FY24 Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program Formula Solicitation

Transcript also available as a PDF.

DARYL FOX: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to today's BJA “FY 2024 Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program Formula Solicitation” webinar, hosted by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. At this time, it's my pleasure to introduce Erin Pfeltz, Division Chief at BJA, to begin the presentation. Erin?

ERIN PFELTZ: Daryl, thank you so much. And good afternoon, everyone, or good morning, depending on where you are, and welcome to today's webinar, to discuss the Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program FY24 solicitation. I want to start by introducing you all to the Byrne SCIP Team. So, as Daryl said, my name is Erin Pfeltz, and I'm a Division Chief at the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance, or BJA. And I am joined by Andrew Rodeghero, who is here today helping to answer questions as they come in. We also have Erich Dietrich, our Associate Deputy Director here helping with questions as well.  

This slide provides an overview of our presentation today. For today's webinar, we're going to provide you with an introduction to the Office of Justice Programs and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and an overview of the Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program. After that, we'll discuss the Byrne SCIP allowable activities, eligibility, and application requirements, program requirements, and finally, resources for submitting the application. And we will close out with apt time for questions and answers. And as Daryl mentioned, as we go through the presentation, please type any questions that you have into the Q&A box. Next, we'll move into the introduction to OJP and BJA.  

So, first, a little bit about the Office of Justice Programs, or OJP. BJA is located within OJP, which is one of the three grant-making components in the Department of Justice.   OJP provides a wide range of services to the criminal justice community in the forms of grants, training and technical assistance, and research. Although, our focus here today is a BJA funding opportunity, there are other opportunities that offer additional grants and programs to support our share public safety mission within both BJA and OJP. As you can see, BJA is one of the six different program offices within OJP.  

So, the Bureau of Justice Assistance was created in 1984 to reduce violent crime, create safer communities, and reform our nation's criminal justice system. BJA strengthens the nation’s criminal justice system and helps America's state, local, and tribal jurisdictions reduce and prevent crime, reduce recidivism, and promote a fair and safe criminal justice system. BJA focuses its programmatic and policy efforts on providing a wide range of resources, including training and technical assistance to law enforcement courts, corrections, treatments, reentry, justice information sharing, and community-based partners to address chronic and emerging criminal justice challenges nationwide.  

And BJA supports the field by providing diverse funding to accomplish goals, of course, directly through our grants and cooperative agreements. But also by researching and sharing what works to build capacity and improve outcomes, and by consulting, connecting, and convening.  

So, before I move into an overview of the Byrne SCIP Program, we would love to see who's joining us here today. So, if you haven't already done so, please take a second to add your name and state to the chat. It's just great to see who's joining us. And then, as a reminder as well, the Q&A feature is for questions throughout the presentation.  

So, moving forward into an overview of the Byrne SCIP Program. Byrne SCIP was created by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, which was assigned into law just about two years ago to reduce gun violence and save lives, and to make progress towards keeping guns out of dangerous hands. The Act also seeks to ensure that Extreme Risk Protection Order laws, commonly referred to as "red flag" laws, and programs are implemented in accordance with the Constitution and that they provide for adequate due process protections. The Act amended the JAG Statute to include some additional program areas, which include but aren't limited to extreme risk protection order programs and mental health, drug treatment, and veterans courts programs. And it also expanded the authorization to include civil proceedings and appropriated $750 million or $150 million per year for five years to the Byrne SCIP Program. And so far, under Byrne SCIP, BJA has made 51 awards worth nearly $250 million.  

As we noted before in the agenda, we're going to cover a number of different aspects of the SCIP Program, starting with how funds can be used.  

