School Regionalization Efficiency Program (SREP)
The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) is dedicated to helping New Jersey school districts achieve educational excellence and district efficiencies. The School Regionalization Efficiency Program (SREP) Grant supports public school districts and governing bodies across New Jersey who wish to study the feasibility of school district regionalization and consolidation.
Public school districts and governing bodies are invited to apply for funding to offset costs associated with conducting feasibility studies that support the creation of meaningful and implementable plans to form or expand regional school districts.
New Jersey boards of education of local school districts, consolidated school districts, non-operating school districts, and boards of education of a limited purpose or all-purpose regional district are eligible for grant funding. Governing bodies of school districts that do not have a board of education, or a municipality constituting part of a consolidated school district, and the governing body of a municipality constituting a constituent district of a limited purpose or all-purpose regional district, are also eligible to receive SREP Grant funding.
The SREP Grant provides for reimbursement of costs associated with school district feasibility studies that support the creation of meaningful and implementable regionalization plans. Factors like enrollment, facility utilization, contiguous districts with small enrollment, existing send/receive relationships, administrative staffing, class size, diversity enhancement, debt and contractual obligations, faculty needs and attrition, and other factors will be evaluated.
In addition to SREP funds being available to boards of education and governing bodies seeking to conduct a feasibility study, the funds are also available to boards of education or governing bodies of two (2) or more school districts that are in the process of conducting a feasibility study or have conducted a feasibility study within two (2) years prior to the enactment of P.L. 2021 c. 402, on January 18, 2022, for which no prior reimbursement was provided, including Local Efficiency Achievement (LEAP) Grant funds. Eligible applicants shall provide an executed regionalization plan.
Program details, including application requirements and evaluation criteria, are set forth in the SREP Guidelines. Program Guidelines and funding levels will be reviewed annually and are subject to change with each funding cycle. All SREP applications must be submitted through the SAGE grants management system: https://dcasage.intelligrants.com/Portal.asp.
Priority will be given to K-12 regionalization and countywide school district proposals.
Application Deadline: The application submission deadline is 5:00 p.m. EST on May 30, 2025 for the application to be eligible for grant funding. Limited funding is available under the applicable FY 2025 appropriation and awards under FY 2025 funding cycle must be encumbered before June 30, 2025.
For further details please see Program Guidelines and Application:
FY2025 SREP Grant Program Guidelines
FY2025 SREP Grant Application - Supplemental Forms - Word
FY2025 SREP Grant Application - Supplemental Forms - PDF
FY2025 SREP Grant Press Release