Federal grant programs / Department of Education

Special Education-Grants for Infants and Families (84.181)

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$2.8 billion
• Grant awards341
• Typical award$4.9 million
• Awarded in FY 2025$519 million
• Size rank130 of 1,823
• Type of assistanceFormula grants

Key findings

• Annual funding fell from $704 million in fiscal 2021 to $519 million in fiscal 2025.
• It is the 130th largest of 1,823 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 20 largest recipients received 69% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 56 states and territories.

What the program funds

To provide grants to States to assist them to implement and maintain a Statewide, comprehensive, coordinated, multidisciplinary, interagency system to make available early intervention services to infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families.

From the federal Assistance Listing. Read the full listing on SAM.gov.

Open opportunities

No opportunity under this program is open or forecast on Grants.gov right now. Programs often post once a year, so the funding history below shows what to expect.

Rules from the program listing

Who can apply

Eligible applicants are the following 57 entities: the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Bureau of Indian Education within the U.S. Department of the Interior and the following four outlying area jurisdictions: Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

What the money can and cannot pay for

Funds are used to assist States in implementing and maintaining their Statewide systems of early intervention services. Funding may also be used to provide direct services for eligible infants and toddlers with disabilities aged birth through 2 and their families that are not otherwise paid for by other public or private sources, to expand and improve services for infants and toddlers with disabilities that are otherwise available and to provide a free appropriate public education, in accordance with Part B of IDEA, to children with disabilities from their third birthday to the beginning of the following school year. States also have the discretion to provide services to infants and toddlers who are at risk of having substantial developmental delays if they do not receive appropriate early intervention services. At their discretion, States may continue to serve children with disabilities under this program beyond age three until the school year following the child's third, fourth, or fifth birthday or until such children enter or are eligible to enter kindergarten or elementary school, if such children are otherwise eligible for services under the Preschool Grants Program (84.173), and previously received services under the Part C program. 20 U.S.C. 1432(5) and 34 CFR §303.211

Matching requirements

Statutory Formula: Title IDEA, Part C, Sec. 643, Subpart N/A,Public Law N/A.Awards are based on each State applicant's proportionate share of children, aged birth through two years, in the general population, based on the most recent satisfactory data available from the United States Bureau of the Census. No State may receive less than 0.5 percent of the total funds available for all States. The Department of Interior receives 1.25 percent of the amount available to States. The Outlying Areas combined receive up to 1 percent of the funds appropriated. 20 U.S.C. 1443. This program has nonsupplanting requirements, which are further clarified in regulations to include a maintenance of effort requirement. 20 U.S.C. 1437(b)(5) and 34 CFR §303.225(b).Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Deadlines

Jul 01, 2026 to Sep 30, 2027

Award range and average, in the agency's words

For 2023, regular annual allotments to States, including DC and Puerto Rico, ranged from, $2,587,723 to $58, 793,660; with an average award of $9,952,780.

Quoted from the program's federal Assistance Listing. The notice of funding opportunity is the official source for each competition's rules.

Who usually wins

State and local governments received 96% of the money, tribes 1.4%.

By state

Each state below has its own page for this program, with its recipients and yearly totals.

Award amounts are federal obligations reported to USAspending.gov for fiscal 2021 to 2025; see how our data works.