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FLL Blog: OSPI Update

by | May 20, 2025 | FLL, FLL Challenge

2025 – 2026 OSPI FIRST Washington Grant Update

Action Requested:  After reading the note below, please take a moment to complete this very short [survey] by Friday, May 23 to help us understand the impact of the funding loss—and whether you may need support or be able to offer assistance to others.

 

Hello Teams,

 Thank you to everyone who reached out to your State Senators and Congress Members, advocating for continued OSPI funding in the new State Budget. Your efforts are deeply appreciated.

Unfortunately, the current budget being reviewed at the Governor’s office includes no OSPI funding for Teams this upcoming season- meaning that the $1.475 million dollars from OSPI distributed to FIRST Washington teams and events last year is not available for the upcoming season.

That’s the tough news- but definitely not the end of the story.

 

Leadership at FIRST Washington is committed to the following:

  • Maintaining the number of students/teams who engage and participate in the FIRST Washington community and the competitive events hosted during the season- last season this was 10,500 students
  • Maintaining the excellent customer experience levels for Students, Teams, Coaches, Mentors, and Volunteers
  • Identifying what can be done in the short term to replace the OSPI funding 

 

We are currently assessing all available assets and cost saving measures and have also developed a robust fund-raising strategy for our upcoming Fiscal Year and season.

 Ensuring Teams have the resources needed for another successful season will require an all-hands effort and partnership with the entire FIRST Community- Volunteers, Mentors, Coaches, Schools, Corporate Donors, Foundations, and Individual Donors.

 

Here are a few next steps:

  1. Let us know if the loss of OSPI funding may prevent your school from participating in FIRST programs next year thorough the survey link above.
  2. Start planning and budgeting now for the 2025–2026 season – explore creative fundraising opportunities over the summer and identify any alternative funding that may be available within your school district- if applicable.
  3. Begin brainstorming ways our community can support one another—sharing fundraising strategies, offering mentorship, or other collaborative efforts.

 

We are reaching out not only to public school teams, but also to our community-based teams. Your experiences with self-funding and community support may offer valuable insights for school-based teams facing these new challenges.

We’ll continue to communicate in the coming weeks as we look for ways to move forward together. We are incredibly grateful to be part of such a dedicated and resilient community.

 

Thank you for all you do,

 Adrienne Collins,

Director of Programs, FIRST Washington

FLL Submerged Blog: Volume 20

by | Feb 18, 2025 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore

In this weeks Blog-

FLL Challenge

Invitational drawing results! 

FLL Explore

Apply for the World Festival Lottery! 

Spring Event Details

Make sure you read the entire blog!

Season Info

Congratulations Challenge teams!

The drawing results for the remaining Open Invitational spots –

Massachusetts- 2 spots (June 13-15, 2025)

  • 56913 Cr8ively Cool
  • 62941 Marcus Whitman Challenge 1 Dino Nuggys

Florida- 2 spots (June 24-28, 2025)

  • 24790 Roarin’ Robotics Gray
  • 58650 Odyssey Dragons

New Jersey- 3 spots (May 17-18, 2025)

  • 41332 Robotic Dogs
  • 65017 Evergreen eagles
  • 36444 Parkway Pizzazz

Greece- 1 spot (May 2-4, 2025)

  • 69216 Tyee MarineX

Teams will be submitted to the events later today. If you can no longer attend, please let me know asap!

 

 

 

FLL Explore World Festival Lottery

Registered Explore teams interested in attending World Festival in Houston are eligible to fill out this form to apply for the lottery.

I have 1 spot available, and will be drawing a team from the teams that apply at random.

You must be registered and paid with FIRST Inspires and FIRST Washington to be eligible.

This form will close on Sunday 2/23. The drawing will be held on 2/24. The team will be notified by end of day 2/25.

All logistics and expenses are the responsibility of the team attending. Please make sure you check with the other coaches and parents before applying.

 

Explore World Festival Lottery

FLL Explore Spring Events

Event hosts are making final arrangemants to their schedules now.

The information I have-

Sammamish will be a morning event on Sunday. Plan for around 9am. Final details will be emailed out from the host.

  • Sammamish High School
  • 100 140th Ave SE, Bellevue, WA 98005

Snohomish will be Saturday 11:30-2. Final details will be emailed out from the host.

