FAQs

Summer Boost provides up to $2,000 per student for schools to design and implement high-quality summer learning programs for rising 1st to 9th grade charter students (students completing kindergarten through 8th grades in spring 2026). In line with the existing body of research on effective summer programming, all Summer Boost programs must:

• Provide at least 20 days of summer academic instruction
• Provide both English Language Arts and math instruction
• Provide an average of three cumulative hours of high-quality English Language Arts and math instruction each day 
• Ensure a student-to-teacher ratio of no more than 25-to-1
• Administer pre- and post-assessments provided by Summer Boost
• Conduct in-person instruction 

We know that a one-size-fits-all approach does not effectively meet the diverse needs of charter schools. Schools have flexibility to design programs with schedules that meet the needs of their students, teachers, and families. Additionally, schools can choose to opt in to the Summer Boost-provided Lavinia RISE curriculum or select their own curriculum, as outlined in the table below.

No; Summer Boost sites must be in-person and academic instruction must be delivered by the school directly, not outsourced to a third-party provider. This restriction is in place to preserve the quality and coherence of Summer Boost and to ensure collaboration is smooth. Please note that you are welcome to recruit educators from outside your school and to engage external partners to provide enrichment programming. Please reach out to us if you have any questions.

Your application will allow you to apply for 1/3 or fewer of your eligible students (eligible students include all rising 1st-rising 9th graders you serve during the regular school year), and you will develop a budget based on the number of students in your application. You may choose to serve more students with these resources or by leveraging other resources, but if approved, Summer Boost funding will only be provided for up to 1/3 of your eligible population based on our funding model.

Yes! We encourage you to apply for the program size and grade levels that account for the needs of your students, the likely attendance levels of a summer program, and the bandwidth of your organization. Please note that Summer Boost funding is available for rising 1st to rising 9th grade students only (students completing kindergarten through 8th grades in spring 2026).

Yes! If you are applying on behalf of multiple school sites, you will be asked to outline the location(s) of your program and the specifics of your partnership within the application. 

One “lead applicant” should complete the application and serve as the sole grantee for the program.

Unless there are significant differences in program design across school sites, we recommend that the Charter Management Organization applies for ALL sites interested in participating, rather than having school sites submit individual applications.

Summer Boost funding is provided for rising 1st to rising 9th grade students (students completing kindergarten through 8th grade in spring 2026); Summer Boost does not provide funding for rising kindergarteners or rising 10th-12th graders.

Summer Boost provides flexibility for you to design necessary supports for your students, and we ask you to describe how you plan to accommodate students with diverse needs in the application.

If you opt into the Lavinia Group’s curriculum, throughout pre-program training and weekly professional development sessions, Lavinia Group facilitators and coaches will support educators in effectively addressing the needs of multilingual learners and students with diverse learning needs. Educators will also have access to an asynchronous small group instruction module and a differentiation toolkit to help them meet the needs of all students in one-on-one and small group settings.

Following the training and throughout the summer, we encourage you to reach out to Lavinia Group for support and guidance in serving all learners.

If you opt into Lavinia Group’s curriculum, the offerings are designed to support multilingual learners and students with individualized learning needs in the following ways:

• Incorporating robust opportunities for group and partner discussion allowing students to practice their oral speaking skills.
• Offering phonics instruction that includes direct, explicit, sequential, and multisensory routines to support foundational reading skills.
• Giving students access to information in various modalities, such as text, diagrams, etc. 
• Providing opportunities for students to learn and keep track of content-area vocabulary. 
• Teaching students how to organize their thinking visually using notebooks and, where appropriate, additional graphic organizers.
• Including partner reading and read aloud work so students are able to hear models of fluent reading and discuss their ideas with classmates.

Schools can apply for up to $2,000 per student, depending on the length of the program and whether the program is full- or half-day:

• $80/student per day for full-day (5+ hours/day)
• $55/student per day for half-day (<5 hours/day)

We will ask you to provide a final, adjusted enrollment number closer to the time of your Summer Boost program start. Your final grant total will be updated to reflect that adjusted enrollment number.

Your first grant payment will be 70% of the updated final grant total. Your second grant payment will take into account the actual number of students you served and be adjusted accordingly, as outlined below:

• If your average daily attendance is at least 70% of the final, adjusted enrollment, you will receive 100% of the adjusted grant funding.

• If your average daily attendance is less than 70% of the final, adjusted enrollment, you will receive 70% of the adjusted grant funding. In this case, you will not receive a second payment.