So, Byrne SCIP funds can be used for the implementation of state crisis intervention court proceedings and related programs or initiatives, including but not limited to mental health courts, drug courts, veterans courts, and extreme risk protection order programs.  The FY24 Byrne SCIP Solicitation and May update to the FAQs include updated language from last year to help clarify allowable activities. BJA understands the related programs or initiatives to mean those programs or initiatives that have a direct connection to crisis intervention, which is focused on identifying risk and intervening before harm occurs. Programs and activities focused exclusively on response to crime in progress or already committed would not be considered crisis intervention. And activities and costs must be necessary for the proper and efficient performance of a crisis intervention program, being reasonably connected or logically related to the program purpose. The FY24 updates also provided an expansion of examples of possible programs under SCIP.  

So, the extended examples included in the updated FAQs are covered in question 32 of the FAQs and include the areas of Extreme Risk Protection Order programs, or ERPOs, with some examples being training for those implementing ERPO Programs, training for judiciary and court staff on ERPO proceedings, and communication outreach and publication strategies. Related court-based programming, short list of examples, including identifying, triaging, and connecting court involved people in crisis and services, expanding the capacity of the existing drug, mental health, and veterans treatment courts, prosecutor pre-trial, and court diversion programs, programming and training on domestic violence cases and related protection orders, including relinquishments of firearms, and threat assessment training.  

Referrals to community-based services for people in crisis, this could include pre-arrest law enforcement and first responder deflection, behavioral threat assessment programs and related training, mobile crisis units, peer support specialists, suicide and crisis prevention and referral services, embedding social workers with law enforcement and co-responder programs, de-escalation training for law enforcement, first responders, and other justice practitioners.  

And then. funding for law enforcement crisis intervention programs or initiatives. A couple examples could be gun safety training for community members, supplies, equipment, technology, training to safely secure store, track, and return relinquished guns; specialized training, such as crisis response and intervention training, training for school resource officers on identifying risk; data collection, analysis, and strategic planning to address community gun violence. Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list. We understand there may be additional crisis intervention needs for different communities. And when looking at potential activities, the important thing is to remember to connect to the proposed activities and costs to how they will address crisis intervention, focused on identifying risk and intervening before harm occurs.  

The more general gun violence prevention, investigation, and general law enforcement strategies, such as enhanced patrols, active shooter training, NIBIN systems, activities and costs without the connection to crisis intervention would not be appropriate under Byrne SCIP, but could be included in other BJA programs, such as the Byrne JAG Program.  

When program plans and subaward project descriptions are submitted to BJA, make sure that they include clarity on how the proposed activities and costs will address crisis intervention. So while activities might also have a broader prevention outcome to the community at large or assist with the response to violence already occurring, or use information and lessons from past cases, the primary focus and purpose should always be targeted towards crisis intervention.  

So, in addition, two examples of allowable programs, the FAQ also provides information on additional guidelines and resources. So for those implementing behavioral health programs under SCIP, those programs must be operated in accordance with the SAMHSA National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care. For those implementing drug court programs, the programs must conform to the All Rise, formerly the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, the All Rise key components for drug courts. BJA's provisions on medication-assisted treatment are also linked, too, here. Finally, the National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care Toolkit and the Guidance for Emergency Responses to People with Behavioral Health or Other Disabilities, also provide additional resources on community-based services for people in crisis.  

For some additional resources on allowable or potential activities, the Byrne SCIP 101 webinar held last March included a number of examples of approved subawards, covering a range of different areas. For those that weren't able to join in March or who would like to review the information provided, the recordings are available, and we have the links on this slide.  

So, while the updated FAQ didn't include any changes to the unallowable costs for the programs, we did want to cover them here. In addition to the cost posted as unallowable by the DOJ Grants Financial Guide, SCIP funds may not be used for prizes, rewards, entertainment, trinkets, or any monetary incentive. They may also not be used for gift cards, food and beverages, drones, supplanting of state or local funds, or any of the items prohibited by Executive Order 14074. Finally, funding may not be used for lobbying. In general, as a matter of federal law, funding may not be used either directly or indirectly to support the enactment, repeal, modification, or adoption of any law, regulation, or policy at any level of government. Chapter 2.1 of the DOJ Grants Financial Guide provides more specifics about the restrictions on lobbying. But if at any point there are questions as to whether a particular use of grant funds would or might fall within the scope of these prohibitions, please contact BJA for guidance and do not proceed without the expressed prior written approval of BJA.  

