The Eight Steps are:
- Select any school/schools, as a Qualified Zone Academy.
- Once the Qualified Zone Academy is established, determine projects’ scope (anything except new construction).
- Once the size and scope of school projects are determined, locate a “Qualified Contributor,” a business partner, to supply a 10% matching grant.
- With steps 1-3 completed, the state department of education should be notified and a request for allocation submitted.
- Get an allocation from the state department of education
- Get the QZAB program approved by the local government if required.
- After the QZAB allocation has been approved, the school district must locate a “Qualified Buyer” (bank, insurance company etc.) who is willing to take the debt and a Federal tax credit instead of an interest check.
- Issue the QZAB to the qualified buyer and secure QZAB funds.
Note: The total cost of issuing the QZAB bonds cannot exceed 2% of the QZAB bond proceeds, as per Federal Treasury Department’s QZAB regulations.
For more information see: Frequently Asked Questions | Eligibility | Steps | News Archive