This Executive Summary includes the activity of the Targeted Extended School Year Payments grant program for fiscal year 2017. Since the General Assembly began appropriating and authorizing grants to extend the school year in FY2014, the Virginia Department of Education has administered the voluntary grant application and award process. In the five years of dedicated appropriations for this grant, nineteen different school divisions have received awards to conduct planning and/or start-up activities.

To encourage applications for the FY2017 grant program, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) promoted the availability of $7,150,000 in start-up funds and $613,312 in planning funds included in the FY2017 Appropriation Act. The FY2017 grant cycle produced the largest number of grant-funded start-up programs, with one charter school within a division and ten other school divisions offering a Year-Round or Extended School Year program.

Using the guidelines established by the 2016 Appropriation Act Item 138 N (Appendix A), the VDOE awarded start-up grants totaling $7,719,312 to sixty-six schools in eleven school divisions. These schools implemented programs which served 10,975 students. Ten of the divisions awarded start-up funds in FY2017—Bristol, Charlottesville, Henrico County, Loudoun County, Lynchburg, Manassas Park, Newport News, Petersburg, Radford, and Roanoke City—have operated programs for multiple years through funds received in consecutive grant cycles. One division, Rockingham County, was awarded start-up funds for the first time. One school division, Carroll County, applied for and received $44,000 in planning grant funds.