Regional Challenge Grants

Innovations in College & Career Pathways

Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) has awarded competitive Regional Challenge Grants (RCG) to partners across the state. In an effort to address the enrollment crisis, the Washington Legislature passed Senate Bill 5789, which funded RCG. The program was given an initial $6 million for 2022-23, and $16 million was added for 2023 through 2025.

Regional Challenge Grants seek to improve postsecondary attainment by investing in communities. Partnerships focus on increasing enrollment and credential completion for students, inclusive of certificates and degrees.

To close equity gaps in Washington State, strategies focus on:

• Students of color.
• Students from low-income backgrounds.
• English language learners.
• Students with disabilities.
• Foster and homeless youth.

Each partner works toward these goals by doing one or more of the following:

• Increasing direct enrollment: the number of high school students who go straight on to more education.
• Increasing adult enrollment: the number of adults who go back to get more education or job training.
• Increasing completion: the number of students who complete a degree or credential.

By investing in regional communities in the state, RCG seeks to increase attainment and close equity gaps and reflect these strategies to statewide policy solutions.

2024 Request for Letters of Interest

We will seek applications to expand the RCG cohort with a new request for Letters of Interest (LOI) in January 2024. To improve accessibility, we intend to open our process to new applicants each year in January and make final decisions for recommendations in advance of the June Council meeting. We encourage applications from all perspectives and regions in the state and will provide additional details in the fall. For general inquiries or questions regarding the upcoming request for letters of interest, please email RegionalChallengeGrant@wsac.wa.gov.

Regional Challenge Grant Cohort

Eight total grantees, four in each grant tier, comprise the inaugural RCG cohort. Each partnership represents unique, innovative strategies informed by their region to increase postsecondary attainment and close systemic equity gaps. The broad range of strategies, partnerships, focus student populations, and regions represented are key to achieving the systems-change goal. Grantees represent $4.85 million in awards for work up to 1.5 years in length in eight distinct regions of the state.

Implementation Grantees - Totaling $4.35 million in awards over a 1.5-year grant period

Implementation grantees represent established partnerships that are testing, expanding, or scaling their strategies and increasing postsecondary attainment for focus populations.

Partnership Formation Grantees - Totaling $500,000 over a 1-year grant period

Partnership Formation grantees are in the earlier stages of retaining partners, recruiting new partners across sectors, and building deep relationships in their network. We recognize that early-stage partnership development may focus more on strategy and understanding the local context while other partnerships may be prepared to explore programmatic activities.