Preschool Pay For Success Feasibility Grant

The purpose of this Preschool Pay For Success (PFS) Feasibility Pilot is to encourage State and local PFS activity for preschool programs by providing grants for Feasibility Studies. The Feasibility Studies will determine if PFS is a viable and appropriate strategy to implement preschool programs that are high-quality and yield meaningful results. The Department, in consultation with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), developed the Preschool PFS Feasibility Pilot. This pilot does not limit feasibility studies to programs that meet the definition of “high-quality” preschool used by the Preschool Development Grants (PDG) program in its 2014 grant competition in order to allow the PFS demonstrations to demonstrate high-quality in different ways, including through the impacts that the pilots are able to achieve. In this way, such projects could further develop the evidence-base of programs that are demonstrated to be effective. The Preschool PFS Feasibility Pilot will not fund the implementation of preschool services. Instead it will fund the development of feasibility studies to test the viability of using pay for success as a way to pay for preschool services. Through this competition we hope to identify a broader range of potential outcome measures that improve student school success and result in cost savings to school districts, local governments, and States. The pilot requires safeguards to protect the rights of children with disabilities if the reduction in the need for special education is one of the outcome measures explored in the feasibility studies. The Preschool PFS Feasibility Pilot is funded through approximately $2.8 million of FY16 PDG National Activity funds. The PDG program is jointly administered with HHS.