Creating Inclusive Communities: Healthcare – Dental

Target Area: Healthcare – Dental

2026 Competitive Grant Program Request for Proposals (RFP)
(Awards to begin January 15, 2026)

The Virginia Board for People with Disabilities (the Board) is the Commonwealth’s Developmental Disabilities (DD) Council. The Board’s mission is to advance opportunities for independence, personal decision-making and full participation in community life for individuals with developmental and other disabilities. The Board’s grant and contractual investments are designed to advance its mission and support the tenets of full inclusion by working with organizations at the local, state, and national levels to achieve our goals.

Overview and Purpose

Through this RFP, the Board seeks to support local, regional, or statewide efforts that provide financial, educational, and/or other resources to dental care professionals in Virginia so they can improve their accessibility to people with developmental and other disabilities. Projects should be designed to achieve capacity building and/or systems change. Projects should also be culturally and linguistically competent. See the “Definitions” section later for information on how the Board defines these terms. To view past grants, go to: Grants Highlights. The Board encourages innovative proposals, based on promising or best practices.

Projects That Will be Considered for Funding

Applications must address the below target area. View the Board’s State Plan for more information about target areas. The Board is asking applicants to develop a grant project that meets the specified State Plan activity, using your expertise and creativity that will achieve the Board’s desired outcomes.

Target Area

Description

Healthcare – Dental

State Plan Activity: To provide financial, educational, and/or other resources to dental professionals in Virginia so they can improve their accessibility to people with developmental and other disabilities. State Plan Objective: By October 2026, the Board will support culturally and linguistically competent initiatives that increase the ability of Virginians with developmental disabilities to access healthcare. State Plan Goal: By October 2026, more Virginians with developmental disabilities and their families, reflecting the state’s geographic and cultural diversity, will have increased ability to access services and supports that enable health and safety.

Background

Many dental professionals are not able or willing to serve people with developmental disabilities for two key reasons. First, many dental professionals have not been educated enough about this population through dental school or continuing education. Second, dental professionals incur extra costs that are not fully reimbursed when they treat people with developmental disabilities. Extra costs include longer appointment times, other accommodations like interpreters, and sedation and anesthesia.

While this is a national problem, it appears to be worse in Virginia than most other states. 67% of Virginians with developmental disabilities who received state services had a dental exam in the past year, according to the 2023-24 National Core Indicators. Only two of the 30 states that collected this data had a lower rate. Virginia’s goal is 86%, according to a permanent injunction with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Access to dental care for Virginians with developmental disabilities has been improving in recent years, thanks to several initiatives underway. For example, Virginia added comprehensive dental coverage for adults in Medicaid in 2021 and created a Medicaid dental case management program in 2022. The Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services’ Dental Program has been providing referrals and mobile services to people with developmental disabilities who can’t find dental care elsewhere. The Virginia Department of Health and the Delta Dental of Virginia Foundation have partnered to develop Centers for Inclusive Dentistry throughout the Commonwealth. The Board hopes to build upon this momentum with this RFP.

For more information, see the Board’s 2023 “Assessment of the Accessibility of Dental Care,” the 2022 report by the National Council on Disability called “Medicaid Oral Health Coverage for Adults with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities – A Fiscal Analysis,” and the 2022 report by the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services called “A Review of Medicaid and FAMIS Dental Benefits to Determine Any Issues Related to Access.”

Preferred Activities

The Board is interested in projects that increase the ability and willingness of dental providers in Virginia to serve people with developmental disabilities. The ultimate goal is to increase access to dental care for people with developmental disabilities. Projects should be sustainable after Board funding ends.

Examples of preferred activities are listed below. Other avenues will be considered if they meet the Board’s desired outcomes. All project activities will be conducted in consultation with staff to the Board and subject to periodic approvals based on the needs of the organization.

1. Example: Provide training to public or private dental office staff on how to better serve people with developmental disabilities. Topics could include but are not limited to the following:

• What developmental disabilities are and related treatment implications
• The need and responsibility to serve this population
• Administrative considerations including accessibility, scheduling, and Medicaid reimbursement
• Behavior management techniques, person-centered practices, and trauma-informed care
• Minimally invasive dentistry
• Case studies
• Accommodations to support oral hygiene for people with developmental disabilities.

