FiM-Pays Rookie Grant | Refreshed FIRST Dashboard and YPP Requirements | Financial Guarantor and Tax-Exempt Status | Registration and Storefront | Fall Home Events | Event Readiness | Equipment and Season Materials | DonorsChoose
WELCOME TO THE 2026–27 BIOGLOW SEASON!
The 2026–27 FIRST LEGO League Challenge season is underway. Please review the information below and complete your team’s Dashboard requirements as soon as possible. The refreshed FIRST Dashboard has created some new steps and challenges, so the sooner those are addressed, the better!
Starting a new team? Read the Rookie Grant information below before paying for registration or purchasing a Challenge Set. Qualified rookie teams pay nothing up front.
1. QUALIFIED ROOKIE TEAMS PAY NOTHING UP FRONT
The FIRST in Michigan FiM-Pays Rookie Grant is open for eligible new FLL Challenge Founders Edition teams.
If the team qualifies, FIRST in Michigan can pay the team’s registration and Challenge Set costs directly. The approved team will also receive a LEGO Education SPIKE Prime set shipped separately by FIRST in Michigan.
To qualify:
- The team must be affiliated with and recognized by a school, school district, or established youth-enrichment nonprofit organization.
- The affiliated organization must own and maintain the team number and equipment.
- All applicable veteran teams associated with that school or organization must be repopulated and registered before an additional new team can qualify.
- The new team must increase the organization’s number of active teams beyond its previous participation level.
- The team must participate in an official FIRST in Michigan FLL Challenge qualifying event during the 2026–27 BIOGLOW season.
New teams should be established in the FIRST Dashboard and obtain a permanent five-digit team number, but they should not pay for registration or purchase the Challenge Set before applying.
Apply for the FiM-Pays Rookie Grant:
https://forms.gle/Rz1zhvUDhEMu99Xx9
We review applications as soon as possible, usually within a few days of submission. If you need assistance establishing a new team or completing the grant steps, contact Jessica Gupta at jessica@firstinmichigan.org.
Grant recipients that do not attend an official FIRST in Michigan qualifying event or otherwise fail to meet the grant requirements must repay the grant or return the equipment, as directed by FIRST in Michigan.
2. REVIEW YOUR TEAM ROLES AND YPP REQUIREMENTS
Following the FIRST Dashboard refresh, everyone must redo all three required Youth Protection Program components:
- Youth Protection screening
- Youth Protection training
- Annual consent and release requirement
Every FLL Challenge team must have two adult Lead Coach/Mentors assigned as Lead Coach 1 and Lead Coach 2. Invited coaches must log into their accounts and accept their team roles. Both coaches must complete all YPP requirements before the team can access its student roster.
Please review each team in your Dashboard and confirm that:
- The correct Team Administrator is listed.
- Lead Coach 1 and Lead Coach 2 are assigned.
- Each invited person has accepted their role.
- All three YPP-related requirements are complete.
- Contact information is current.
- The team profile is complete.
3. FINANCIAL GUARANTOR AND TAX-EXEMPT STATUS
The refreshed Dashboard requires returning teams to re-establish their financial guarantor and tax-exempt status, even if this information was approved in previous seasons. The financial guarantor is usually the school district, nonprofit organization, or other approved entity with financial responsibility for the team.
A team will need an approved financial guarantor before it can:
- Use a purchase order
- Apply for a sales tax exemption
To begin the process, open the team in the FIRST Dashboard, go to Team/Account Finances, and search for the organization using its correct legal name and Employer Identification Number, or EIN. If the correct organization is not available, follow the Dashboard prompts to submit its information for review.
Tax-exempt status is a separate approval. Associating the team with a tax-exempt school or organization does not automatically remove sales tax. The appropriate documentation must be submitted and approved by FIRST Headquarters.
FIRST in Michigan cannot approve financial guarantors, approve tax-exempt status, or manually remove sales tax from a FIRST Storefront account. If an approval remains pending and prevents registration or purchasing, contact FIRST Customer Service and provide all affected team numbers, the organization’s legal name, and any existing case number.
Some organizations are also having difficulty paying for multiple teams with one purchase order in the refreshed Storefront. If your organization needs to register several teams using one purchase order, plan additional time to work through the process with FIRST Customer Service. Include all affected team numbers and explain that the purchase order must cover multiple team registrations.
FIRST Customer Service:
https://help.firstinspires.org/s/contactsupport?language=en_US
4. REGISTRATION AND THE FIRST STOREFRONT ARE OPEN
The FIRST Storefront is open for the 2026–27 BIOGLOW season.
Returning teams should repopulate their existing permanent team numbers rather than create replacement teams. The reusable team number belongs with the affiliated school or organization and should remain in use from year to year.
Teams are not required to purchase a separate BIOGLOW Challenge Set for every team if they will share an existing set. However, when a team needs a Challenge Set, it must be added during the team-registration checkout process.
Before attempting checkout, confirm that:
- The team profile is complete.
- The correct financial guarantor is associated with the team.
- Any required tax-exempt approval is complete.
- The purchasing and shipping information is accurate.
FiM-Pays Rookie Grant applicants should not pay for registration or purchase the Challenge Set before applying.
5. FALL HOME-EVENT ASSIGNMENTS
Each registered FLL Challenge team will initially be assigned a fall home event. Home-event assignments are based primarily on geography and available event capacity. These will likely be shared in early October.
After receiving its assignment, a team may choose to forgo its assigned home event and list up to three preferred alternate events. Alternate placements will be made in the order received, pending availability.
Teams should plan to participate in their assigned fall event. Many successful teams meet only once per week and are ready to participate by November. Rookie teams that register late in the season may participate in a spring event, which does not involve advancement but provides a fun competition experience for students.
View the current Michigan FLL Challenge event listing:
https://firstinmichigan.us/FLL-Challenge/events/
6. IS YOUR TEAM EVENT-READY?
Please review your team’s Dashboard information now rather than waiting until event assignments begin.
An event-ready team should have:
- A permanent five-digit team number
- A completed team profile
- An assigned Team Administrator
- An assigned Lead Coach 1 and Lead Coach 2
- Current coach and administrator contact information
- Accepted team-role invitations
- Completed Youth Protection screening
- Completed Youth Protection training
- Completed annual consent and release requirements
- A completed student roster
- Completed registration and payment, unless the team is proceeding through an approved FiM-Pays Rookie Grant
7. EQUIPMENT AND SEASON MATERIALS
The BIOGLOW Challenge Set is purchased through the team’s FIRST registration checkout and is shipped through FIRST Headquarters.
Returning teams are generally expected to reuse their LEGO Education SPIKE Prime equipment from prior seasons. Approved Rookie Grant teams will receive a SPIKE Prime set separately from FIRST in Michigan.
The Challenge Set contains the season mat and mission models used for the Robot Game. The SPIKE Prime and Expansion components are used to build and program the team’s robot.
Season materials and team booklets are available digitally. Teams can begin reviewing the Challenge, building teamwork skills, practicing the FIRST Core Values, and exploring the Innovation Project before physical materials arrive.
8. ADDITIONAL FUNDING THROUGH DONORSCHOOSE
Eligible educators may also use DonorsChoose to request funding for additional team materials such as LEGO Education sets, laptops, tablets, and other classroom resources. DonorsChoose projects cannot be used to pay FIRST team registration costs.
Learn more and create a project:
