Maryland Momentum Charter School Program

The Charter Schools Program (CSP)–State Entities grant is authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (20 U.S.C. 7221-7221j). Prior to the enactment of the ESSA, the ESEA, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), authorized the Secretary to make awards to state educational agencies (SEAs) to enable them to conduct charter school subgrant programs in their states. The CSP State Entities grant is under the new law and has different eligibility requirements, priorities, definitions, application requirements, and selection criteria.

The major purposes of the CSP are to expand opportunities for all students, particularly traditionally underserved students, to attend charter schools and meet challenging state academic standards; provide financial assistance for the planning, program design, and initial implementation of public charter schools; increase the number of high-quality charter schools available to students across the United States; evaluate the impact of charter schools on student achievement, families, and communities; share best practices between charter schools and other public schools; encourage states to provide facilities support to charter schools; and support efforts to strengthen the charter school authorizing process.

The CSP grants to State Entities (84.282A) is a competitive grant program that enables state entities (including nonprofit charter school associations) to award subgrants to eligible applicants in their state to open and prepare for the operation of new charter schools, replicate and expand high-quality charter schools, and expand prekindergarten. Grant funds must also be used by the state entity to provide technical assistance to eligible applicants and authorized public chartering agencies in opening and preparing for the operation of new charter schools, replicating, expanding or converting high-quality charter schools, and expanding prekindergarten; and to work with authorized public chartering agencies to improve authorizing quality, including developing model documents that can be used statewide.