Funding Responsive Classroom and Developmental Designs Implementation

Schools use a variety of funding sources to offset the cost of Responsive Classroom and Developmental Designs training and implementation. Although grants can vary widely from state to state, the following list covers many of the broad funding areas.  Origins can supply text and research to assist your grantwriting efforts.

Positive Behavior Interventions Strategies

The U.S. Department of Education is currently encouraging school districts to use stimulus funds to implement Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Many schools are using the Responsive Classroom approach to implement high-quality PBIS. Review this fact sheet produced by the Northeast Foundation for Children to explain how Responsive Classroom practices fit within PBIS’s three-tiered framework, and how using the Responsive Classroom approach can help you implement PBIS successfully. Download the two-page fact sheet (PDF).  Note: Origins will soon produce a similar document for Developmental Designs practices.

Professional Development

Title II Improving Teacher Quality grants, available from the US Department of Education, support schools to address challenges to teacher quality, including teacher preparation and professional development

Teacher Quality Research grants, available from the US Department of Education (Institute of Education Sciences), support various research projects that expand the fundamental knowledge and understanding of education from early childhood education through post-secondary study

Character Education

Partnerships in Character Education Project Program grants are available from the US Department of Education to design and implement a character education program that is able to be: (a) integrated into classroom instruction and is consistent with state academic content standards and (b) carried out in conjunction with other education reform efforts.

Safe and Drug-Free Schools

Safe and Drug-Free Schools program grants, available from the US Department of Education, support schools in the development of community-wide approaches to creating safe and drug-free schools and to promote safety and discipline

Look at federal and state Drug-Violence Prevention grant programs (e.g. Drug-Free Schools State Formula Grants and Foundations for Learning Grants), as well as Safe Schools/Healthy Students discretionary grants

School Improvement

Title I basic grants, available through the US Department of Education, improve basic programs in local school districts with high numbers or percentages of poor children

Title V Innovative Program grants, available from the US Department of Education, support schools to implement promising educational reform and school improvement programs

Title I Striving Readers grants, available from the US Department of Education, support programs that raise the reading achievement levels of middle and high school-aged students in Title I-eligible schools with significant numbers of students reading below grade level

State and Local Grants

Schools and districts have used other grants available at the state or local level. These include Violence Reduction grants, Best Practices grants, Special Education grants, SAGE grants and Restorative Justice grants. A few state grant programs are identified below.

Rural Education Achievement Program grants, available from State Departments of Education, support teacher professional development, parental involvement activities and safe and drug-free school activities

Title IV 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants fund out-of-school time opportunities for students to engage in academic and enrichment activities. A 21st Century Community Learning Center is a partnership between a school and community-based organizations that uses out-of-school time resources to meet the unique needs of the community. Schools could train the teachers who work in both school day and after school programs.

REACh (Responsive Education for All Children) Initiative (WI) promotes effective system change in schools. All elements of the REACh Initiative support implementation of a framework for enhancing the success of all students—particularly those experiencing repeated school failures. The REACh framework components focus on collaborative problem-solving using data-based decision-making to implement evidence-based prevention and intervention practices at all levels in a school system.