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PCSD awarded Federal Community Schools grant
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded a $2.5 million, five-year Full Service Community Schools (FSCS) grant to the Poughkeepsie City School District (PCSD). The award is one of the largest federal grants ever secured by PCSD and will be used to scale PCSD’s Community Schools Initiative across its five elementary schools.
Community schools collaborate with local nonprofits, health providers, community partners and other agencies to coordinate and deliver services that improve conditions for student learning and healthy development. In 2020, PSCD designated all seven of its schools as Community Schools as part of its district-wide transformation efforts.
PCSD will be using the grant to support a range of evidence-based, whole-child and community-wide supports including high-dosage tutoring; afterschool and weekend enrichment; early childhood family education; and targeted interventions addressing chronic absenteeism and violence prevention.
The new programming will include reestablishing City Connects, which provides trained staff to create individualized support plans for every student; EveryDay Labs to combat chronic absenteeism; and an after-school enrichment program for Pre-K through Kindergarten-aged children. Current programming will also be expanded with the grant, including the district’s high-dosage AmeriCorps tutoring programs, - Early Learning Corps for Pre-K students and K-3 Math Corps for elementary school students; the Saturday Morning Lights program that provides weekend enrichment for students in grades Pre-K through 12 and their families; Poughkeepsie Basics University that provides learning opportunities for parents of newborns through three-year-olds; and extended school day/school violence prevention after-school programming.
The Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet worked closely with PCSD to support its application, enlisting the assistance of national partners such as the EdRedesign Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the William Julius Wilson Institute at the Harlem Children’s Zone. Through this collaboration, the PCSD grant application was able to feature a range of dynamic partnerships and programs.
The Full Service Community Schools grant implementation will begin in January 2024. Implementation of the full grant program will occur in phases over the five-year grant period."
To access the PCSD Community Schools Guide click the following: English Spanish