INDIANA — The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) announced that applications are now open for the Attract, Prepare, Retain (APR) Grant. This grant is available for Indiana’s schools and community partners to support local initiatives to attract and retain educators in school buildings across the state.
“Like most employers, Indiana’s schools are not immune from the challenges of today’s labor market,” said Dr. Katie Jenner, Indiana Secretary of Education. “As schools work to recruit and retain top talent, we must work with urgency to not just admire the problem, but to support schools with the resources they need to best support our students. This grant, alongside other new tools, is focused on empowering our local schools and communities as we work together to spark creative solutions to recruit and retain our very best educators to serve Indiana’s students.”
The grant makes a total of $5 million from the state’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund available to support local plans. Plans may center on increasing leadership and career advancement within the educator profession, as well as increasing opportunities for high school students and underrepresented populations to pursue careers as educators. This could include increasing –
- The number of opportunities for high school students to enter educator preparation programs with transferable post-secondary credits,
- Underrepresented populations among candidates enrolling in educator preparation programs,
- Opportunities for leadership and career advancement within the profession, and
- Opportunities for sharing information, practices, and ideas among other educators.
The launch of this grant is the latest initiative led by IDOE to support educator talent, quality, and value, which is one of the department’s three strategic pillars. These efforts include launching a comprehensive educator supply and demand marketplace, which provides real-time data and a simplified process for posting openings to a statewide audience. IDOE also expanded the Indiana Learning Lab, which serves as a one-stop-shop for instructional resources, professional development, and other best practices for educators – and now has nearly 24,000 members.
The grant opportunity also comes on the heels of IDOE’s Attract, Prepare and Retain Connection Point Summits, which brought together K-12, higher education leaders, and other stakeholders for interactive events designed to foster comprehensive conversations on best practices and replicable models across the state.
Applications are due on Friday, August 5. Interested applicants can submit their online applications here. Questions about the grant can be directed to eel@doe.in.gov. Additional information is available here.