Data from previous summers shows that 70% attendance at a Summer Boost program is an important threshold for students to realize significant, positive growth in academics. This payment structure is designed to encourage what works best for students! We encourage you to consider the importance of consistent attendance for student success as you recruit and enroll students for the program. 

Full guidance can be found in the Summer Boost Funding Model document.

Grant funds can be used to support virtually all aspects of a successful summer program, as long as expenses are reasonable and aligned with your program design. 

Expenses may include, but are not limited to: 

• staff salaries and teacher bonuses 
• curriculum 
• supplies and materials 
• enrichment activities 
• facilities costs 
• transportation 
• meals 
• technology 
• other expenses you incur related specifically to summer learning as laid out in the budget section of your application

While attendance incentives can be valuable in encouraging consistent student attendance over the summer, gift cards (with the exception of reasonable transportation-related support like public transportation passes, Uber cards or gas cards) are not allowable through Summer Boost funds. However, attendance incentives such as weekly or end-of-program celebrations, attendance recognition awards, supplies and educational materials for families and students, and field trips have all been utilized to maximize attendance in previous programs. 

You will receive a grant agreement from our fiscal sponsor, 50CAN (exact timing depends on the start of your Summer Boost program). 

We will ask you to provide a final, adjusted enrollment number closer to the time of your Summer Boost program start. Your final grant total will be updated to reflect that final, adjusted enrollment number.

This updated final grant total will be listed in your grant agreement, which will be sent at this point. Once 50CAN has your signed grant agreement, they will begin processing your first payment – 70% of the updated final grant total. 

The timeline has been designed so that you will likely receive your first payment around the start of your program, and the majority of first payments will be issued by mid-July. 

The balance of your grant will be paid out no later than mid-October, contingent on completion of all grant/reporting requirements and an average daily attendance percentage of at least 70%, as described in the Summer Boost Funding Model document. Final payments may be disbursed early for grantees that complete all reporting requirements ahead of the deadline.

Yes, we have provided a budget template and calculator where you can determine the amount of funding for which you are eligible. You will be asked to provide a proposed budget and a narrative to support that budget.

The budget you submit should only include the funding provided by Summer Boost. If you are using additional funding sources to support your program, you will be able to note that in the budget narrative, but we are not asking for a budget related to those funds. If you would like more information about how grantees have successfully allocated grant funds in the past, please feel free to reach out to your program officer.

The budget planning tool can be found here. Applicants will be asked to transfer line items and narratives into the Submittable application platform at the time of application submission. 

Yes! You can view the application questions here. You will be prompted to make a copy. This document can be used as a planning tool, but all applications must be submitted through the Submittable application platform in order to be considered.

Yes, the Submittable platform will periodically save your progress automatically and you also have the option to manually save your progress at any time.

Applications are due no later than 11:59pm ET on Friday, February 13, 2026.

We aim to notify all applicants of grant decisions by the end of March. We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis and will notify schools of application decisions earlier if feasible. We encourage you to apply as soon as you can submit a strong application. Please note that incomplete submissions or applications that require follow up will likely result in a delayed notification date.

In the event that demand for Summer Boost exceeds available funding for the program, priority consideration will be extended to returning grantees with a record of strong performance in past years.

For schools selecting their own curriculum, dates can be set by your school at any point throughout the summer. The program must include at least 20 instructional days (full-day or half-day), with an average of at least three hours of English Language Arts and math instruction each day. You may add up to two assessment-only days with a primary focus on implementing the Summer Boost pre- and post-tests, but these should be above and beyond 20 instructional days.

For schools using the Lavinia RISE curriculum, Lavinia Group is offering three leader training opportunities and five teacher training opportunities. Typically grantees will select training dates that run prior to your student start date; however, grantees have the flexibility to choose any of the training options that work with the timing of your program.*:

Leader Training Options (3 hours)
– Wednesday, May 6th
– Thursday, May 14th
– Tuesday, May 26th

Teacher Training Options (12 hours for instructors teaching one subject – ELA OR math- and 18 hours for two subjects – ELA AND math): 
– Tuesday, May 19th – Thursday, May 21st
– Tuesday, May 26th – Thursday, May 28th
– Tuesday, June 2nd – Thursday, June 4th
– Tuesday, June 16th – Thursday, June 18th
– Tuesday, June 30th – Thursday, July 2nd

*If you would like to use the Lavinia RISE curriculum and these Session Dates do not work for your school, please contact your Program Officer.

Lavinia RISE provides approximately three hours of curriculum daily and 20 days of lesson plans. Schools using RISE can offer half-day programming or full-day programming. Full-day programming will require that schools identify a plan for enrichment in addition to the Lavinia RISE curriculum. 

