Public Safety Officers’ Educational Assistance

Program goal(s) name: Higher education financial assistance
Program goal(s) description: Provide financial assistance for higher education to the spouses and children of public safety officers killed or injured in line of duty.
Program objective(s) name: Provide financial assistance for higher education to eligible spouses and children of public safety officers permanently and totally disabled by catastrophic injuries sustained in the line of duty.
Program objective(s) description: Under the PSOEA Program, the families of state and local police, fire, and emergency public safety officers are covered for line-of-duty deaths that occurred on or after January 1, 1978. The families of federal law enforcement officers and firefighters are covered for line of duty deaths occurring on or after January 1, 1978. The effective date for families of permanently and totally disabled Federal law enforcement officers is October 3, 1996. Families of state, local, and tribal police, fire, and emergency public safety officers are covered for line-of-duty permanent and totally disabling injuries that occurred on or after November 13, 1998. Families of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) personnel and state, local, and tribal emergency management and civil defense agency employees are covered for such injuries sustained on or after October 30, 2000. Families of certain National Disaster Medical System appointees (described in more detail below) are covered for injuries sustained on or after June 24, 2019, and before October 1, 2021; coverage for the families of Department of Energy employees or contractors serving as a nuclear materials courier or as a member of an emergency response team (described in more detail below) applies to injuries occurring on or after January 21, 2021.

All final award decisions will be made by the Assistant Attorney General, unless a statute explicitly authorizes award decisions by another official or there is written delegation of authority to another official. For successful applicants, JustGrants will send a system-generated email to the Application Submitter, Authorized Representative, and Entity Administrator with information on accessing their official award package in JustGrants. The award package will include key information (such as funding amount and period of performance) as well as award conditions that must be followed. The Authorized Representative for the entity should accept or decline the award within 45 days of the notification.

The review procedure for applications is specified in the notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) and generally includes eligibility and responsiveness, merit, programmatic, budget, and risk reviews.