  • Glacier Peak High School
  • 7401 144th Pl SE, Snohomish, WA 98296

Bonney Lake should be Saturday 12:45-3. Final details will go out to the teams directly. 

  • Bonney Lake High School
  • 10920 199th Ave Ct E, Bonney Lake, WA 98391

Tentative EWU April 5th around 11am.

  • EWU – Reese Court
  • 1136 Washington St, Cheney, WA 99004

 

FLL Explore Registration

All Explore teams interested in attending events in Washington are required to fill out 2 forms from FIRST Washington and pay our $50 fee.

One form is a registration form with FIRST Washington, the other is an event registration. Teams may not attend an event without having these 3 things completed.

FIRST Washington registration- https://firstwa.org/explore-registration/

Event registration- https://firstwa.org/explore-event-registration/

 

More From FLL

FLL Submerged Blog: Volume 19

by | Feb 5, 2025 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore

In this weeks Blog-

Congratulations to all FLL Challenge teams! 

FLL Explore Spring Event Details

Make sure you read the entire blog!

Season Info

Congratulations Challenge teams!

Congratulations to all the teams that participated in FLL Challenge this season!

For perspective-

We held-

  • 20 Qualifiers
  • 4 Semifinals
  • 2 State Championships

There were 482 Challenge teams competing in events this season!

Your teams should be very proud of what they have accomplished this season!

I look forward to seeing what they come up with next season!

 

 

Huge Congratulations to the 4 teams moving on from the 2 Championship events!

Our 2 teams advancing to the World Festival in Houston, TX

  • 46665 Intelligent  Mavericks from Richland, WA
  • 52539 Super Awesome Ninjas from Redmond, WA

Our 2 teams advancing to Open Invitationals

  • 55142 Oceanic Outlaws from Royal City, WA
  • 57637 The Flaming Cyber Tigers from Bellevue, WA

Open Invitational Lottery

The Champions award finalist teams (one from East and one from West) will get first choice out of the below FLL Open Events.

Once the finalists have chosen, the remaining open spots will open for signups to the award winning teams from the 2 state championships.

Teams will be selected at random for each event going in the order of the list below, so make sure you only choose events you can/want to actually attend.

If there are remaining spots, the sign up will open to teams that attended the state events.

Massachusetts- 2 spots (June 13-15, 2025)

California- 2 1 spot (May 30-June 1, 2025)- one spot claimed by a finalist

Florida- 2 spots (June 24-28, 2025)

New Jersey- 3 spots (May 17-18, 2025)

Greece- 1 spot (May 2-4, 2025)

The form will be emailed directly to the award winning teams from the 2 state championships after 2/10

FLL Explore Spring Events

Event hosts are making final arrangemants to their schedules now. 

The information I have-

Sammamish will be a morning event on Sunday

Snohomish will most likely be an afternoon event on Saturday. 

No details on Bonney Lake yet. 

Adding an event at EWU in April. I do not have the details yet, but will be adding it to the registration form. 

 

FLL Explore Registration

All Explore teams interested in attending events in Washington are required to fill out 2 forms from FIRST Washington and pay our $50 fee. 

One form is a registration form with FIRST Washington, the other is an event registration. Teams may not attend an event without having these 3 things completed. 

FIRST Washington registration- https://firstwa.org/explore-registration/ 

Event registration- https://firstwa.org/explore-event-registration/ 

 

More From FLL

FLL Submerged Blog: Volume 18

by | Jan 14, 2025 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore

In this weeks Blog-

*Last coaches chat of the season moved to this Thursday!*

Good luck to the teams competing this weekend!

Reminders!

Make sure you read the entire blog!

Season Info

Good luck this weekend!!

Congratulations to the teams competing in the Western Washington Semifinals and the Eastern Washington state championship! 

This should be a fun weekend!

If you are not sure of your assignment, you can check at the link below! 

FLL Advancement

I was able to switch all but 4 teams that requested to change events. I am sorry I was unable to accomodate all. 

 

Please Remember-

ALL teams moving on to the next set of events (Semifinals or State) are required to turn in a printed roster from your FIRST Inspires dashboard and paper copies of any consent forms for students or adults not listed electronically. NO EXCEPTIONS! If you come without one, we will direct you to go find a place to print it and come back. There are not printers on site for you to use. We will not check in your team without it. This is your responsibility!

