Opportunity Overview
Indiana Lifelong Learning Projects, Inc. (ILLP), with support from Lilly Endowment Inc., is accepting requests and proposals for the Opportunity to Learn Project. The current August 2026 Request for Proposals identifies lack of healthcare, mental health challenges, hunger, transportation, housing instability, family dynamics, and other non-academic barriers that can interfere with K-12 academic success.
Deadline control: the current August 2026 RFP controls. Some duplicated text on the program webpage displays older dates, while the webpage Key Dates section and the current RFP show the revised dates below.
Current Deadlines
Planning Grant: September 15, 2026 at 5:00 PM ET. Competitive Grant: March 11, 2027 at 5:00 PM ET. The online portal closes at the applicable deadline.
Eligibility
Eligible applicants are Indiana public school corporations, charter schools, and charter networks located outside Marion County. Applicants must be regularly scheduled to convene in person with limited virtual instruction and must expect to remain operational through the 2029-30 school year. Charter schools and networks must also satisfy the federal tax-exempt classifications specified in the RFP.
Funding
Planning grants range from $50,000 to $100,000 based on Fall 2025 K-12 enrollment, with approximately $22 million expected to be awarded. The competitive phase totals up to $373 million. The applicant maximum is the greater of $650 multiplied by eligible K-12 enrollment or $600,000; ILLP states expected competitive awards range from approximately $600,000 to $17.6 million.
Healthcare and Student Support Relevance
The RFP expressly recognizes lack of healthcare and mental health challenges as barriers to learning. It gives as an example a school corporation engaging a community mental health provider to ensure reliable student access to treatment services and also contemplates coordinated referrals to wraparound services.
Competitive grant funds may support program start-up costs, salaries and benefits, equipment, supplies, professional services, and qualifying capital projects necessary to carry out an evidence-based program. Applicants may collaborate with service providers and other organizations, and documented collaborating-organization expenses may be included in the applicant budget.
Competitive Proposal Requirements
The online competitive proposal requires applicant and program-lead contacts, current fiscal-year budget, most recent audited financial statements, charter tax-exemption documentation when applicable, detailed program narrative, evidence base, implementation plan, collaborating-organization letters of intent when applicable, anticipated outcomes and performance indicators, the official budget template and narrative, committed funding disclosures, sustainability planning, and a one-page commitment letter signed by the board chair and senior organizational leader.
Material Restrictions
Funds are not intended for general operating support and may not be used for student scholarships, student recruitment or enrollment incentives, endowments, or rainy-day funds. Capital projects exceeding 50% of the total project budget require an especially compelling connection to the non-academic barrier being addressed.
Atlas Strategic Analysis
Atlas Opportunity Score: 97/100. This is a high-value Indiana school-health and student-support opportunity because the RFP expressly recognizes healthcare access and mental health barriers, permits equipment and professional services, allows collaborating service providers, and supports multi-year evidence-based programs at substantial scale.
New cold Planning Grant outreach should not begin once the 48-hour cutoff is reached. The Competitive Grant remains open through March 11, 2027 and provides the appropriate runway for eligible Indiana applicants to develop evidence-based school-health, mental-health, and other non-academic barrier programs.
Official source: Indiana Lifelong Learning Projects Opportunity to Learn Project. Applicants should rely on the current August 2026 RFP for controlling deadlines and requirements.