Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools CFDA 84.184E | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grant (CFDA 84.184E) is a discretionary U.S. Department of Education funding opportunity designed to help local educational agencies build and strengthen school emergency management systems. The program was framed in response to major emergencies and disasters, including the September 11 attacks and large-scale hurricanes, and it emphasizes that schools need practical plans not only for routine crises but also for severe, wide-area events. At its core, REMS supports an organized, repeatable emergency management process for schools, with the expectation that districts will review what they currently have, identify gaps, and then improve both planning and readiness in a comprehensive way.

A central feature of the opportunity is its alignment with the four phases of emergency management: Prevention and Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. Funding is intended to help school districts strengthen emergency management plans across all four phases rather than focusing narrowly on a single type of incident. The notice stresses an "all hazards" approach, meaning applicants are expected to plan for a broad range of threats and hazards, including natural disasters and man-made incidents, and to build a plan that can scale to different scenarios. In practice, that generally means formalizing procedures, clarifying roles and responsibilities, and ensuring plans are actionable during an incident and sustainable afterward.

The grant also places significant weight on training and coordination. REMS funds can be used to provide staff training on emergency management procedures so that plans are not just documents on a shelf but are understood and usable by the people responsible for carrying them out. Another required emphasis is collaboration with community partners. Applicants are expected to develop or update comprehensive emergency management plans in coordination with local law enforcement and public safety agencies, public health and mental health partners, and local government. This reflects the reality that school emergencies often require outside support and that response and recovery efforts are smoother when agencies have already coordinated responsibilities, communications, and protocols.

For this particular competition (FY 2009), the Department estimated total funding at $26,000,000 and anticipated making approximately 104 awards. The opportunity did not require cost sharing or matching funds, which can reduce barriers for districts that may not have local dollars available to meet a match requirement. The funding activity category is Education, and the CFDA program is listed under Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities National Programs, signaling its connection to broader school safety and prevention goals.

Eligibility was limited to local educational agencies, including charter schools that qualify as LEAs under state law, with one key restriction: applicants could not have an active REMS grant at the time of applying. The notice clarifies that a grant is considered active until the end of its project or funding period, including any approved extensions that still allow the grantee to obligate funds. This eligibility limitation was based on a previously published federal requirement (referenced as a final eligibility requirement published December 4, 2006), and it is meant to direct new funding to districts that are not already receiving REMS support.

Applications for this competition were made available March 11, 2009, with a deadline to submit by April 14, 2009, and an archive date of May 14, 2009. The Funding Opportunity Number is ED-GRANTS-031109-001. The notice strongly directs applicants to rely on the official Federal Register application notice for complete requirements, including detailed eligibility language, application instructions, priorities, performance measures, and contact details, since the summary is only a synopsis of that official publication.

Submission was handled electronically through Grants.gov. Applicants were instructed to locate the package by searching the CFDA number without the alpha suffix (search "84.184" rather than "84.184E"). The announcement explicitly states that applications could not be submitted by emailing an electronic copy to the agency. For technical support, the Grants.gov Helpdesk number was listed as 1-800-518-4726 and the email as support@grants.gov. The notice also provided agency contact points, including a Grants.gov system administrator (Julius Cotton, (202) 245-6140, julius.cotton@ed.gov) and a program manager contact in Denver, Colorado (Sara Strizzi, (303) 346-0924), for questions tied to the program itself and accessing materials.

Overall, this REMS opportunity is best understood as capacity-building money for school districts to develop, improve, and institutionalize comprehensive emergency management planning and training, with strong expectations around interagency collaboration and an all-hazards framework that covers prevention through recovery.

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