Next, we are going to move into the section on Eligibility and Application Requirements.  So this slide provides an overview of the solicitation details, including the Grants.gov opportunity number and the full solicitation title. I'm going to repeat these deadlines multiple times during this presentation. But the Grants.gov portion must be completed by July 24th, and all required documents must be submitted in JustGrants by July 29th at 8:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Only states are eligible applicants and must designate a single State Administering Agency to apply. The OJP website includes the list of current SAAs and their contact information. As noted on an earlier slide, the total funding available for FY24 in Byrne SCIP is over $140 million dollars. We've included the link here to the allocation chart showing the breakdown by state. And it's discussed in more detail in the FAQs. These allocations are based on the prior year's JAG formula, so the FY23 JAG formula. From there, the allocation chart also shows the amount that must be passed through to local jurisdictions. This includes both the Direct Pass-Through and the less than $10,000 Pass-Through. Only the less than $10,000 Pass-Through is eligible for a waiver. Keep in mind the Direct Local Pass-Through must be provided to units of local government. Finally, the allocation chart also includes the maximum amounts that can be used for direct administrative costs, which does not impact the amounts that must be passed through. We'll talk a little bit more about this in a minute. But this allocation chart will be a key reference in preparing your application. The link is included here, it's also included in the solicitation.  

So, as we mentioned earlier, the application is a two-step process. Step one is through Grants.gov submitting the Federal Assistance Standard form, the SF-424, and the Disclosure of Lobbying Activities form. And then from there, the application moves to JustGrants where the rest of the elements will be completed. We aren't going to go through a full list of application elements today, although we will walk through the proposal narrative and budget. But the OJP Application Resource Guide is available to provide detail on each required application component. We're going to cover the link and some more information in a later section. But keep in mind that that resource is always available as you're walking through the different sections in the JustGrants application.  

For the program plan, if your state is ready to go with the full program plan for the FY24 SCIP funds, has board approval, you can submit with your application and we can review it as part of the award process. However, for those states who aren't yet at that step, the preliminary program plan can be a broader review of how your state might proceed. Like with the FY22-23 cycle, you then develop and submit the full program plan for post-award approval.  

As with the program plan, if your state is ready to go with the full budget for the FY24 SCIP funds and has board approval, you can submit it with your application and we can review it this time. However, if you're not at that step, submit the preliminary budget with your application. And then that final budget that aligns with the board approved program plan will be submitted for approval post-award. We do want to, as a reminder when working on the budget, make sure that the direct administrative costs are no more than 10 percent of the total funding and that the full required pass-through amounts are identified.  

So, this slide is going to be repeated at the end of the presentation. And like I said, we're going to cover the due dates multiple times, but here's a reminder. There are two steps for the application process. Step one, the Grants.gov submission by July 24th.  And step two, the JustGrants submission by July 29th.  

Next, we are going to move into a discussion of the overall Program Requirements for Byrne SCIP. First, the Crisis Intervention Advisory Board. This board will inform and guide the gun violence reduction programs and initiatives, and must include members from law enforcement, the courts, community, prosecution, behavioral health services, victim services, and legal counsel. Existing advisory boards, task forces, working groups, communities, et cetera, can meet the Crisis Intervention Advisory Board requirement if the existing entity includes the representatives as listed on the slide. If a board is already in place from the FY22-23 round of funding, the board members do not need to change, it doesn't have to be a new board for the FY24 funding. And just a reminder that as part of the program plan submission, it must include information on the advisory board, its membership, and its governance structure. More information on the advisory board requirement can be found in questions 41 and 43 of the FAQ.  

