SMART FY 19 Adam Walsh Act Implementation Grant Program | SMART 2019 14905

Opportunity Information: Apply for SMART 2019 14905

The SMART FY 19 Adam Walsh Act (AWA) Implementation Grant Program is a U.S. Department of Justice discretionary grant opportunity intended to help jurisdictions build, improve, and sustain the systems and practices needed to meet the requirements of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). At its core, SORNA requires every state, the District of Columbia, the major U.S. territories, and participating federally recognized tribes to operate a sex offender registry, and it requires individuals who qualify as sex offenders to register and keep their registration current in each place where they live, work, or attend school. The grant is designed to support the practical work behind those obligations, including policies, procedures, technology, staffing, and coordination that make registration and notification systems function consistently and effectively.

The solicitation emphasizes that SORNA is not just about having a registry in name, but about meeting specific national standards for what information must be collected and maintained, how often offenders must update their registration, how long registration must last based on offender tiering, and how jurisdictions share information with each other and with the public. It specifically highlights participation in the National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW), which is the national public-facing search site that links state, territorial, and tribal registry information, and it also points to use of the SORNA Exchange Portal, which is intended to facilitate information sharing and coordination across jurisdictions. In other words, the program targets both the internal mechanics of registry management and the outward-facing interoperability and transparency pieces that support public safety and cross-border tracking.

For FY 2019, the grant is organized around three main focus areas. First, it supports maintaining and enhancing substantial implementation of SORNA in states, territories, and tribal jurisdictions that are already working toward, or have achieved, substantial implementation and need resources to keep systems current, address gaps, improve data quality, or strengthen ongoing compliance-related activities. Second, it provides support for SORNA-related activities at the county level in states that have implemented SORNA, recognizing that many day-to-day registration and verification tasks are carried out by county or local agencies and that effective implementation often depends on resourcing and aligning those local operations with statewide standards. Third, it supports implementation and integration of the Sex Offender Registry Tool (SORT), a technology solution intended to help jurisdictions manage registry information more effectively and align data collection and workflows with SORNA requirements, including better integration and exchange of information.

Administratively, this opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number SMART 2019 14905) is offered as a grant under the law, justice, and legal services category (CFDA 16.750). Eligible applicants include state governments, county governments, and federally recognized Native American tribal governments, with additional eligibility details referenced in the solicitation text. The program was posted February 15, 2019, with an original closing date of April 18, 2019. Awards were anticipated to be competitive, with an expected 75 awards and a maximum award ceiling of $400,000 per grant, indicating that the funding is meant to enable targeted implementation work rather than large-scale, multi-year overhauls.

Overall, the grant opportunity is best understood as implementation support for jurisdictions responsible for sex offender registration and notification: strengthening the legal and operational framework behind registries, improving the accuracy and completeness of required data, ensuring appropriate registration frequency and duration practices are followed, and expanding the ability of jurisdictions to share and publish registry information through national systems like NSOPW and through standardized exchange mechanisms. By focusing on states, territories, tribes, and counties, the program aims to reinforce SORNA implementation from top-level statewide or tribal policy and technology decisions down to the local agencies that carry out registration, verification, updates, and enforcement in practice.

• The Department of Justice, Department of Justice in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "SMART FY 19 Adam Walsh Act Implementation Grant Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.750.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 15, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 18, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $400,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 75 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for SMART 2019 14905

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