Your daily schedule is up to you. Things to keep in mind:

• Programs that are under five hours per day are considered “half-day” programs. Programs that are five or more hours per day are considered “full-day” programs. 
• Summer Boost requires on average at least three hours of English Language Arts and math instruction each day and you may want to add breaks or meal time. 
• It is up to you to determine whether to add enrichment or other activities.
• You can start and end your day at the time that works best for your staff and the families you serve. We strongly encourage you to consider the needs of your families, recognizing that a full-day schedule may work better for working parents and therefore support increased student attendance.

Sample student schedules may be found here; we’ve indicated which activities are provided by the Lavinia RISE curriculum for sites who select this option.

Programs that are under five hours per day are considered “half-day” programs. Programs that are five or more hours per day are considered “full-day” programs. When determining the length of your day, please do not include arrival and dismissal in your calculation of length.

Please note the daily per student rate for full-day and half-day programs:

• $80/student per day for full-day
• $55/student per day for half-day 

All programs must be a minimum of 20 days of instruction with a daily average of at least three hours of English Language Arts and math, but you have flexibility to design a program structure that makes sense for your school context. For example, some programs in the past have run from Monday-Thursday each week for five weeks. Please note you may add up to two assessment-only days with a primary focus on implementing the Summer Boost pre- and post-tests, but these should be above and beyond 20 instructional days.

If you are using the Lavinia RISE curriculum, Lavinia Group provides 20 days of lessons and example pacing guides, but all grantees have the flexibility to design a summer schedule that works best for their community.

We encourage you to begin teacher recruitment after submitting your application with the caveat that you are awaiting approval on funding. You can recruit your own teachers and/or teachers from other schools to participate.

Teachers providing the English Language Arts and math academic instruction must be teachers that would be qualified to provide academic instruction at your school during the school year. We know that most charter schools have some flexibility related to licensure/certification so we do not have a blanket requirement – but do require that you use the same bar you would use during the school year to determine whether someone is qualified to teach a specific grade and subject area. 

Of note, prior high-performing Summer Boost grantees have attributed their success to recruiting strong, experienced teachers (especially those who previously served in Summer Boost); providing rigorous, structured curriculum; using data to inform instruction; and thoughtfully staffing at the leadership level (e.g., a clear senior program leader).

The staffing plan for enrichment may be determined at your discretion; there are no requirements for licensure or certification, as long as you have a strong rationale for who you hire. We encourage you to consider partnering with other community organizations to provide the enrichment component.

Schools are responsible for screening personnel that will be working with students this summer.

We recommend that you aim to recruit your most experienced and successful teachers for the summer program, and we ask you about your staff recruitment plans in the application. The funding model is designed to allow generous compensation for teachers. Prior grantees have shared that staffing over the summer was (unexpectedly) not a challenge, in large part because they were able to offer competitive compensation through grant funds. 

Salaries and cost of living differ significantly by city. We encourage schools to determine what constitutes a competitive rate of pay for teachers in their area in order to attract the best talent. As one data point, previous successful programs in multiple geographies have offered $10,000 or more to their teachers to teach in Summer Boost.

Yes! We encourage collaboration across schools to mitigate staffing or student recruitment challenges. Only one school/Charter Management Organization (CMO) should complete the application, but the lead applicant should provide details about the partnership in the application. Schools can also consider recruiting teachers from other schools or districts who may be interested in teaching in the summer.

Note: Each school participating in a combined Summer Boost program may be required to submit school-specific data reports for Summer Boost. Please feel free to reach out during the application phase to understand the specific requirements.

We encourage returning grantees to recruit students who participated in the program before and could benefit from it again this summer. Evidence from the existing research base on summer learning suggests that year-over-year participation can result in cumulative beneficial effects for students. 

Yes. Because attendance is so important for student success, grantees are required to track and report attendance. Sites should make their best efforts to engage families and students and encourage consistent attendance. In previous summers, schools found that initial meetings with families to set expectations, phone calls when students were absent, and attendance incentives were valuable means for improving attendance.

Additionally, student attendance will influence your total funding amount. We understand that you need to staff and provide materials based on enrollment, and we have factored this into the calculation as noted below. See the Summer Boost Funding Model document for more information.

• If your average daily attendance is at least 70% of the final, adjusted enrollment (adjusted enrollment will be based on an enrollment check ahead of the start of your program), you will receive 100% of the adjusted grant funding.
• If your average daily attendance is less than 70% of the final, adjusted enrollment, you will receive 70% of the adjusted grant funding. In this case, you will not receive a second payment.

