(a) Early childhood support including establishing, maintaining or expanding quality prekindergarten programs;

(b) Class size reduction with an emphasis on the reduction of kindergarten through grade three class sizes;

(c) Increases in instructional time including summer programs and before- and after-school programs;

(d) Mentoring, teacher retention and professional development;

(e) Remediation, alternative learning and student retention;

(f) Services to at-risk youth;

(g) Programs to improve a student achievement gap between student groups identified by culture, poverty, language and race and other student groups;

(h) Vocational education programs;

(i) Literacy programs;

(j) School library programs; and

(k) Other research-based student improvement strategies approved by the State Board of Education.

(2)(a) Each school district, each education service district, the Youth Corrections Education Program and the Juvenile Detention Education Program may apply to the Department of Education for a grant.

(b) The department shall review and approve applications based on criteria established by the State Board of Education. In establishing the criteria, the State Board of Education shall consider the recommendations of the Quality Education Commission established under ORS 327.500.

(c) The applications shall include the activities to be funded and the goals of the district or program for increases in student performance. The applications shall become part of the local district continuous improvement plan described in ORS 329.095.

(3)(a) Notwithstanding ORS 338.155 (9), the Department of Education may not award a grant under this section directly to a public charter school.

(b) A school district that receives a grant under this section may transfer a portion of the grant to a public charter school based on the charter of the school or any other agreement between the school district and the public charter school.

(c) A public charter school that receives grant funds under this subsection shall use those funds for the activities specified in subsection (1) of this section.

(4)(a) The amount of each grant for a program or school district = the program’s or school district’s ADMw ´ (the total amount available for distribution to programs and school districts as grants in each fiscal year ¸ the total ADMw of all programs and school districts that receive a grant).

(b) The amount of each grant for an education service district = the education service district’s ADMw ´ (the total amount available for distribution to education service districts as grants in each fiscal year ¸ the total ADMw of all education service districts that receive a grant).

(c) As used in this subsection, "ADMw" means:

(A) For a school district, the extended weighted average daily membership as calculated under ORS 327.013, 338.155 (1) and 338.165 (2);

(B) For the Youth Corrections Education Program, the extended weighted average daily membership as calculated under ORS 327.026;

(C) For the Juvenile Detention Education Program, the extended weighted average daily membership as calculated under ORS 327.026; and

(D) For an education service district, the sum of the ADMw of the school districts located within the territory of the education service district.

(5) Each district or program shall deposit the grant amounts it receives under this section in a separate account, and shall apply amounts in that account to pay for activities described in the district’s or program’s application.

(6) The State Board of Education may adopt any rules necessary for the administration of the grant program. [2001 c.794 §3; 2001 c.794 §3c; 2005 c.22 §231; 2007 c.578 §1; 2007 c.858 §30a; 2009 c.840 §1; 2011 c.313 §4; 2011 c.443 §5; 2011 c.704 §9; 2011 c.705 §18; 2014 c.6 §§3,4]