The National Fund for Excellence in American Indian Education (Fund) is currently accepting applications in order to further the mission of expanding access to Native language instruction for students enrolled in Bureua of Indian Education (BIE) schools. Under its Native Language Immersion Grant program, the fund is awarding $6.5 milliion projects that instruct Native students to learn their language.
The Fund is a Congressionally chartered organization dedicated to leveraging resources to improve educational opportunities for students attending BIE schools.
In partnership with the BIE, the Fund will award between six to twelve grants to support the expansion of language immersion instruction in hopes that Native students are prepared for a healthy and thriving future grounded in a strong academic foundation and Indigenous knowledge.
The deadline is closing for this grant with applications closing on April 8, 11:59 PM EST. Any BIE-funded schools are eligible to apply. Grantees will be announced by April 29.
The grant funds are intended to be used for development of instructional materials (guides, digital resources, multimedia content), recruitment and training initiatives for educators, design and implementation of mentorship programs, and creation of summer learning and after-school opportunities. Of course, the use of funds is not limited to the above purposes.
Funding amounts will vary and can be anywhere from $500,000 to $1,000,000. Complete applications will include the project narrative and budget narrative of the applicants’ proposed language project.
BIE currently serves 46,000 students in 183 schools across 23 states. It includes day schools and boarding schools, the majority are day schools. About one-third of BIE schools are K-8, one-third are K-12, and another one-third are K-6. (2)