Innovative Approaches to Literacy (84.215G)

What's New

On April 8, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and Labor (DOL) announced the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 competition for the Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) Program.

Program Description

The IAL program supports high-quality programs designed to develop and improve literacy skills for children and students from birth through 12th grade in high-need local educational agencies (high-need LEAs) and schools. The Department intends to promote innovative literacy programs that support the development of literacy skills in low-income communities, including programs that:

• Develop and enhance effective school library programs, which may include providing professional development for school librarians, books, and up-to-date materials to high-need schools;
• Provide early literacy services, including pediatric literacy programs through which, during well-child visits, medical providers trained in research-based methods of early language and literacy promotion provide developmentally appropriate books and recommendations to parents to encourage them to read aloud to their children starting in infancy; and
• Provide high-quality books on a regular basis to children and adolescents from low-income communities to increase reading motivation, performance, and frequency.

IAL Program Officers and Grant Portfolios

Funding

Included in the chart below is the amount of funding per fiscal year since 2016.

*FY 19 new awards were funded down the FY 18 slate and not a new competition.

Legislation

Section 2226 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6646)

Regulations

• EDGAR (Education Department General Administrative Regulations)
• Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements found at 2 CFR Part 200 (Uniform Guidance)

Applicant Information

FY  2026 IAL Competition Announcement Notice

FY 2026 IAL Competition Timeline

• NIA Available: April 10, 2026
• Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply: May 8, 2026
• Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: June 9, 2026

FY 2026 IAL Application Instructions

The IAL Application Package is available for applicants to download and use as a guide only. This document can also be found on Grants.gov. Unless the applicant qualifies for an exception to the electronic submission requirement, all IAL grant applications must be submitted electronically via Grants.gov.

Technical Assistance (TA) Pre-Application Webinar Slides for Prospective Applicants

To assist applicants in preparing applications, the Department hosted a TA meeting Tuesday, April 28, 2026.

View the slides

Additional Resources

• The What Works Clearinghouse Procedures and Standards Handbook (Version 5.0, August 2022) includes information concerning levels of evidence and evaluation.
• To determine whether a particular LEA is eligible for the Small, Rural School Achievement program(SRSA) or Rural and Low-Income School program (RLIS), refer to the Department's website. Applicants are encouraged to retrieve locale codes from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) School District search tool where LEAs can be looked up individually to retrieve locale codes and Public School search tool where individual schools can be looked up to retrieve locale codes.  Applicants are encouraged to retrieve campus settings from the NCES College Navigator search tool where IHEs can be looked up individually to determine the campus setting.
• To determine whether an LEA is Urban, applicants are encouraged to retrieve locale codes from the NCES School District search tool, searching by LEA.
• For Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates for school districts for the most recent income year, please see the Census.gov web site.

Eligibility

To be considered for an award under this competition, an applicant must be one or more of the following:

1. An LEA in which 20 percent or more of the students served by the LEA are from families with an income below the poverty line (as defined in section 8101(41) of the ESEA).
2. A consortium of such LEAs described in paragraph (1) above.
3. The Bureau of Indian Education.
4. An eligible national nonprofit organization (as defined in section 2226(b)(2) of the ESEA) that serves children and students within the attendance boundaries of one or more eligible LEAs.

Note: Under the definition of "poverty line" in section 8101(41) of the ESEA, the determination of the percentage of students served by an LEA from families with an income below the poverty line is based on the U.S. Census Bureau's SAIPE data. 

An entity that meets the definition of an LEA in section 8101(30) of the ESEA and that serves multiple LEAs, such as a county office of education, an education service agency, or regional service education agency, must provide the most recent SAIPE data for each of the individual LEAs it serves.  To determine whether the entity meets the poverty threshold, the Department will derive the entity's poverty rate by aggregating the number of students from families below the poverty line (as provided in SAIPE data) in each of the LEAs the entity serves and dividing it by the total number of students (as provided in SAIPE data) in all of the LEAs the entity serves.

An LEA for which SAIPE data are not available, such as a non-geographic charter school, must provide a determination by the State educational agency (SEA) that 20 percent or more of the students aged 5-17 in the LEA are from families with incomes below the poverty line based on the same State-derived poverty data the SEA used to determine the LEA's allocation under part A of title I of the ESEA.

Note: If you are a nonprofit organization, under 34 CFR 75.51, you may demonstrate your nonprofit status by providing:  (1) proof that the Internal Revenue Service currently recognizes the applicant as an organization to which contributions are tax deductible under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; (2) a statement from a State taxing body or the State attorney general certifying that the organization is a nonprofit organization operating within the State and that no part of its net earnings may lawfully benefit any private shareholder or individual; (3) a certified copy of the applicant's certificate of incorporation or similar document if it clearly establishes the nonprofit status of the applicant; or (4) any item described above if that item applies to a State or national parent organization, together with a statement by the State or parent organization that the applicant is a local nonprofit affiliate.

National not-for-profit organization means an agency, organization, or institution owned and operated by one or more corporations or associations whose net earnings do not benefit, and cannot lawfully benefit, any private shareholder or entity. In addition, it means, for the purposes of this program, an organization of national scope that is supported by staff or affiliates at the State and local levels, who may include volunteers, and that has a demonstrated history of effectively developing and implementing literacy activities.

View Grant Awards