Call for Proposals: Improving Behavioral Interventions and Reducing Suspensions and Expulsions

Date:

April 18, 2006

Contact:

Justin Schaberg
1-410-234-1092, extension 213

OSI–Baltimore, along with partnering foundations, individual donors, and the United Way are seeking to fund programs that help improve school climate and reduce suspensions and expulsions in Baltimore City Public Schools.

As an operating foundation, OSI–Baltimore focuses on several of the most intransigent problems in Baltimore with the goal of funding programs that will make a lasting difference and create ongoing opportunities for the most vulnerable families in the city. Over the last two years, OSI has convened educational forums and commissioned research to document the use of suspension and expulsion in local schools and understand its impact on student attendance and achievement, school drop-out rates and youth involvement in the juvenile justice system. OSI has found that school exclusion—suspension and expulsion—is generally a harmful and ineffective strategy to improve school climate or to motivate or realize academic achievement. School exclusion results in students being pushed out of school and, too often, being discouraged from returning.

In response to these findings, OSI seeks to help Baltimore City school principals and teachers adopt preventative and alternative disciplinary practices that provide students with the behavioral support they need to stay in school and succeed academically. The Call for Proposals attached below is designed to support programs that reduce school suspension and expulsion rates and facilitate speedy school reentry for suspended, expelled and juvenile justice-involved youth. The collaborating funders hope to demonstrate effective interventions that can be replicated or expanded in Baltimore and eventually funded through public means.

For further background on the subject of school suspension and alternative practices see the issue brief, produced by OSI grantee Advocates for Children and Youth, attached below.

Awards

Grants of $40,000 to $100,000 will be awarded for a one-year period, with the possibility of an one-year renewal. Applicants must be nonprofit organizations with strong school partnerships and evidence of program effectiveness. Grant funds must be used to expand and/or enhance programs.

An orientation session will take place at OSI–Baltimore on Wednesday, May 3, at 10:00 a.m.