The Federal Public Charter Schools Program (PSCP) supports the planning, development, and initial implementation of charter schools. Grants awarded under this program are discretionary competitive grants. Grantees receive up to three years of assistance, of which the charter school may use not more than 18 months for planning and program design and not more than 2 years for the initial implementation of the charter school. State education agencies (SEAs) may compete for these grants if there is a charter school law in place in their state. SEAs that receive this grant in turn award subgrants to successful eligible applicants with in their state. In addition, non-SEA eligible applicants may apply for funding directly from the U.S. Department of Education if the SEA in the state elects not to participate in the PSCP or does not have an application approved under the program.

Tennessee is currently disbursing funds to subgrantees under its original PSCP grant. However, the state has not been awarded a new CSP grant. The SEA does plan to file a new application at the next available opportunity. Charter schools may also wish to apply directly to the U.S. Department of Education for these funds at the same time. If in the application review process it does not appears that the SEA will be awarded a grant, then the USDOE will review individual charter school applications submitted from that state.