Projects should consider all relevant dental office staff including administrative staff, dental assistants, dental hygienists, and dentists. Participating providers should commit to serving people with developmental disabilities during the active project period and after funding ends if possible.

2. Example: Assess the accessibility of public or private dental offices for Virginians with developmental disabilities, provide funding for accessibility improvements, and provide technical assistance to dental office staff on how to use new equipment and/or implement new policies and procedures. Accessibility includes the following:

• Physical accessibility: The dental office is physically accessible to people with mobility issues. Examples include parking lots, office buildings, rooms including exam rooms and restrooms, and equipment like dental chairs.
• Communications accessibility: Dental office staff communicate in an accessible way with people who have intellectual or sensory disabilities. Examples include plain language, large print, interpreters, websites that meet accessibility standards like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and augmentative and alternative communication.
• Programmatic accessibility: The dental office has policies and practices that support the inclusion of people with developmental disabilities. Examples include conducting an in-person assessment before the dental professional determines his or her ability to treat the patient, longer appointment times, shorter wait times and/or alternative waiting rooms, flexible arrival times for patients who use transportation services, sensory items, allowing support staff and/or service animals in the exam room, and more frequent breaks.

Projects should consider providing technical assistance to all relevant dental office staff including administrative staff, dental assistants, dental hygienists, and dentists. Participating providers should commit to serving people with developmental disabilities during the active project period and after funding ends if possible.

3. Example: Research ways to reduce the financial impact on dental providers in Virginia who provide sedation and/or non-sedation services to people with developmental disabilities. The project should produce a concise and well-written policy report that identifies concrete promising or best practices nationwide, assesses their impact and feasibility in Virginia, and makes related policy recommendations for Virginia. Potential research topics can include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Medicaid reimbursement rates, including the rate levels and structure
• Other financial incentives
• Ways to support more cost-effective prevention and treatment options like minimally invasive dentistry

For projects in which there will be direct benefit to individuals, at least 60% of the target population that will benefit from the grant must be persons with Developmental Disabilities (DD).

What We Will Not Fund

This RFP will not support the following:

• Existing projects or services that are a part of an organization’s current program or budget unless the grant program will expand upon the project or service;
• Projects that would supplant or replace existing federal, state, or local dollars to conduct the project;
• Projects which have a federal, state or local mandate to be delivered by the applicant organization;
• Projects which include capital expenditures for the acquisition of land or buildings, new construction or major repair.
• Projects that take place in restrictive, isolated, or segregated settings that do not promote community integration for children or adults with disabilities.
• Projects that do not effectively demonstrate cultural and linguistic competence through established organizational policies, structures, procedures and practices.

Available Grant Funds

The Board may fund up to $200,000 to one organization for the current grant cycle. The Board may award all or a portion of available funds. The Board may choose not to award grant funds if budget limitations are encountered or if it determines that none of the grant proposals will achieve the desired systemic change. Grant periods are typically 18 – 24 months, however, shorter or longer periods may be considered. The selected grantee will be required to submit an annual renewal application for multi-year projects, in order to demonstrate project outcomes prior to receiving funds for the following year.

The selected grantee is required to contribute a minimum match (cash or in-kind) of 25 percent of total project costs (grant funds + match). Federal funds cannot be used as match. Please see the Grants Manual for information on match requirements.

Entities with a federally negotiated Indirect Cost Rate (ICR) agreement may elect to charge indirect costs to the project and a copy of the ICR agreement must be included with the application. Board staff will review the ICR agreement to determine the most appropriate cost rate. Entities that do not have a negotiated cost rate agreement may elect to charge a de minimis rate of 10 percent of modified total direct costs (MTDC definition can be found in the Grants Manual). In light of the Board’s limited funds availability, applicants are strongly encouraged to use indirect costs towards the minimum match requirement.

