Teacher Training FAQs

The Technology for Educational ACHievement (TEACH) is a program in the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA), Division of Enterprise Technology (DET) (s.16.99, Wis. Stats). The DOA works in cooperation with school districts, cooperative educational service agencies, charter schools, libraries, secured juvenile correctional facilities, private colleges, tribal colleges, the technical college system board, and the board of regents of the University of Wisconsin System to promote the efficient, cost-effective procurement, installation, and maintenance of educational technology. TEACH services began in October 1997. The program is funded through the State Universal Service Fund.

To award annual grants to eligible consortia of school districts for the allowable costs of training teachers to use educational technology.

A consortium of school districts is eligible if all of the following apply:

1. The consortium consists of 3 or more school districts.
2. Each school district must have 13 or fewer students per square mile.
3. The consortium applies for the grant.

Please see the eligibility list for the current grant year.

Fiscal Year 2015-16 (FY16) grants shall be for the period of July 1, 2015 thru June 30, 2016.
Fiscal Year 2016-17 (FY17) grants shall be for the period of July 1, 2016 thru June 30, 2017.

The amount of funding available to a school district is determined by the number of students within the district:

• $7,500 for districts with fewer than 750 students;
• $10 per student for districts with between 750 and 1,500 students;
• $15,000 for districts with more than 1,500 students.

Check the FY17 (2016 – 2017) certified list of eligible districts: Eligibility Information

$1,500,000 is available in FY16 and FY17.

The intent of the TEACH Teacher Training grant is to have districts form and utilize consortiums to further advance technology knowledge in Wisconsin amongst teachers and ultimately students. Therefore, it is not acceptable for districts to only participate in Funding 2 activities. Districts must apply for reimbursement of at least one Funding 1 activity.

If $1,500,000 is insufficient to pay the full grant amount, payments will be prorated amongst the eligible consortia.

• If there is enough funding for requests in Funding 1 and Funding 2, then no proration will occur.
• If there is enough funding for a portion of the requests in Funding 1, then Funding 1 requests will be prorated and Funding 2 will not be funded.
• If there is enough funding for all of the Funding 1 requests and a portion of Funding 2 requests, then Funding 1 will be fully funded and Funding Priority 2 will be prorated.

Proration will occur by Funding Priority level through an across-the-board reduction applied to the amount requested by each district within a consortium. Updated budgets will be provided.

The Technology for Educational ACHievement (TEACH) program is providing funds for this annual grant, utilizing existing funding received by the TEACH program from the State Universal Service Fund.

Teachers eligible for training events funded with these grant funds are individuals who hold a teacher's certificate or license issued by the state superintendent and whose legal employment requires such certificate or license.

Examples include teacher training activities that focus on enhancing the technological skills of teachers.
For Funding 1, these include consortium-led teaching events that involve teachers from more than one district of the consortium and no teachers from outside of the consortium.
For Funding 2, this includes statewide or regional technology conferences (SLATE, Google events, regional summits, WEMTA, content specific conferences with technology strands, Future Ready programming events, blended learning training, STEM training events, coding and computer science events, online and blended learning facilitation training, Gaming in the Classrooms, Information Technology and Literacy Integration Planning, Makerspaces/Fab Labs). Note: DOA will make decisions on percentage of qualifying funding for conferences and event types not listed.

FY18 applications are expected to be available in August 2017. Once the grant application for the current year becomes available, it will be posted under the appropriate grants tab on teach.wi.gov. Fiscal agents must complete the Fiscal Agent Application (Excel Workbook) and each Consortium Member (District) must complete the Consortium Member Application (Excel Workbook).

Each grant consortium is required to designate a fiscal agent for financial administration of the grant. The fiscal agent will be responsible for the following:

• Coordinate the collection of all grant submission documents, including budget detail for each consortium member, to be made on behalf of the consortium to meet all deadlines.
• Complete the application on behalf of the consortium and complete the application certification statement that all of the application components are included and the proposed expenditure items are eligible.
• Notify consortium districts of their grant award status and designated amount to include any necessary planning to readjust budget if award amount is pro-rated.
• Coordinate collection and submission of any information necessary in the event of an audit.
• Coordinate, prepare, and submit required financial and program reports.
• Provide for reimbursement of expenditures to consortium members.
• Maintain documentation of grant activities, including expenditures, according to grant award.

The fiscal agent shall be one of the consortium school districts or a Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA).

Yes, retroactive training events must have occurred on or after July 1, 2017 and before the grant submittal date.

Yes, training events that occur and will be completed before June 30, 2017 are eligible.

Those events are in FY18 and are not eligible.

Yes, $1,500,000 of grant funding is available in FY17.

Yes, $1,500,000 of grant funding is available in FY17. Districts must reapply.

The completed grant application workbooks must be printed and signed. It will be compiled and submitted by your consortium’s fiscal agent. Electronically submit the signed document packet to teach@wisconsin.gov or mail to DOA TEACH Program, P.O. Box 7844, Madison, WI 53707-7844.

TEACH will notify eligible districts when FY18 applications become available and the due dates.

Funds will be provided to consortia on a reimbursement basis. Each district will submit a reimbursement request to the consortium’s fiscal agent (including documentation of the expenses for which reimbursement is requested), who will submit all consortium reimbursement requests to teach@wisconsin.gov will pay the consortium fiscal agent, who will then pass the funds to the districts. The grant award document will contain the necessary forms, timelines for submittal of reimbursement requests and further information.

Although the grant program will be listed in the Department of Administration's annual Inventory of State Funded Grants/Programs, it will not be assigned a State ID since it will not be included in the scope of a single audit.

Original signatures are needed on the applications, so agencies must print each tab of the application workbooks (Fiscal Agent and Consortium Member) and electronically submit the signed document packet to teach@wisconsin.gov (preferred) or mail it to DOA TEACH Program, P.O. Box 7844, Madison, WI 53707-7844.
Each Funding 1 Consortium-Led event should be identified on the TEACH Teacher Training grant application in the following ways:

1. Each district participating in the Funding 1 Consortium-Led event should list the event on its “Budget tab” in their Consortium Member Application (Excel Workbook) and;
2. Fiscal agents should complete the “Consortium Event Summary tab” on the Fiscal Agent Application (Excel Workbook) for each Funding 1 event their consortium is planning.

The information in 1. and 2. should match.

Contact the TEACH Grants Administrator at teach@wisconsin.gov or phone 608-261-5054.