Good day, Teams and Volunteers,
Welcome to the sixth email blast for the upcoming PA FIRST Tech Challenge Season. Please liberally and broadly share this email with your parents, students, friends, co-workers and acquaintances in and outside of the FIRST robotics community.
Also, if you missed our first 5 blasts of the season, please go to our Communications page to reference Announcements and Archive Emails for this and all past seasons.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/communications
Special Note: Monday, August 25, 2025: MAINTENANCE WINDOW.
All FIRST HQ portals, including Dashboard and VMS, will NOT be accessible on Monday, August 25th for maintenance and updates. All systems reopen Tuesday morning with a new log-in experience in place. These updates do not affect your access to PA FTC sites as referenced below.
Registration for Live Kickoffs and Scrimmages now open
Pennsylvania regional Live Kick-offs correspond with the official FIRST FTC kickoff on Saturday, Sep 6th, 2025. There are 5 locations again this season. Live kick-offs are in addition to the Virtual kick-off broadcast we are planning that can be attended by all teams and will also be webcast to the in-person events. The advantage to attending a live one…there will be a field with the DECODE™ challenge set up to augment the season and game experience at the in-person events. We also have two (2) Scrimmages scheduled so far and expect to add more, as well as workshops. Again, please go to our Event page for details and start planning your team’s schedule of events.
Registration opened for Kick Offs, Scrimmages and Workshops on Monday, Aug 18th, 2026. To register:
https://www.ftcpenn.org/event-registration
Events:
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2025-2026-season
NEW! PDE Grant Opportunity
Dear Philadelphia Robotics Coaches,
Philadelphia FIRST Robotics has secured a $200,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to support Philadelphia school-based FTC and FRC teams in the 2025–2026 season. Eligible teams can apply for $1–1.5k (FTC) or $5–7k (FRC) in funding to cover parts, registration, travel, and other expenses, while teacher-coaches of funded teams may receive stipends of $2–3k (FTC) or $5–8k (FRC). Applications are due Sept. 5 (FTC) and Sept. 30 (FRC). Additional funds are also available on a rolling basis for coach training and professional development. Read details and apply at ftcpenn.org/team-grants. Direct question to grants.pde@pennfirst.org.
Google.org Grant Opportunities:
As was communicated in previous emails, the Google.org Grant is still available to Middle School aged and based Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge Teams that meet the team composition criteria defined by Google.org. Grant funds are limited and are distributed on a first come, first served basis. Please go to the following link for more detailed information:
https://www.ftcpenn.org/team-grants
Pennsylvania FTC Event Season Schedule
Our 2025-2026 DECODE competition season schedule is completed and is posted on our website! Note that we added a sixth weekend of Qualifiers and are now up to 12 which will open more slots and enhance a team’s chances of getting into 2 or more Qualifiers.
Please go to our event website for dates, agendas and full details.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2025-2026-season
Reminder – Qualifier Registration will open Saturday, Sep 20th, 2026, at 8:00 AM
FTC FIRST Team Registration and Clearances – Repeated
The FTC Challenge DECODE™ Presented by RTX is underway. We currently have 56 Teams registered.
https://info.firstinspires.org/first-age
FTC Team REGISTRATION with FIRST opened Wed May 14th, 2025. Please go to the following link to either:
- Gain access to your current Dashboard login, or
- Registration instructions for Rookie (new) Teams
- Registration instructions for Veteran (returning) Teams
- Payment Terms.
Please join us for the 2025-2026 season and, as you all know how, encourage, invite, and assist new teams to join us in the challenge and fun that is FIRST Tech Challenge.
Regarding Coach and Volunteer Clearances specific to PA Residents: On June 17th, FIRST also sent out a Blog explaining the requirements as well as providing links to obtain your clearances. If you have not seen it, please reference the Blog and know that you will need to provide additional PA information as a requirement when registering your team as a Coach, Mentor or Parent as well as event Volunteer.
There is also a new section available on the YPP webpage where volunteers and PDPs can find all the materials pertaining to the local state requirements for California and Pennsylvania.
https://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/youth-protection-policy
e at Pennsylvania FIRST Robotics have been requiring and collecting this important information since 2014. If you are interested in OPTing IN for us to share the clearances information we already have on record with FIRST, please let us know. Note that applicable PA Clearances are good for a 5-year period.
All the best and more to come.
Tom and the FTC Planning Team
Pennsylvania FIRST® Robotics
FIRST Tech Challenge® Program Delivery Partner
phone: (302) 383-9925
email: ftc@pennfirst.org
Website: www.FTCPenn.org