State staff administering the Song Brown health workforce grants told applicants at a webinar that the 2025 application cycle for family nurse practitioner (FNP), physician assistant (PA) and certified nurse midwifery (CNM) programs is open and that applicants must submit by 3 p.m. Sept. 24 to be considered, with an optional early review if submitted by 3 p.m. Sept. 9.

"Song Brown's statutory priorities are graduating individuals to practice in medically underserved areas, enrolling members of underrepresented groups in medicine, locating the program's main training site in a medically underserved area, and operating a main training site at which most of the patients are Medi‑Cal recipients," said Charles Fost, program officer for Song Brown FNP/PA, summing up the program priorities shared at the webinar.

The Song Brown grants fund education and training intended to place primary care clinicians in underserved communities. The webinar, hosted on Microsoft Teams and recorded for later posting, walked applicants through the eApp registration, the required documentation and how applications are scored.

Applicants were told to register or re‑authenticate in the eApp early, use Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, and ensure that the organization profile information matches IRS records. Only users with the program director role can submit an application; program directors can grant preparers access but cannot delegate final submission authority. Applicants were advised to have accounting and signatory information ready because the grant agreement data are drawn directly from the eApp and must match IRS forms and the organization's W‑9.

The webinar highlighted required documents and data points: a current accreditation or approval letter (file name must begin with "appr_"), the NPI numbers for graduates, and payer‑mix and cumulative training‑hour data for up to five primary care training sites. "Training site data accounts for two‑thirds of the score of an FNP, PA and CNM application," Fost said, and applicants should collect payer‑mix information from each site's administrative office in advance.

Castanina Valt, the program director for CNM, reviewed two CNM‑specific fields: whether the program is approved to expand for academic year 2025–26 and a CNM expansion request field that allows applicants to request up to three expansion slots. She also explained the scoring: three equally weighted criteria of up to 25 points each (percent of graduates practicing in areas of unmet need; percent of main training sites in areas of unmet need; and average payer mix of main training sites), for a total of up to 75 points. Valt illustrated scoring with an example program and the arithmetic used to convert percentages into point scores.

Webinar presenters emphasized that only graduates practicing in California are scored and that applicants must enter graduate information one at a time in the eApp. Once an application is submitted and certified in the portal, it cannot be edited.

Presenters also reviewed usability tips: the eApp requires using the "Save and Next" button to save progress, the "Previous" button is the only way to navigate back, required fields are marked with a red asterisk, and tooltips are available on many fields. Approving a new organization in the system can take up to five days, so new organizations should register well before the deadline.

Resources and technical assistance materials — including grant guides, a technical assistance guide with screenshots, and links to the NPI registry and HCAI geolocator — were posted in the webinar chat. The recording and materials will be posted on the agency website in about seven to 10 business days, presenters said. For questions about individual situations, staff asked applicants to email the Song Brown mailbox shown in the webinar.

There were no formal actions, votes or policy changes at the webinar; it was informational. Presenters repeatedly urged applicants to use the Sept. 9 early submission review so staff could flag missing or inconsistent information before the Sept. 24 final close.

Applicants should prepare: accreditation/approval letters, accurate IRS/W‑9/STD‑204 signatory information, NPI numbers for graduates, payer‑mix data from each main training site, and the program director account permissions required to submit. The webinar closed with reminders of the Sept. 9 early review and the Sept. 24 final deadline and instructions to consult the posted technical assistance guide and contact staff by email with detailed questions.