Q. Can current foster and/or adoptive caregivers receive grant funding to expand operations or open facilities? 

A. This grant opportunity is only open to current residential care providers – child placing agencies and/or general residential childcare operations – who currently contract with DFPS and/or Single Source Continuum Contractors.

Q. Can grant applications include requests for funding to pay for costs to re-survey to maintain accreditation?

A. Grant funding applications may include requests to pay for initial and ongoing costs for accreditation for Tier II service packages, where accreditation is a requirement.

Q: Our RTC files as an LLC, what documents will you except with the grant application for our tax returns?

A: We would expect your most recent filed tax return.

Q: I am interested in applying for the grant could you please send me the application on how. I am a current foster and now adoptive mom and caregiver looking to expand and open a center or home for girls in foster care or young women who as aged out of the system. I want to mentor them in seeking individual choices preparation for the future with education and knowledge on what the want to do with lives.

A: This grant opportunity is only open to current residential care providers—child placing agencies and/or general residential childcare operations—who currently contract with DFPS and/or Single Source Continuum Contractors. For more information please see:  https://tacfs.org/t3c-ready/t3c-ready-grants/

Q: In reviewing the examples for the FY25 funding opportunity, we are seeking guidance if costs for re-resurvey to maintain accreditation qualify for this funding? Does it apply to all Tiers, or does it only apply to Tier 2 seeking new accreditation?

A:  Funding for tasks associated with accreditation or renewing accreditation can be considered but only if your organization will be applying to serve in Tier 2 service packages where accreditation is a T3C requirement.

All funding must be spent on an item associated with a requirement in a service package your organization plans to provide.

Q:  Does the assessment help you to prepare to actually complete the grant? 

A:   There are questions about how organizations have assessed their readiness and their findings about their readiness to serve under the T3C model in the grant application.

The Readiness Assessment made available through our website is one tool that a provider can use in such an assessment.

It is not a requirement.  Individual organizations have a choice about how to assess their readiness.

Information on the Assessment:  The T3C Readiness Assessment is an online tool that walks providers through the T3C service package requirements, as outlined in the Texas T3C System Blueprint, to help assess current readiness for T3C implementation. The assessment was created by a team from the Texas Center for Child and Family Studies (a supporting arm of the Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services) and ACH Child and Family Services. 

First and foremost, the Readiness Assessment is a tool to help providers determine where to focus their efforts toward getting ready to offer specific T3C packages. After completing the assessment, you will receive a customized report summarizing your responses and showing you the areas where you are already meeting, already partially meeting, and not yet meeting package requirements. 

Q:  We will be submitting a grant application for both the CPA and GRO. Could you please clarify if we should submit the application for both programs together, and if they need to be submitted separately?  Additionally, should we prepare one budget that encompasses both the CPA and RTC, or should we create separate budgets for each program type? 

A:  Organizations are eligible for up to $150,000 in T3C Grant funding across state fiscal years 2024 and 2025. For example, if an organization received a T3C Readiness grant of $150,000 in FY 2024, they are not eligible for a grant in this award cycle. If an organization received a T3C Readiness grant of $20,000 in FY 2024, they would be eligible for up to $130,000 during the FY 2025 award cycle.

Provider organizations that function under multiple license/permit types and/or EINs may only apply for a grand total of $150,000 across both fiscal years.   

All that to say, your organization may make one application, and it can apply to either your CPA, your GRO or to both simultaneously 

Q:  Here is the verbiage that is listed under the grant: “Changes to cost collection to populate a more robust cost report.”  What is this referencing, the State cost reporting system or Stairs? 

This reference to cost reports refers to the cost report that providers submit regularly to HHSC.

Q:  Under allowable categories for funding what is meant by “Changes to cost collection to population”?

A:  The cost reports that are submitted to HHSC are expected to change to reflect new expenses/costs covered by T3C.  So, it would be to make any changes you need to track new T3C-related costs.

Q:  The budget template only reflects using the budget template and not the operating budget.  Has this been changed?

A:  For the FY 25 grants, we are requesting the project budget and an agency’s most recent tax form. We are not asking for agency operating budgets for this grant opportunity.