The program and budget plan must be approved by BJA. As noted earlier, the final plan and budget do not need to be submitted with the application. We know more time is probably needed to work with the advisory board and fully develop a plan. Instead, if it's not submitted with the application, we will include a withholding condition on funds pending the submission, which will allow $20,000 in obligations for the purpose of plan development in coordination with the advisory board. If the plan is submitted post-award, the post-award approval process is completed via Scope Change GAM, which along with the advisory board approval, would also be required for any later substantive changes to the plan or budget. And the FAQs include details on what specifically would need to be included in that GAM for the post-award plan approval.  

All subawards must also be approved post-award via a Scope Change GAM. The FAQs also provide full details on the requirement for that approval as well. Submissions do need to include the recipient, award amount, project period, as well as the description of the activities and subaward budget. Again, see FAQs number 45 and 46 for more information.  

For plans that include ERPO activities, a certification is required stating that the Extreme Risk Protection Order program to be funded satisfied each of the requirements outlined in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act prior to the use of grant funds for ERPO programs. The requirements specifics to ERPO programs are also covered in question 34 of the FAQ, along with the link to the certification form.  

As a condition of the award, grantees are required to cooperate with BJA and the training and technical assistance providers to ensure that programs funded by Byrne SCIP are designed to protect the constitutional rights of individuals and to cooperate with the statutorily required evaluation activities. The use of grant funds for a research partner from the statutory funds also encouraged.  

Up to 10 percent of the total award may be used for direct administrative costs. This is calculated from the total award amount, but it cannot reduce funds from the pass-through amounts. There is no statutory limit on indirect costs. And keep in mind, the subaward budgets can also include 10 percent for direct administrative costs. Funds under Byrne SCIP, funds may be obligated once awards have been offered and accepted and any award conditions prohibiting obligations have been cleared, including the post-award approval of the program, plan, and budget. As we noted before, the program and budget plan withholding condition will allow obligations not to exceed $20,000 for the sole purpose of developing the program and budget plans in coordination with the Crisis Intervention Advisory Board. However, make sure to review the award conditions carefully, in case other holds were included. Byrne SCIP does work differently than JAG. Drawdown requests should be timed to ensure that federal cash on hand is the minimum needed for disbursements and reimbursements that can either be made immediately or within 10 days. And if they cannot be spent or dispersed within 10 days, funds do need to be returned to the awarding agency. So funds cannot be drawn down and held in advance.

So, Byrne SCIP award quarterly performance reports are submitted through BJA's Performance Measurement Tool, or the PMT, with semi-annual reports uploaded in JustGrants. The slide also includes the link to the performance measure questionnaire used for the SCIP program and it is covered in more depth in questions 50 and 51 of the FAQs.  

Finally, a brief overview of the pass-through requirements. These are also covered in more depth both in FAQ number 28 and in the solicitation. So the direct local pass-through of 40 percent is comprised of the share of funds. It's proportionately decreased, that was available for direct local JAG awards in FY23. And this pass-through must go directly to units of local government. The less than $10,000 pass-through is the share of funds, proportionately decreased, that was added to the JAG state share in FY23 for less than $10,000 jurisdictions. This funding may be used to fund state courts that provide criminal justice and civil justice services to the less than $10,000 jurisdictions within the state, it may be passed through directly to one or more of those jurisdictions, or a combination of both. The direct local pass-through is mandatory and is not eligible for a waiver. The less than $10,000 pass-through is eligible for a waiver. More information on that process is covered in the FAQ if your state is interested in requesting a waiver. All right.  

And in our final section of today's webinar, we're going to cover resources to assist with the Byrne SCIP application.  

The Byrne SCIP Program has three TTA providers: the National Criminal Justice Association, NCJA, who can assist with program and budget planning and development, data collection, and coordination among SAAs, TTA, and BJA; the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, NCJFCJ, who can assist with partnerships with courts, needs assessments for state-court programs, and the national landscape of promising practices; and the Johns Hopkins University Center for Gun Violence Solutions, who can assist with ERPO related training, ERPO support, and peer-to-peer engagements.

