Funding

Our business department is very fortunate to have the available funds that we do. We have three accounts that we use throughout the year to support our curriculum needs and wants. We have Perkins Funds, 509 Funds, and BPA Funds. Perkins Funding and 509 Funds are limited as to what you can use them for. According to Delaware Department of Education’s website these are the valid uses for the different types of funding: 
 * Funding **
 * Perkins Funding – federal monies **

· Strengthen the academic and career and technical skills of student participating in CTE programs · Linking CTE at the secondary level and CTE at the postsecondary level · Providing students with strong experiences in and understanding of all aspects of an industry, which may include work-based learning experiences · Develop, improve, or expand the use of technology in CTE · Provide professional development programs that are consistent with the Delaware State Plan for Career and Technical Education · Develop and implement evaluations of the CTE programs carried out with funds until this title, including an assessment of how the needs of special populations are being met
 * 509 Funds – state monies **

· Used to purchase supplies and materials needed to maintain approved CTE courses and pathways


 * BPA Funds – local monies to support our Business Professionals of America organization **

· Funds from BPA can be used for anything.

We have the available funds throughout our 3 funding sources to pay for the software upgrade and textbooks that go with the new software. These funds would need to be approved for use but we do currently have the monies in our budget.

There is also an alternative to using our Business Department funding to fund our technology and pathway initiative. The department could apply for grants. The following website is what I used to research educational technology grants: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> [|www.technologygrantnews.com] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Through this website there are many articles about grants; which I found to be useful. But I really liked about this website was the ‘grant-index’ which allowed you to search for grants by type/funding and school technology. This site also offered tips on how to write grants by educators that previously submitted grants through the website.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">As stated earlier with approval we have the available funds to use within our current budget to pay for the technology upgrade. However we also have the option of applying for grant monies to help offset the cost. Responsibility will fall on the department chair to apply for grants on behalf of our business department.