Federal grant puts $2.5 million toward better graduation rates

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United Way of Greenville County will receive $2.5 million over the next five years through the U.S. Department of Education’s Full-Service Community Schools grant program to support OnTrack Greenville, a collaborative effort to keep under-resourced youth on the path to high school graduation and post-secondary success. 

In partnership with Communities In Schools of Greenville, the Education Department grant will allow OnTrack Greenville to further its work within Greenville County Schools, including identifying and addressing barriers to success faced by many students and their families living in or near poverty, according to a news release. The grant will administer $500,000 per year to support the program. 

“This is a huge win for students in Greenville County, but especially for our most vulnerable children who are at greater risk of not finishing high school,” Meghan Barp, president and CEO of United Way of Greenville County, said in the news release. “This grant will allow us to continue building upon the great work already underway through OnTrack Greenville, and expand its reach to even more students and their families.”

Launched in 2015 in four Title I schools — Berea Middle, Lakeview Middle, Tanglewood Middle and Greenville Early College — OnTrack Greenville is a community initiative, the release said. 

Over the last five years, OnTrack Greenville has expanded its efforts within Greenville County Schools, utilizing a data-driven early warning response system to help match the right students to the right interventions at the right time, through a collaboration with community partners including Prisma Health, BellXcel, the Riley Institute at Furman University and Communities in Schools. Currently, OnTrack Greenville serves more than 2,200 middle school students, and nearly 800 high school students, the release said. 

“We’re excited about what this grant means for our program and our continued partnership with United Way of Greenville County and OnTrack Greenville,” Susi Smith, president and CEO of Communities in Schools of Greenville, said in the release. “It will allow our student support specialists to connect with more students, helping us and our partners to identify and remove barriers standing in the way of their success.”