FTC PA 2025-26 Season Blast #4 – Registration, PA Events and Google.org Grants

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Good day, Teams and Volunteers,

Welcome to the fourth 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 3 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

FTC Team Registration and Clearances:

 As you are likely aware, the new overall theme for all programs is FIRST AGESM presented by Qualcomm. Uncovering the Future. The FTC Challenge is aptly named DECODE™ Presented by RTX.

https://info.firstinspires.org/first-age

FTC Team REGISTRATION with FIRST opened Wed May 14th, 2025. Please go to the following link to either:

  1. Gain access to your current Dashboard login, or
  2. Registration instructions for Rookie (new) Teams
  3. Registration instructions for Veteran (returning) Teams
  4. 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.

Pennsylvania FTC Event Schedule and Registration:

 Our Pennsylvania regional Kick-offs will correspond with the official kickoff on Saturday, Sep 6th, 2025. We are planning 5 live kickoff locations again this season. Also note that we have already started posting EVENTS on our website including confirmed KICKOFF and QUALIFER locations and dates.

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.

If you have not visited our website lately, please do so. We plan on a total of 12 Qualifiers this season (vs. 10 last season) over 6 weekends and are still confirming some locations and dates. Eight of the 12 qualifiers are scheduled. This affords our teams and volunteers the visibility as to what is already confirmed. In general, we are moving the season timetable up one month with scrimmages starting in October (Ramp Riot) and our first Qualifier weekend in November (York). Please be sure to log into our website to see the links to the events. We will open the Live Kickoff registrations in mid-August. This season’s Qualifier Registrations will open on Saturday, Sep 20th, 2026.

https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2025-2026-season

 We also want to inform you, our coaches, mentors, parents and volunteers, that the FIRST Child and Youth Protection Services Department and their partner have taken responsibility for the logging, tracking and data protection for PA Act 153 clearances this season. For veteran teams and volunteers, the requirements should be nothing new to you as we have communicated and detailed the requirements on our on our volunteer page for many years.

https://www.ftcpenn.org/volunteer/youth-protection

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.

https://community.firstinspires.org/pennsylvania-and-california-clearances-staying-compliant-with-local-volunteer-requirements

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

We 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.

Google.org Grant Opportunities:

Pennsylvania FIRST Robotics is pleased and honored to administer grants on behalf of  sponsoring organizations. Pennsylvania FIRST Robotics and FIRST® are in alignment with these organizations as we seek educational partnerships to create skill-building learning experiences that enhance individual opportunity, specifically within STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and manufacturing workforce development.

The Google.org Grant is available to 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.

Eligibility Criteria

  • The Team must be located in Pennsylvania.
  • The Team must be registered through the FIRST® Registration Dashboard as FIRST Tech Challenge Team.
  • More than 50% of the team are middle school age students, AND
  • Meets one or more of the following:
    • 50% or more are from communities underrepresented in STEM, which includes Hispanic/Latino, Black/African American, and Indigenous youth
    • 50% or more are female
    • 50% or more are underserved based on low income. In the U.S. this is based on the % eligible for free and reduced lunch for the school or non-profit overall
    • 50% or more of the team’s students are in a Title 1 school
    • 50% or more of the team’s students are in rural areas. Reference the Pennsylvania Department of Education Urban-Centric and Metro-Centric Locale Codes Excel document (see the Pennsylvania Department of Education> Data and Reporting> School Locale webpage for details)

Grant Amounts:

Initial Grant: Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge rookie or veteran team: $4,000 + tuition for up to two (2) FIRST Certified Professional Development courses ($600 max / course).

Renewal Grant: Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge veteran team: $1500 + tuition for up to one (1) FIRST Certified Professional Development course ($600 max / course).

Additionally, both initial and renewal grants will pay the event registration fee for a Google.org grant recipient team advancing to the Pennsylvania State Championship, the FIRST Championship, or a FIRST Tech Challenge Premier Event.

Click here to apply for the Google.org Grant:

https://www.ftcpenn.org/team-grants

All the best and much 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