Application Submission Process

The review of proposals will be completed as listed in the below table. Eligible applicants may submit a Proposal application which will be reviewed and scored by the Board’s Grant Review Team (GRT). Final awards will be made after the review of all proposal applications. Key dates are listed below.

Application Activities	Key Dates
Technical Assistance for Proposal submission	October 3, 2025
Proposal applications due	November 3, 2025, by 4 p.m. ET
Notification of funding decisions	December 12, 2025
Earliest possible project start date	January 15, 2026

The Board only accepts grant applications submitted electronically through the performance management and government resource planning site called DD Suite.

In order to submit a Proposal Application, applicants must first register with DD Suite to create an account. Please allow sufficient time to complete your account registration. If you experience any difficulties with registration, please see the DD Suite technical assistance page.

Proposal Applications must be received electronically in the DD Suite system by 4 p.m. ET on or before the due date listed in the above table. Late submissions will not be accepted for any reason.

All submission requirements can be found in the Grants Manual. Be sure to review the Grants Manual prior to submission of a proposal. In addition, all required reports and other documents should be submitted to the Board in Microsoft Word format.

Proposal applications should contain clear and concise information on the following:

• Coversheet
• Abstract
• Budget
  • Budget Justification Narrative
  • Budget Form
  • Quarterly Activity Timeline & Expenditure Projections
• Narrative (max 20 double-spaced pages)
  • Applicant Profile
  • Cultural and Linguistic Competence
  • Target Population
  • Involvement of Individuals with DD & Families in Project Development
  • Collaboration
  • Systems Change & Capacity Building
  • Sustainability
  • Work Plan: Project Goal, Objectives, Activities, Outputs, Outcomes, and Stories
  • Strength of Evidence*
  • Evaluation Plan

*Strength of Evidence: Describe in detail the evidence-based model/approach you have chosen and why it was selected for your project, i.e., what is the evidence that supports your approach.

Review and Scoring of Applications

Each Proposal will be date and time stamped upon electronic receipt. Late proposals will not be reviewed. After a review for technical completeness, the GRT will review all proposals. Within the dollar amount available, the highest scoring proposals will be recommended to the Board for funding. Cut off scores are at the discretion of the GRT. A project Work Plan (see page 21 in the Grants Manual for required elements) must be developed and clearly demonstrate how the proposed activities align with the Board’s Goals and Objectives.

Full Proposal Scoring	Points
Applicant Profile	5 pts
Alignment with the Board’s Goals and Objectives**	10 pts
Cultural and Linguistic Competence	5 pts
Target Population	5 pts
Involvement of Individuals with DD and Families in Project Development, Implementation and Evaluation	6 pts
Collaboration	6 pts
Systems Change & Capacity Building	5 pts
Sustainability	8 pts
Work Plan: Project Goal, Objectives, Activities, Outputs, Outcomes and Stories	20 pts
Strength of Evidence	7 pts
Evaluation Plan	8 pts
Budget	10 pts
Bonus Points (projects with statewide reach)	5 pts
Total Possible Points	100 pts

**Alignment with the Board’s State Plan Goals and Objectives – In order to achieve the intended outcome(s), it is crucial for an intended grant project to align with the Goals and Objectives from the Board’s 5-Year State Plan. Proposals which do not clearly align may not be recommended for funding by the Board’s Grant Review Team (GRT).

Evaluation Requirements

Applicants must identify outputs and outcomes that the applicant will report on for each proposed work plan activity, to the extent possible. For information on the difference between outputs and outcomes, see the Grants Manual and tip sheets on the Board’s grants webpage. Applicants must identify quantifiable targets for each output and outcome to the extent possible (e.g., 20 people with disabilities trained, at least 15 of whom have a developmental disability; 80% of project participants report increased knowledge).

Applicants must also demonstrate to the Board that they have the organizational capacity to collect and report the required data. If the applicant’s evaluation capacity is limited, the applicant should consider allocating up to 10-15% of their proposed budget to external evaluation support. Board staff can provide general guidance about what needs to be collected, and potential collection methods, but do not have the resources to provide substantial support with designing and administering evaluation tools. For information on best practices in survey design that could help with data collection, see the tip sheets on the Board’s grants webpage.

