Office of Educational Services & Support

Overview of Grants Available from OELA

OBEMLA administers programs authorized by Title VII of the Improving Americas Schools Act. Title VII is also known as the Bilingual Education Act. Title VII programs provide educators with the flexibility to implement and expand programs that build upon the strengths of linguistically and culturally diverse students with the goal of helping them achieve to high academic standards.

Specifically, OBEMLA funds four functional discretionary grant categories for direct instructional services by local educational agencies (LEA’s):

• Program Development and Implementation Grants -3 year grants designed to assist LEAs develop and implement new and comprehensive bilingual education for linguistically and culturally diverse students;
• Program Enhancement Project Grants -2 year grants designed to assist LEAs in carrying out highly focused, innovative, and locally designed projects to expand or refine existing bilingual education for linguistically and culturally diverse students;
• Comprehensive School Grants -5 year grants designed to assist LEAs in reforming, restructuring, and upgrading all elements of an individual school's program and operations to serve linguistically and culturally diverse students; and
• Systemwide Improvement Grants -5 year grants designed to assist LEAs in improving, reforming, and upgrading all relevant programs and operations that serve linguistically and culturally diverse students on a districtwide basis.

Through Title VII, OBEMLA also provides funding for crucial support activities that assist schools and school districts in carrying out direct services to students, including:

• State Education Agency (SEA) Grants that allow SEAs to provide technical assistance to school districts and to collect data on the State's LEP population; and Academic Excellence Grants that promote the adoption of model educational programs serving LEP students.
• To increase the supply of teachers and educational personnel trained to serve LEP students, OBEMLA funds professional development programs to promote integration into broader school curricula and reforms to improve the knowledge base and practices of educational personnel serving linguistically and culturally diverse students. The four type of grants include:
• Training for All Teachers Grants -5 year grants designed to foster the incorporation of courses and curricula on appropriate and effective instructional and assessment methodologies, strategies and resources specific to the education of language-minority and LEP students into mainstream preparation programs for all education personnel, including inservice programs;
• Bilingual Education Teachers and Personnel Grants -5 year grants designed to support preservice and inservice professional development of bilingual education teachers, administrators, counselors, and other education personnel; and national professional development institutes for institutions of higher education.
• Bilingual Education Career Ladder Programs Grants -5 year grants designed to upgrade the qualifications and skills of existing educational personnel to meet high professional standards including certification and licensure as bilingual education teachers and other educational personnel serving LEP students; and
• Graduate Fellowships in Bilingual Education - Fellowship awards for master's, doctoral, and post-doctoral study related to the instruction of children and youth of limited English proficiency, as well as for the support of dissertation research related to such study.

In addition, OBEMLA awards Foreign Language Assistance Program Grants to help local educational agencies establish and improve foreign language instruction in elementary and secondary schools.

Finally, OBEMLA awards provides formula-funded grants to State Education Agencies through the Emergency Immigrant Education Act to help offset the costs that local educational agencies may experience due to large increases recently-arrived immigrant students.

Further grant information can be obtained at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OBEMLA/newgrant.html