Access Facility Hardship Funding for School Construction

About this Service

School districts can apply for this service once the school district has demonstrated that either school buildings or related required components are currently causing an imminent health and safety threat to students and/or staff. Some of the factors that may be considered to determine program eligibility may include, but are not limited to:

• Damage or loss as a result of a natural disaster.
• Proximity to a major freeway, airport, electrical facility, or pipeline.
• Adverse air quality.
• Structural deficiencies.
• Site conditions such as faulting, toxic soils, or liquefaction.

Projects solely to replace components that have reached the end of their useful life, perform routine maintenance or repair, issues resulting from the deferment of routine maintenance or repair, lack of current code compliance, or the addition of components that were not previously existing, do not meet the qualifying criteria of the program.

For projects that do qualify, there are two types of Facility Hardship projects:

• Replacement – when the cost to mitigate the health and safety threat is greater than 50 percent of the cost of replacement; and
• Rehabilitation – when the cost to mitigate the health and safety threat is less than 50 percent of the cost of replacement.

To prepare a complete Facility Hardship request, school districts may use the Facility Hardship Request Sheet as a guide. School districts are also encouraged to contact the Office of Public School Construction’s (OPSC) Facility Hardship Team to discuss the request/concern prior to commencing any work, demolition or repair.

There are two ways that a school district can submit a Facility Hardship Program grant request:

• Application for Conceptual Approval – the school district has a basic idea of what needs to be replaced/rehabilitated but does not have Division of the State Architect approved plans and specifications.
• Application for Full Funding – can be submitted with or without first obtaining a conceptual approval but must include all the components of a conceptual approval, as well as the documents required for a full funding application.After being processed by the OPSC, the full funding application will be presented to the State Allocation Board for approval.