GOSA today announced that 60 school districts, state charter schools, and local charter schools will be awarded more than $7 million from Round 5 of the Connections for Classrooms Grant Program. Administered by the GOSA, the grants will enable awarded districts to upgrade their school networks or purchase laptops or tablets to enable digital learning.

This round builds on the $81 million in grants that Connections for Classrooms has provided to districts and schools for network upgrades and devices over the last three years. As a result of these grants and federal E-Rate funds, many schools now have or will soon have wireless internet access to their classrooms.

For the current grant round, rural, high-need districts, state charter schools, state schools, and local charter schools were eligible to apply. By the November 15 deadline, 72 districts and schools applied for $8.1 million. Strong applicants clearly described how this grant will enable them to change instruction to implement digital learning, specifically facilitating learning with technology that gives students some control over time, place, path, and/or pace. In addition, they demonstrated their need for devices, outlined their device selection/deployment/maintenance plans, and provided assurance of network preparedness to support devices. Applications were scored by external reviewers with expertise in digital and blended learning.

Applicants that did not receive funding will be provided the opportunity to revise and resubmit their applications for rescoring in early 2018. 

The list of awardees is included at the bottom of this announcement.

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