Grants

Professional Grant Writing/Funding Support Services

Proven Grant-Writing Success:

Howie has written federal, state, and foundation grants that have been awarded over $40 million during his career. He understands the grant writing process, and he most often writes grants for districts, schools, and other education-related agencies who want to use him as a consultant to help implement his school improvement (or other) strategies. At the same time, Howie is always happy to coordinate and write grant proposals in areas where his services are not needed.

An Upcoming Federal Grant Opportunity: School-Based Mental Health Services (October, 2025)

October, 2025

The U.S. Department of Education just announced (September 29th via the Federal Register) its renewed School-Based Mental Health Services (SBMH) Grant program. While we anticipate that most school districts will write for the first grant below, there are two grants out. Each of the grants must be submitted within 30 days (i.e., on or about October 29, 2025.

The Two Grants are:

GRANT 1

School-Based Mental Health (SBMH) Grant - ALN 84.184H 

This is the "Immediate Hiring" grant. Its focus is on funding the recruitment, retention, and respecialization of already credentialed or soon-to-be-credentialed professionals. It is designed for LEAs that need to hire and place school psychologists into service roles quickly.

The final priorities, requirements, and definitions are designed to target activities with the purpose of increasing the number of credentialed school-based mental health services providers, specifically school psychologists, in high-need local educational agencies (LEAs) available to provide mental health services to students.

GRANT 2

Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program—ALN 84.184X

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Education.

SUMMARY: Mental Health Service Professional (MHSP) Demonstration Grant - ALN 84.184X 

This is the "Pipeline Building" grant. Its focus is on funding partnerships between LEAs and higher education (or other training entities) to train school psychology graduate candidates. It is designed to build a long-term, sustainable workforce by investing in the next generation of professionals. Critically, only SEAs and LEAs are allowed to apply for this Grant. IHEs cannot independently apply, although they will certainly be included as partners.

   Here's a quick Comparison Document outlining the specifics of the two Grants, and an overview of what we're looking at: 

Comparison of Proposed USDoE SBMH Grants 10 1 25.pdf

The Big Picture: The grants center around recruiting and supporting individuals to become school psychologists who will specialize in mental health prevention and intervention, particularly within high-need school districts.  

Our Approach: We want to partner with and write proposals with as many school districts across the country as possible. These districts will either (a) recruit school psychologists with the Grant's support; and/or (b) identify and sponsor school psychology candidates from within their own staff (e.g., general or special education teachers, counselors or BCBAs, or even interventionists or administrators with a passion for mental health) to pursue school psychology training. 

Our Role: Relative to the respecialization of existing faculty, we have approached a number of NASP-approved School Psychology Programs with a virtual/on-line certification programs to partner with us on the Grant. To maintain flexibility, we are hoping that up to five NASP-approved Programs will participate with us. . . each one accepting multiple candidates in up to three consecutive cohorts. 

Funding Focus: The grant prioritizes sustainable strategies for recruitment and retention, and expanding access to intensive, early intervention mental health services. 

For Information on How to Submit a Grant Proposal:

Contact: Dr. Howie Knoff

E-mail: howieknoff1@projectachieve.info

Cell: 813-495-3318

OR

For More Information: CLICK HERE

A Sample of Howie's Previously-Funded Grants:

   MOST with Multiple Different Grant Awards

  • School Climate Transformation Grant (Federal grant program for districts and schools)
  • Personnel Preparation grants (Federal grant program for University Training Programs)
  • Title I grants (Federal and State grant program for districts and schools)
  • Safe Schools/Healthy Students grants (Federal grant program for districts and schools)
  • National School Improvement Dissemination grant (Federal grant program for districts and schools)
  • State Personnel Development Grants (SPDG; Federal grant program for State Departments of Education)
  • Elementary and Secondary Counseling Grant (Federal grant program for districts and schools)
  • Safe and Drug-Free School grants (Federal and State grant program for districts and schools)
  • Foundation Grants (e.g., for Metropolitan Life, the Kellogg Foundation)