st CCLC staff supporting FISS delivery and coordination.
• Develop multilingual outreach and communication, including translation, interpretation, and culturally responsive recruitment materials.

Develop an implementation plan for family workshops and FISS modules aligned to early literacy, attendance, SEL, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) enrichment, and student agency skills.
Develop evaluation, data collection, and family participation monitoring to support continuous improvement and outcome tracking.
Develop FISS program materials and supplies needed for facilitation, family learning activities, and home-school partnership tools.
Develop and coordinate strategies to reduce barriers to school attendance and engagement for students experiencing homelessness students and students participating in 21st CCLC programs.
In collaboration with the DESE-selected professional development vendor, provide and engage in professional development and ongoing coaching for district staff to develop a plan and ensure the successful implementation, and long-term sustainability of FISS.
For developing playful learning units, funds may be used to support stipends for educators to develop and implement playful learning, participate in trainings, team planning time, curriculum development, supplies and materials.

Eligibility

For participation in Family Institute for Student SuccessFISS:
FY2026 FC 0310 McKinney Vento Homeless Education Category B — Family and Community Engagement granteesFY2026 Massachusetts 21st CCLC FC 0645 and/or FC 0646 granteesDistricts that have previously or are currently implementing FISS in one school may apply to implement the program in another school within the district.
For developing Playful Learning units:

• FY2026 Massachusetts 21st CCLC FC 0645 and/or FC 0646 grantees that attended the Playful Learning track at the 2026 Winter Institute
• List of Eligible Applicants

Ineligibility

These funds may not be used to supplant existing costs, which would otherwise be funded (in the absence of these grant funds) from other sources.