Pursuant to S.P. 182, L.D. 396, Resolve 2025, Chapter 110, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) is now accepting applications for a competitive, one-time funding opportunity for Maine school administrative units (SAUs) that are interested in collaborating to change school start times so that secondary schools begin at 8:30 a.m. or later.
To learn more about this grant opportunity, access the Maine DOE Office of Teaching and Learning grant page here for the recording of the Information Session and slide deck.
The anticipated timeline for this RFA is as follows:
- February 27, 2026 – RFA opens via VSS
- March 4, 2026 – informational session held via Zoom
- March 9, 2026 – deadline to submit questions in response to RFA (by 4 p.m.)
- March 30, 2026 – applications due via VSS (by 4 p.m.)
- March 31 to April 27, 2026 – formal review period
- April 27, 2026 – grant award notifications
- June 1, 2026 – grant award contract start date
- September 10, 2026 – grant award contract end date
- November 1, 2026 – reporting requirements due (by 4 p.m.)
SAUs may access the Request for Applications (RFA) through the State of Maine’s Vendor Self-Service System (VSS). All applications and questions related to this RFA must be submitted through VSS. The Maine DOE strongly encourages SAUs to confirm that they can access VSS well in advance of the application deadline of March 30, 2026. (Please refer to this priority notice for additional information and training materials related to VSS.)
Again, please submit all questions about this RFA through the VSS portal.
Maine DOE Newsroom 