Grant Details

The IAL program supports high-quality programs designed to develop and improve literacy skills for children and students from birth through 12th grade in high-need local educational agencies and schools. The U.S. Department of Education intends to support innovative programs that promote early literacy for young children, motivate older children to read, and increase student achievement by using school libraries as partners to improve literacy, distributing free books to children and their families, and offering high-quality literacy activities.

Many schools and districts across the Nation do not have school libraries that deliver high-quality literacy programming to children and their families. Additionally, many schools do not have qualified library media specialists and library facilities. Where facilities do exist, they often lack adequate books and other materials and resources. In many communities, high-need children have limited access to appropriate age- and grade-level reading material in their homes. The IAL program supports the implementation of high-quality plans for childhood literacy activities and book distribution efforts that are supported by evidence of strong theory.

Proposed projects under the IAL program, based on those plans, may include activities that:

1. Develop and enhance effective school library programs, which may include providing professional development for school librarians, books, and up-to-date materials to high-need schools;
2. Provide early literacy services, including pediatric literacy programs through which, during well-child visits, medical providers trained in research-based methods of early language and literacy promotion provide developmentally appropriate books and recommendations to parents to encourage them to read aloud to their children starting in infancy; and
3. Provide high-quality books on a regular basis to children and adolescents from low-income communities to increase reading motivation, performance, and frequency. 

In FY 2023, IAL has two absolute priorities and four competitive preference priorities.

• Absolute Priority #1: Projects, Carried Out in Coordination With School Libraries, for Book Distribution, Childhood Literacy Activities, or Both
  • A description of the proposed book distribution, childhood literacy activities, or both, that are designed to improve the literacy skills of children and students by one or more of the following...
    • Promoting early literacy and preparing young children to read;
    • Developing and improving students' reading ability;
    • Motivating older children to read; and
    • Teaching children and students to read.
  • The age or grade spans of children and students from birth through 12th grade to be served.
  • A detailed description of the key goals, the activities to be undertaken, the rationale for those activities, the timeline, the parties responsible for implementing the activities, and the credibility of the plan (as judged, in part, by the information submitted that demonstrates a rationale); and
• Absolute Priority #2: Projects coordinated with school libraries and designed to be responsive to racial, ethnic, cultural, disability, and linguistic differences in a manner that creates inclusive, supportive, and identity-safe learning environments. Plans should also include the following -
  • Describe the types of racially, ethnically, culturally, disability status, and linguistically responsive program design elements that the applicant proposes to include in its project; 
  •  Explain how its program design will create inclusive, supportive, and identity-safe environments; and  
  • Describe how its project will be carried out in coordination with school libraries. 
• Competitive Preference Priority 1 - Serving Rural Local Educational Agencies (LEAs). A rural local educational agency is any LEA that is eligible under the Small Rural School Achievement program (SRSA) or the Rural and Low-Income School (RLIS) program as authorized under Title V, Part B of the ESEA. Eligible applicants may determine whether a particular district is eligible for these programs by referring to information on the Department's website at www2.ed.gov/nclb/freedom/local/reap.html.
• Competitive Preference Priority 2 - Serving Urban Local Educational Agencies (LEAs). An urban local educational agency is any LEA or consortium of eligible LEAs with a locale code of 11, 12, or 13. Eligible applicants may determine whether a particular district is eligible for these programs by referring to information on the NCES School District's website at https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch/
• Competitive Preference Priority 3 - Projects that serve LEAs serving students from low-income families. In its application, an applicant must demonstrate, based on Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) data from the U.S. Census Bureau or, for an LEA for which SAIPE data are not available, the same State-derived equivalent of SAIPE data that the State uses to make allocations under part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA), one of the following: 
  • At least 30 percent of the students enrolled in each of the LEAs to be served by the proposed project are from families with an income below the poverty line. (1 point) 
  • At least 40 percent of the students enrolled in each of the LEAs to be served by the proposed project are from families with an income below the poverty line. (2 points) 
  •  At least 50 percent of the students enrolled in each of the LEAs to be served by the proposed project are from families with an income below the poverty line. (3 points) 
• Competitive Preference Priority 4 - Promoting Equity in Student Access to Educational Resources and Opportunities. In its application, the applicant must propose a project designed to promote education equity and adequacy in resources and opportunity for underserved students in one or more of the following settings: Early learning programs, career and technical education programs, out-of-school-time settings, alternative schools and programs, juvenile justice systems or correctional facilities, and/or adult learning. Projects should examine the sources of inequity and inadequacy and implement responses that may include one or more of the following:
  • Expanding access to high-quality early learning, including in school-based and community-based settings, by removing barriers through implementation of programs that are inclusive with regard to race, ethnicity, culture, language, and disability status.
  • Establishing, expanding, or improving learning environments, for multilingual learners, and increasing public awareness about the benefits of fluency in more than one language and how the coordination of language development in the school and the home improves student outcomes for multilingual learners.
  •  Improving the quality of educational programs in juvenile justice facilities (such as detention facilities and secure and non-secure placements) or adult correctional facilities.