You also must have ALL student participants listed on your FIRST Inspires roster with either a green check mark, or have paper copies of their consent form signed by a parent or guardian.

The max number of student participants allowed by FIRST on an FLL Challenge team is 10. If you have more than 10 listed, you will not be eligible to win awards or advance. If you did it at the qualifier and no one caught it, I would advise you fix your rosters now 🙂

 

FLL Challenge Coaches Chat

Join us 1/16/25 for the next Coaches Chat! – this was moved to Thursday! 

We will be talking about-

  • Semifinals
  • State
  • Beyond

This will be our last coaches chat of the season! We will be answering robot game questions as long as Head Referee Kevin is in attendance!

 

Whats After State?

One team from each state championship will advance to the World Festival in Houston, Texas in April.

Teams will also have the oportunity to advance to one of the FLL open events. This year I have-

Greece- 1 spot (May 2-4, 2025)

Massachusetts- 2 spots (June 13-15, 2025)

California- 2 spots (May 30-June 1, 2025)

Florida- 2 spots (June 24-28, 2025)

New Jersey- 3 spots (May 17-18, 2025)

 The 2 Champions award winning teams (one from East and one from West) will each get a spot to World Festival in Houston. 

The Champions award finalist teams (one from East and one from West) will get first choice out of the above FLL Open Events. 

Once the finalists have chosen, the remaining open spots will open for signups to the award winning teams from the 2 state championships. 

Teams will be selected at random for each event, so make sure you only sign up for events you can acctually attend. 

If there are remaining spots, the sign up will open to teams that attended the state events. 

More From FLL

FLL Submerged Blog: Volume 17

by | Jan 6, 2025 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore

In this weeks Blog-

Western Semifinal and Eastern State Assignments!

 Reminders!

FLL Coaches Chat

Make sure you read the entire blog!

Season Info

Advancement Assignments!!

Sorry for the delay, I needed the two weeks off 🙂

I did my best to keep Saturday Qualifier teams to Saturday and Sunday Qualifier teams to Sunday. A few were moved around due to location and availability. 

FLL Advancement

If you would like to apply to switch your date or location- you can fill out this form. I will do my best to accommodate as many teams as I can, but the only way I can switch a team in is if another wants to move out. It is first come first served, as long as I have a compatible swap. I will not be taking requests through email. If you email me a request I will not reply.

This form will be open until the end of the day Friday 1/10

Semifinal form

 

Please Remember-

ALL teams moving on to the next set of events (Semifinals or State) are required to turn in a printed roster from your FIRST Inspires dashboard and paper copies of any consent forms for students or adults not listed electronically. NO EXCEPTIONS! If you come without one, we will direct you to go find a place to print it and come back. There are not printers on site for you to use. We will not check in your team without it. This is your responsibility!

You also must have ALL student participants listed on your FIRST Inspires roster with either a green check mark, or have paper copies of their consent form signed by a parent or guardian.

The max number of student participants allowed by FIRST on an FLL Challenge team is 10. If you have more than 10 listed, you will not be eligible to win awards or advance. If you did it at the qualifier and no one caught it, I would advise you fix your rosters now 🙂

 

FLL Challenge Coaches Chat

Join us 1/14/25 for the next Coaches Chat!

We will be talking about-

  • Semifinals
  • State
  • Beyond

This will be our last coaches chat of the season! We will be answering robot game questions as long as Head Referee Kevin is in attendance! 

 

Eastern Washington State

Eastern Washington State is January 18th in Spokane at St. Georges School. Info will be coming out from the event hosts soon. 

Western Washington State

Western Washington State will be February 2nd in Seattle at the Amazon Meeting Center. Teams that advance from the semifinals to state will receive info the following week.

Whats After State?

One team from each state championship will advance to the World Festival in Houston, Texas in April.

Teams will also have the oportunity to advance to one of the FLL open events. This year I have-

Greece- 1 spot

Massachusetts- 2 spots

California- 2 spots

Florida- 2 spots- updated! 1 additional spot!

New Jersey- 3 spots

 

More From FLL