FTC PA 2025-26 Season Blast #5 – PA Season Events, Registration Schedule and Google.org Grants

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Good day, Teams and Volunteers,

Welcome to the fifth 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 4 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

Pennsylvania FTC Event Season Schedule now Posted

 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. We have also scheduled 2 weekends (4 Qualifiers) in Western PA thanks to Seneca Valley High School FTC and their robotics clubs. Another change is that we are moving our traditional Philadelphia-based events just north to Bensalem High School where we can easily add capacity to 40 teams and have the support of their large FIRST Community of teams in all three programs as well as FIRST Mid-Atlantic volunteer base. We are revisiting past site hists for the remainder of the events, including the PA Championship in Saucon Valley, March 14th and 15th, 2026.

Please go to our event website for dates, agendas and full details.

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

Also scheduled are our Pennsylvania regional Live Kick-offs which will correspond with the official 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 teams schedule of events..

Registration Open dates:

  • Kick Offs, Scrimmages and Workshops:
  • Monday, Aug 18th, 2026. Time: TBD
  • Qualifiers:
  • Saturday, Sep 20th, 2026, at 8:00 AM

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

 FTC FIRST Team Registration and Clearances:

 As you should now be 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.

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.

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:

As was detailed in our last email, 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

We will begin processing the grants and reviewing for eligibility this coming week, however, grant funds will remain available throughout the season until the funds are exhausted.

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