U.S. Department of Education outlines 2026 regional comprehensive centers grant competition, deadlines and application requirements

The U.S. Department of Education on May 8, 2026, held a pre-application webinar to walk prospective applicants through the 2026 Regional Comprehensive Centers grant competition, including priorities, eligibility, required forms and the review process.

Dr. Michelle Daly, group leader for the Comprehensive Centers Program in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, said the Department is accepting applications through 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on June 30, 2026. “Applicants should not rely solely on this webinar for information,” she said, and must follow the official application notice and instructions (ANI) posted on grants.gov.

Why it matters: The Comprehensive Centers network — national, regional and content centers — provides technical assistance and capacity building to state education agencies (SEAs), local education agencies (LEAs) and schools, with an emphasis on evidence-based instruction in math and literacy. Regional centers will be expected to work closely with Regional Educational Laboratories and the national center to develop multi-year state learning agendas and client-driven annual service plans.

What applicants must address: The competition includes one absolute priority for regional centers and a competitive preference priority (CPP) that awards additional points to projects “identified, designated, or endorsed” by a governor or chief state education official. Applicants competing under the CPP must include documentary evidence of endorsement, such as a signed letter, at time of submission.

Applications must respond to eight general application requirements and the selection criteria described in the ANI. The Department summarized three selection criteria for regional centers: significance; quality of project design; and quality of the management plan. The maximum total score for regional-center applications is 100 points; reviewers score subcriteria individually.

Peer review and award process: After an eligibility screen, eligible applications go to a nonfederal peer review panel whose averaged scores and any competitive preference points produce a rank-order list. The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, in consultation with the Office of General Counsel and other offices as appropriate, will develop funding recommendations and any special terms before submitting funding slates to the Secretary for approval. The Department said it intends to create 19 funding slates (national, regional, and content-center types) and anticipates announcing awards in September 2026 if new awards are made this fiscal year.

Key technical and administrative requirements: Applicants must submit a complete application package through grants.gov Workspace. Required forms include the SF-424, ED supplemental forms, the ED abstract, the project narrative (attached as one searchable PDF), and ED form 524 (Budget Information for Non-Construction Programs). The Department recommends applicants limit project narratives to the equivalent of 75 pages because reviewers will only score the first 75 pages. The budget narrative should explain planned expenditures and justify costs for each project year; applicants without an approved indirect cost rate may use a de minimis rate up to 15% per 34 CFR sections 75.560–75.564.

Funding and staffing notes: The webinar referenced estimated award ranges for regional centers; the transcript lists an estimated initial project-year award range as “1 million to 5,265,000” but contains a garbled token in that sentence. Applicants should verify exact award estimates in the ANI. Regional grantees must be located in the region they serve; the project director must be at least 0.75 full-time equivalent (FTE) or two co-project directors must collectively meet at least 1.0 FTE, and key personnel must be able to provide on-site services.

Submission tips and resources: All supporting documents must be PDF files (flattened read-only PDFs are recommended), file names should be shorter than 50 characters and avoid special characters, and applicants should verify submission status with grants.gov’s track-my-application feature. Applicants must register in SAM.gov and grants.gov and include a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) that matches their SAM registration; mismatched UEIs will result in rejection. The Department will publish a program FAQ and provided the email contact ose.comprehensivecenters@ed.gov for questions.

Next steps: Prospective applicants should read the full ANI on grants.gov and use the provided checklist to confirm all required forms and attachments. The ANI is the official source of requirements and priorities; the webinar materials are supplementary.