Big Yellow School Bus is sponsored by State of Rhode Island. provides grants of up to $500 to support arts learning in the school. To qualify for this funding, schools must plan an in-person arts and culture field trip with an arts and culture organization in R Category: Education.

Big Yellow School Bus | RISCA Currently closed for School Year 2025-2026 Big Yellow School Bus (BYSB) provides grants of up to $500 to support arts learning in the school. To qualify for this funding, schools must plan an in-person arts and culture field trip with an arts and culture organization in Rhode Island. Award Amount: Up to $500 to support the cost of field trip.

Who can apply: Rhode Island schools or school-affiliated non-profits organizations (e.g., PTO/PTA, diocese). Grant Opens: Sept. 1 with a rolling deadline.

Grant Closes: April 15 or until all funds are awarded. Schools may apply for grants of up to $500 to support in-person arts and cultural field trips. Field trips must take place at a Rhode Island arts or cultural organization.

This program does not fund field trips to see touring productions of non-Rhode Island based artists or arts groups. Field trip activities need to take place by June 30. Maximum of two BYSB grants may be awarded per school per school year.

Receiving a Big Yellow School Bus Grant does NOT preclude a school from applying to other RISCA grant programs in the same year (e.g., PGO/PGE/AHG). Applications will be reviewed on a first come, first-served basis. Incomplete applications may be returned to you.

When they are re-submitted to RISCA, they will go to the back of the line and will be processed in the order in which the completed application is received. BYSB grants are awarded to schools or school-affiliated non-profits organizations (e.g., PTO/PTA, diocese). This is a reimbursement grant for the grantee (which is the school or school-affiliated non-profit organization).

The grantee is responsible for paying field trip admission fees and/or transportation costs to the appropriate organization or company. The BYSB grant cannot make payments to the arts and culture organization or the bus or transportation company.

If awarded a BYSB grant, payment is sent to the authorized school vendor* (e.g., school department or city or town or school-affiliated non-profit organization) and will be initiated at or near the end of the school year, often after the field trip has taken place. Once payment is initiated, disbursement of funds may take up to 8-12 weeks.

Note: Although the school may be the “grantee” as defined above, the grant will be paid to the authorized school vendor. For example, a BYSB grant awarded to a Providence public elementary school will be paid to Providence Public School District (the authorized school vendor). After the grant has been paid to the school vendor (e.g., school department or city or town), the school can request the funds from the school vendor, as needed.

*An authorized school vendor has been approved with the state of Rhode Island Ocean State Procures (OSP) system. Payments are only processed once active vendor status with OSP system is confirmed. Application Deadline and Notification The grant will remain open until April 15 or until all funds are awarded.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis in the order they were received. Notification about your application status will be sent by email via the online grant portal. Questions about your grant?

Please contact the RISCA Grants Program Manager. How to become a State of Rhode Island Vendor How to become a State of Rhode Island Vendor: Ocean State Procures (OSP) Ocean State Procures (OSP) is the State of Rhode Island’s eProcurement system currently in use for vendor registration, solicitations, and awards.

Any entity—including grant recipients—getting paid by the state, for goods, services, or as part of a grant award must register in this system. Use the OSP Vendor Self-Registration Guide for complete details on how to fully register and create a login to access your secure Vendor Portal. To become a vendor with the state, there is a two-step registration process before your account can be approved.

First create your vendor profile and then once that is confirmed, upload your signed W-9. Note: If your address changes, you will need to resubmit a W-9 for approval. RISCA does not have access to the OSP system, so we are not able to assist you with this process or see if you have been approved.

Note: This is a two-step process. Create Vendor Profile. After completing Vendor Self-Registration Guide Submit Registration, your login credentials and the login link will be emailed to you with the subject line: Welcome to WebProcure.

Upload W-9. Once you have registered (including uploading a W-9) and been approved by OSP, we can process your award payment. Need help?

For questions related to OSP registration, contact WebProcure Technical Support at 1-866-889-8533 or webprocure. support@perfect. com .

After you register as a vendor, it’s possible you will receive emails from the system about various procurement opportunities. These are related to the industry you selected when you registered and are essentially calls for various services the state is seeking. Application Questions (pdf) Proceed to Online Application