We also have a direct TTA request link. The link's included on the slide, it provides a brief TTA request form. And those TTA requests will go to all three providers, and they'll reach out based on the contents of the request.  

For application submission, one of your key resources is the OJP Application Resource Guide, I mentioned this earlier, and it's a very comprehensive walkthrough of each section of the application. It's probably too small to see on the right-hand side of the screen, but this page goes through each element of the application with links to additional details and instruction. If you reach a section of the application, one of the forms where you're unclear, this will be your first stop. It's a really comprehensive guide to OJP application.  

And this page shows the resources available for OJP's JustGrants system. For JustGrants, there's a detailed step-by-step job aid reference guide available that will walk through all of the submission steps within JustGrants. There's an application checklist to ensure you've completed all of the elements within JustGrants. And there's also a weekly application mechanics webinar that's held every Wednesday, and you can register for that to ask specific questions and learn more about the application process. This slide also provides links to user support which will be your first stop if you run into any technical issues with the JustGrants system.  

If you need application assistance, here's who you will contact. I said you would see this slide again, here it is. And remember, the Grants.gov portion is due July 24th, the JustGrants portion July 29th. Those deadlines are at 8:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

For general updates and information from OJP, this slide provides information on how to sign up for news releases, new information, and updates.  

And here, you can find ways to connect with BJA for more information and updates.  

The OJP Response Center is also available to assist with questions regarding applications, you can see their email, phone, and hours of operation here on this slide.  

And remember, there are two deadlines for the submission. There's the Grants.gov submission, that's step one, with the two forms. And then, step two through JustGrants for the full application.  

And then, finally, before we turn to the Q&A, just one final reminder on how to reach out for assistance: the Grants.gov helpdesk for questions on submitting the Grants.gov portion, the JustGrants helpdesk for technical assistance with submitting the full application in JustGrants, and finally the OJP Response Center for questions on programmatic requirements.  

And now with that, I think we are ready to move into the Q&A. I see some questions have been coming in while I've been talking. So Daryl, I'm going to hand it over to you.

DARYL FOX: Thanks so much, Erin. And just to reference, today's recording, transcript, and PowerPoint will be posted to the BJA website. So you'll be able to go back and reference this if you need to at any point once that's posted. Everybody that registered will receive an email when and where to access that. So plenty of time left today, if you have a question, enter it in the Q&A box, we plan to get to that as we can. And as Erin mentioned, yeah, there are quite a few questions in the box. Those are being answered by the team, but with the relevance of the questions, we can go ahead and ask and answer those to get them on the recording as well.  

So the first one is, "I understand admin, which is listed as direct costs, cannot exceed 10 percent, What about indirect costs? Would that be outside of the 10 percent and allowed in the state share?"

ERIN PFELTZ: Yeah, and so Andrew responded to that. Indirect costs do not count towards the 10 percent administrative limit. They would need to come from the state share, though, just keep that in mind because the direct and the less than $10,000 pass-through amount must remain what's listed in the allocation chart.

DARYL FOX: "Do we need a program plan each fiscal year or if we have no changes, all good to go?"

ERIN PFELTZ: So, we do need a program plan submitted for each fiscal year.  However, if you expect that your program will remain largely the same, I would imagine there wouldn't be many changes to the program plan. We would expect you to take a look, make sure there are any updates needed around dates, around changes to the landscape that have happened in the last year and a half since the first submission. But if you do expect your program to continue in a similar vein we understand it would look very, very similar to what was submitted with the '22-'23 program.

DARYL FOX: "And would items such as transportation vouchers or bus passes to ensure clients are able to attend mental health treatment be allowable within this?"

ERIN PFELTZ: Those are generally allowable as long as there are systems and processes in place to ensure that they're used for the purpose intended. And we can provide some more information about what those policies might want to include. So, yes, as long as they're managed in a way to make sure they're used for program purposes.

