The 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) grant is a competitive grant that provides federal funding to establish community learning centers that provide academic, artistic and cultural enrichment opportunities for students and their families. These opportunities must occur during non-school hours or periods when school is not in session to help students attending high-poverty and low-performing schools to meet state and local standards in core academic subjects. Centers must also offer students a broad array of activities that can complement their regular academic programs, to offer literacy and other educational services to their families.
The 21st CCLC grant is authorized under, Title IV, Part B of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (P.L. 107-110), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and reauthorized by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015. The 21st CCLC grant is administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) and provides funding for the establishment of community learning centers to provide students with academic enrichment opportunities. In addition to academics, 21st CCLC grantees may also offer participants a broad array of other services and programs, such as counseling, character education, drug and violence prevention programming, art, music, recreation activities and technology education. Ancillary services for parents such as literacy instruction may also be given.
Cohorts
PDE is administering 21st CCLC grants to three cohorts of awardees. Each grant award is for five consecutive years. Funding is contingent on the continued availability of funding from the federal government and satisfactory performance. If awardees are found not to be meeting the requirements of the grant or choose to no longer participate in subsequent years, funding will not be provided to those entities.