Data from previous summers shows that 70% attendance at a Summer Boost program is an important threshold for students to realize significant, positive growth in academics. This payment structure is designed to encourage what works best for students! We encourage you to consider the importance of consistent attendance for student success as you recruit and enroll students for the program.

Schools are responsible for designing transportation plans that will meet the needs of students. The funding amount was designed to support transportation costs. 

We will ask you to describe your transportation plans in your application. We also encourage you to reach out to your local education agency to understand if there are any transportation options being provided over the summer.

The Summer Boost pre- and post-assessments, developed by the Lavinia Group, are required for all participants, regardless of whether you use the Lavinia RISE curriculum or select your own curriculum. 

The Summer Boost pre- and post-tests are standards-aligned assessments; standards that will be addressed are listed here: English Language Arts and math. For more information, including state-specific standards alignment, visit the Curriculum Alignment section of the Lavinia RISE Summer Boost website.

The assessments are a combination of multiple choice and open-response questions. Students will take these assessments via the assessment platform (provided to all schools) at the beginning and end of the summer program. Training on administering and scoring the assessment will be provided. Pen and paper assessments are also available, but please note data will then need to be manually inputted into the platform by teachers. 

This data will help the funders of Summer Boost understand the impact the program had for students. The data will also help schools understand student progress and where they might focus with interventions after the summer program.

The Summer Boost pre- and post-assessments, developed by the Lavinia Group, are required for all participants, regardless of whether you use the Lavinia RISE curriculum or select your own curriculum. If you would like to administer additional assessments, that is at your discretion.

Training materials – including videos and resources – on assessment implementation and scoring will be made available online for participating sites to access at any time. All sites will also be able to receive direct support from representatives from the assessment platform. Additionally, assessment implementation and scoring guidance will be covered during the Lavinia Group’s pre-program professional development week and this portion of the professional development will be required for all Summer Boost grantees – including those that are not using the Lavinia RISE curriculum.

The assessments are untimed, but we estimate approximately 40-60 minutes for English Language Arts and 40-60 minutes for math – a total of up to two hours for the pre-tests and up to two hours for the post-tests. We encourage schools to offer the math and English Language Arts pre-tests on the first 1-2 days of the program and the math and English Language Arts post-tests during the program’s final week. This allows teachers enough time to score and review the assessments before the program ends; we do not recommend administering assessments on the final day for this reason. Since attendance often drops off toward the end of the program, schools should develop a strategic communication and testing plan to maximize post-assessment completion (e.g. communicating proactively about students’ last day to ensure assessments are given before the student leaves the program, or incentivizing attendance on assessment days, such as scheduling celebrations afterwards).  
  
Note there is flexibility around the logistics of assessments, and the tests could be administered over the course of two days if the site prefers (one day for English Language Arts and one day for math).

For more information on the assessments, please visit the Curriculum Alignment section of the Lavinia RISE website here. 

Summer Boost does not provide or endorse any specific enrichment programs. However, we strongly encourage sites to consider offering enrichment, as prior grantees have reported that enrichment programming helps motivate student attendance and increases student engagement.

We encourage sites to consider all options for enrichment, including recruiting teachers with specialized content areas to teach courses and/or partnering with local organizations to help offer students and families full-day programming. Grantees are encouraged to include costs for enrichment providers, staffing, etc. as necessary in their program budgets. Summer Boost provides more funding for full-day than half-day programs to help cover these costs (please reference the calculator in the application budget template for more information).

Your Summer Boost program needs to provide an average of three hours of high-quality English Language Arts and math instruction each day. Beyond that, schools have flexibility to determine the extent and types of enrichment programming provided.

At the conclusion of the program, schools will be required to share information including but not limited to:

1. A narrative report and financial report describing how you used the funds in support of your program as well as key successes, challenges, and lessons learned. 
2. A data report sharing student-level Summer Boost student attendance, as well as school-wide student information (e.g., ELL, SPED, FRPL status, etc.) and assessment results.

Student demographic and attendance data is collected only to understand program impact. It is not used to select students for participation in Summer Boost, make funding decisions, or evaluation individual schools.

All templates as well as detailed instructions will be provided. Schools must submit all attendance and demographic data, as well as narrative and financial reports within two weeks of their last day of Summer Boost programming. Additional details will be provided in the grant agreement for selected schools and by our program team throughout the summer.