DARYL FOX: "Regarding the less than $10,000 pass-through allocation requirement, I just want to know what entities are categorized as that. They have a requirement for general non-SCIP JAG funds as well, is there a list posted online anywhere?"

ERIN PFELTZ: It's not posted online but reach out and Andrew or I can send that to you. So those are the jurisdictions that in the past year's JAG funding would have received less than $10,000. So then rather than receive a direct award through JAG, it was included in the JAG state share. But as Andrew noted, we can provide that list for last year.

DARYL FOX: "Is an ERPO certification required if those activities are limited to providing education and training on an ERPO program as opposed to the development of an ERPO program?"

ERIN PFELTZ: Yes. And as Andrew noted that would still be required, and if you do have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out.

DARYL FOX: "Is there basic definition of what's considered to be an admin cost and can that 10 percent admin be used for grant management personnel presumably for supplies and other related activities?"

ERIN PFELTZ: So, as Andrew noted, it's any allowable costs for the administration of the award, it can certainly include personnel fringe, supplies, et cetera. Travel, if you're visiting subawardee sites to monitor, we can definitely answer any questions you have about that as well.

DARYL FOX: " Is there an official process for getting the program plan approved for the coming year? Is it just submitting in JustGrants with a narrative?"

ERIN PFELTZ: So, if your program plan is developed and have been developed in coordination with your advisory board and has been approved by your advisory board, you can submit that with the application and we can review it as part of the application.  However, we definitely know that might not be complete by the end of July. So if that is the case, the program plan approval process will be the same as it has been for the '22-'23 funding cycle, it would be done via a Scope Change GAM in JustGrants. And we'll review it post-award.

DARYL FOX: Okay.

ERIN PFELTZ: If the program plan and board approval are ready at time of application, you would want to make sure to include all the elements, so including that documentation or board coordination and approval of the plan, as well as the plan itself.

DARYL FOX: Wonderful. Thanks so much for that. That's the end of the queue at this time. But we have plenty of time today. If you do have a question, go ahead and enter that in. And in the meantime, as I've mentioned, I will go ahead and put up the quick reference contacts. So once we conclude today, if you have any questions about the programmatic requirements, you can call our OJP Response Center here listed here or email at [email protected]. So I'll just keep this up for a while as we get through Q&A. Nothing else in the queue at this time, Erin.  

“And regarding that program plan, does that need to submitted along with the application?"

ERIN PFELTZ: So a narrative does need to be included with the application. We understand that it might be sort of a preliminary narrative at this point, and that's fine.  The program plan itself, if it's not submitted as part of the application, we'll include a withholding condition for the development of the plan on the award, and then it can be submitted post-award.  So the process will be the same as it's been with the '22-'23. You would do a Scope Change GAM in JustGrants, submit the final program plan, the documentation of board coordination and approval, and then we would review it. If all good, then approve the GAM, remove the hold, and you would be good to move forward.

DARYL FOX: I'll also bring this up as well actually here. And I think the one with the deadlines may be a little more helpful. I'll go back to that one. Here it is. And so here are the deadlines as was mentioned in the presentation. The Grants.gov deadline must be met first by 8:59 p.m. Eastern, July 24th. And then, the JustGrants deadline listed here July 29th at 8:59 p.m. Eastern.

ERIN PFELTZ: And just a note too, the July 29th deadline, that is a Monday. The JustGrants helpdesk is available on weekends but the hours are a little bit shorter.  Just keep that in mind as you're planning your submission.

DARYL FOX: Okay, that seems to be the questions at this time.

ERIN PFELTZ: Well, thank you all so much for joining us today. We're here if you have any other questions as you move through the process. Don't hesitate to reach out. And thank you to Andrew for helping with the questions in the Q&A. And yes, once again, thank you all so much for joining us this afternoon or morning depending on where you are.

DARYL FOX: So, on behalf of the Bureau of Justice Assistance and our panelists, we want to thank you for joining today's webinar. This will end today's presentation.