Applicants must also collect demographic data for project participants with developmental disabilities and their family members, to the extent possible. The required demographic data currently includes race/ethnicity, geographical location, and gender (see tables below), but is subject to change based on federal guidance. Demographic information for other project participants is also welcome but not required. The Board’s grants webpage has a tip sheet on how to collect the required demographic information.

Race/Ethnicity
American Indian or Alaska Native
Asian
Black or African American
Hispanic/Latino or Latina
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
White
Two or more races
Other race or ethnicity
Do not know or do not want to answer the question
I prefer to describe myself

Geographic Location
Rural
Urban
Do not know or do not want to answer the question

Gender
Female
Male
Other
Do not know or do not want to answer the question
I prefer to describe myself

For successful applicants, Board staff will use the applicant’s proposal and federal guidance to identify federal performance measures and other required impact data that the applicant must report on. The federal performance measures highlight select outputs and outcomes that are of interest to the Board’s federal funders. Board staff reserve the right to require successful applicants to collect data that is not included in the grantee’s original proposal but that Board staff deem necessary to demonstrate project impact, based on federal guidance.

Reporting Requirements

All grantees will be required to submit quarterly and final programmatic and financial progress reports. Grantees also will be expected to track and share aggregated data about their projects and participants. Reporting deadlines and requirements will be included in the award letter and contract. In some circumstances, the Board may require monthly programmatic and/or financial reporting. In addition, some grantees may be required to provide post grant reporting and more frequent reports may be required in certain circumstances.

The Board requires that the selected grantee provide (in the quarterly program reports, final report, or at other times as requested) stories about people with developmental and other disabilities and their families whose lives have improved as a result of grant activities. Examples of the types of stories (who, what, when, where and why) the Board is looking for may include: how someone became more independent because they obtained employment, housing, or transportation; how someone became more connected to their community as a result of opportunities provided through the grant; or how someone was able to remain in the community vs. being institutionalized. The privacy of program participants must be protected at all times.

Definitions

Cultural competence: The National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) at Georgetown University defines culture as “…a system of collectively held values, beliefs, and practices of a group which guides the thinking and actions in patterned ways.” The Board considers cultural competence to include the following: the organization has defined values, principles and policies that demonstrate that (1) diversity and differences are valued; (2) the organization is able to work effectively across cultures and adapt to the cultural context of the communities being served; (3) the organization recognizes the importance of cultural sensitivity towards the target audience; and (4) it is able to incorporate these values, principles and policies in each aspect of policy-making, administration, practice, service delivery and systematically involve consumers, families and community members.

Linguistic competence: The NCCC defines linguistic competence as “…the capacity of an organization and its personnel to communicate effectively, and convey information in a manner that is easily understood by diverse groups including persons of limited English proficiency, those who have low literacy skills or are not literate, individuals experiencing disabilities, and those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Linguistic competence requires organizational and provider capacity to respond effectively to the health and mental health literacy needs of populations served. The organization must have policies, structures, practices, procedures, and dedicated resources to support this capacity.” (citation)

Developmental disability: Developmental disability (DD), as defined in federal law, is a severe, chronic, often lifelong disability that causes substantial limitations in several major life activities such as self-care, receptive and expressive language, learning, mobility, self-direction, the capacity for independent living, and economic self-sufficiency. It is attributable to a mental, emotional, sensory, and/or physical impairment that is apparent before the age of twenty-two. People with developmental disabilities often need a combination of special services, support, and other assistance that is likely to continue indefinitely.

Capacity building: Expand and/or improve the ability of individuals with developmental disabilities, families, supports, services and/or systems to promote, support and enhance self-determination, independence, productivity and inclusion in community life.

Systems change: Transform fragmented approaches into a coordinated and effective system which ensures that individuals with DD and their families participate in the design of, and have access to, needed community services, individualized supports, and other assistance that promote self-determination, independence, productivity, and integration and inclusion in all facets of community life.

FAQs