Thank you for participating in the School Library Access Mini-Grant Program sponsored by the Idaho Commission for Libraries and coordinated by the School Libraries staff. This grant project has three primary goals (see Appendix A). Your feedback on this report will determine whether the goals and desired outcomes of the program were achieved and help us identify strengths and challenges in order to improve the project for future participants.

Please review the questions on this report to ensure the appropriate data has been collected. The report should be submitted by April 28, 2024.

The financial section of the report details the original grant amount, actual expenditures, unspent balance, and includes a place to upload spending documentation. Documentation must be provided in the form of a spending report generated from your school district's accounting software/program. Please work with your school district office or school office manager to obtain this spending report. This report must show that documentated expenditures total or exceed the full grant award amount. The accounting system spending report is the only financial documentation you are required to submit; you do not need to submit invoices or receipts. You are however, required to retain these receipts and invoices, along with your other grant records, for three years following the end of the grant period.

Unused or undocumented grant funds must be spent immediately or returned to the ICfL. If you have questions about eligible or ineligible expenses, documentation requirements, or need to obtain your original grant agreement please email libgrants@libraries.idaho.gov.

1. Increase the amount of recreational reading done by students in grades 6-12.

2. Increase access to age-appropriate, high-quality, nonfiction and fiction titles in secondary school libraries.

3. Increase the number of students in grades 6-12 reading on grade level.

1.  All students (including preschool students if your library serves a developmental preschool program) will be allowed to check out and take home books of their choice for recreational, out-of-school reading. Fiction and nonfiction titles for recreational reading will be allowed in addition to any materials they must check out for required reading and assigned class and project work. No grant funds will be spent on textbooks, classroom sets, literature circle sets, or other materials specifically for classroom assignments. Books may be used for classroom work, of course, but should not be purchased specifically for classroom work.

2. Grant funds will be spent on age-appropriate books for the secondary grades served by the school. When selecting age-appropriate titles for all grade levels, librarians should consider the interest level for students and include high-quality titles for students to read independently or with their families. The reading level (ATOS, AR, Lexile, etc.) should be a secondary consideration, if considered at all.

3. Accelerated Reader tests, library software, library shelving, and signage are not allowable purchases with these funds.

4. A maximum of 50% of grant funds may be spent with any single publisher. 

5. At least 40% of grant funds must be spent on age-appropriate, high-quality nonfiction books.

6. All grantee schools will develop a Culture of Reading program or event to establish or improve the reading culture in their school. There are many ways to cultivate a culture of reading, and the school library is uniquely positioned to play a central role.

7. Up to a total of 20% of the grant funds can be used for allowable purposes other than the purchase of books for the collection. The funds used for book processing will be considered part of this 20%, as well as expenses associated with the Culture of Reading project. Some examples of allowable items are: 

Give-away books for students to encourage summer and/or out of school reading are allowable.

Bilingual books for English-learning students to keep and take home to read independently or with their adults are allowable.

Food is not an eligible use for grant funds.

Up to 5% of the grant award may be used for book processing and related supplies (i.e. MARC records, labels, barcodes, processing fees with vendors, protective laminant covers, etc.).

8. Grantee will complete at least one training experience in addition to the September 2023 professional development connected to this grant. The training experience should cover a reading- or library science-related topic. This requirement can be met through attending a webinar, completing on online training modules or attending an in-person training event such as the 2023 Idaho Library Association annual conference. The training must be completed during the grant period, except for ICfL's Summer Summit held in July 2023, which also fulfills this requirement.