The learnings from Summer Boost can improve understanding of what works to support students to accelerate learning and drive academic recovery. To maximize the potential benefit for educators everywhere, we ask that participating schools provide student data, including summer data, and authorization to access data from existing test providers (e.g., i-Ready or NWEA MAP) to an independent researcher. No students, school staff, or schools will be identified in any public reports, and schools will receive reports with their individual schools’ Lavinia pre/post assessment results from the program. (Note: Given a recent shift in i-Ready data sharing policies, there will be some changes in the data collection process and likely an additional step for grantees that administer i-Ready assessments. More information to come this spring on the process and support for grantees.) 
 
Summer Boost has established processes that ensure secure transfer of student-level data, also known as Personally Identifiable Information (PII), in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Compliance with secure data transfer instructions is required to ensure the safety and privacy of students and schools. Data collection templates and submission assistance will be provided throughout the process. More information about the program evaluation and requested data will be shared in the grant agreements, and you will also be asked to sign a data sharing agreement.

Visit the Lavinia RISE Summer Boost website or email them at summer.learning@laviniagroup.org. Please copy your Program Officer on these communications.

Below are a few of the updates to the program this year:

1. The Author Study/Novel Study units have been updated to incorporate additional supports for differentiation. You can find an updated sample here. 
2. ELA texts for Rising Grades 3, 4, and 5 have been updated in response to feedback. You can find the updated text list here. 
3. This year, you can order printed and bound curriculum materials for your summer sites.

All other 2025 ELA texts and math materials remain unchanged.

The Lavinia RISE curriculum and professional development will be provided for free to all participating schools, but the costs of Lavinia RISE classroom materials should be factored into the budget you submit to Summer Boost.

The items that sites should budget for include:

• Materials Costs (e.g. books, manipulatives): Classes of 25 students should budget between $16-$38 per student, depending on the grade. 
• Printing Costs (optional): Classes of 25 students should budget approximately $45 per student for printing costs. 
• Educator Pay: Teachers are expected to attend 3 days of pre-program training and encouraged to attend 60-minute weekly development meetings. This is estimated at 18 hours of PD for one subject (ELA OR math) and 24 hours of PD for two subjects. Leaders are expected to attend an estimated 3 hours of PD.

ELA texts for Rising Grades 3, 4, and 5 have been updated in response to feedback. Returning applicants should plan to budget for replacement materials for these grades. The decodable text bundle for Rising 1st and 2nd graders is designed as a take-home resource. If you distributed these last year, you will need to repurchase them for 2026. All other 2025 ELA texts and math materials remain unchanged and can be reused.         

Key components include:

• RedThread RISE Knowledge (Previously Author/Novel Study) – 45 minutes daily: Rapidly builds students’ critical thinking skills, passion for reading, and ability to analyze any book they encounter. Students read, analyze, discuss, and write about engaging, multicultural literature by award-winning authors.
• RedThread RISE Foundations Rising 3rd-9th Grade (Previously Close Reading for Meaning) – 45 minutes daily: Develops independent comprehension of complex texts through a five-day cycle of reading integrating grade-level phonics, fluency, main idea and craft and structure. Includes grade-level texts and aligned lesson plans.  
• RedThread RISE Foundations Rising 1st-2nd Grade (Previously Systematic Phonics and Decodable Reading) – 45 minutes daily: Enables teachers to personalize instruction and address gaps with direct, explicit, multisensory routines and materials for summer and school-year use.
• Math for Meaning Story Problems – 45 minutes daily: Builds the confidence and precision necessary to tackle any mathematical task independently.  Engages students in solving on and above grade level problems through hands-on learning and rich mathematical discourse. 
• Math Routines – 30 minutes daily: Strengthens fluency and conceptual understanding through targeted, discussion-based routines. Students build automaticity with operations and concepts while keeping the “why” behind strategies front and center.

Absolutely! You are welcome to use individual components of the Lavinia RISE curriculum. Teachers should plan to attend the corresponding portions of the Lavinia RISE training for any components they plan to use.

All Lavinia Group school sites will have access to progress monitoring trackers within the LinkIt platform to track student performance in phonics, reading, and math on a weekly basis. Throughout the summer, teachers will receive rubrics and training on how to collect, score, and analyze formative data. The tracker also provides school leaders with a comprehensive dashboard that summarizes student progress toward growth goals and overall standards mastery, enabling them to evaluate data across classes, grade levels, and weeks throughout the program.

Grantees can opt to engage in on-site coaching with a dedicated Lavinia Group coach. Coaches will conduct three on-site visits, offering direct, hands-on support to develop teachers and leaders through model lessons, intellectual preparation, student data analysis, and more. In addition, they will work closely with site leaders to enhance their summer school programming, delivering actionable feedback, clear next steps, and tailored resources. The on-site coaching offering cost is $5,700, and this can be built into your Summer Boost grant budget.