NG911 GIS Grant Funding Standards-FY2026 - July 1, 2025
34A.7A: The program manager may also provide grants to joint 911 service boards and the department of public safety for the purpose of developing and maintaining GIS data to be used in support of the next generation 911 network. The program manager shall provide guidelines, application forms, and notice of the availability of such grants on the department’s internet site.
Guidance
NG911 GIS Grants as detailed in Iowa Code 34A.7A are a part of 911 Surcharge. Therefore, they do need to be used in accordance with Iowa Code 34A and Administrative Rule Section 605 Chapter 10. The criteria for spending 911 Surcharge funds is "receipt and disposition of the 911 call." Per 34A.2, Personnel Costs are generally not an eligible use of 911 Surcharge. However, there are exceptions for individuals conducting the activities of addressing, database management, and GIS. 911 Surcharge and the NG911 GIS Grants, must be used specifically for the purposes of 911, and not GIS programs and projects that do not relate to the "Receipt and Disposition of the 911 call"
We highly encourage the reinvestment of NG911 GIS Grant related projects and programs, however, there is no requirement to use GIS Grant funding specifically towards NG911 GIS projects. There are also no restrictions or preference between utilizing a contractor or dedicated GIS staff within the County.
Structure
For FY 2026 GIS data accuracy will be measured against four categories for qualifications of GIS grant funding.
- NG911 GIS Data Accuracy
- ALI Standardization
- Zero Critical Errors
- Monthly Uploads
Maximum grant funding remains at $12,000 for the year per PSAP, or $1,000 per month per PSAP.
Data uploads will be reimbursed four times during the year. $1,000 per month will be awarded for all four criteria being met. If all criteria is met every month of the quarter, 911 Service Boards will receive $3,000 for the period. If a county is unable to meet the benchmarks during a particular month, they are still eligible for grant funding during the months that the county does successfully meet the benchmark. (IE, if you fail to meet the benchmarks 1 month of the quarter, you will receive $2,000)
Counties should review the most recent QA/QC report which will give counties an idea of where they currently stand. The updated QA/QC report will be provided monthly. (If your county’s row contains an “N/A” this indicates that GeoComm has not received data sets to run for QA/QC or ALI/MSAG synchronization.)
Please review this information with both your GIS provider and PSAP manager. GeoComm is available to assist each county with guidance on meeting the benchmarks.
Benchmarks
NG911 GIS Data Accuracy
Definition: Submission of all required NG911 GIS Data layers including Road Centerlines, Site/Structure Address Points, PSAP Boundary, Emergency Service Boundaries (Fire, LE, EMS), Provisioning (Authoritative) Boundary, ALI and MSAG that meets the requirements of the IA 911 NGGIS Standard.
Criteria: Overall GIS accuracy at or above 98% and submission of all required data layers.
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ALI Standardization
Definition: The process of standardizing the road names and their elements in the ALI database prior transitioning to NG911 call routing where the GIS road centerline is used to create a GIS based MSAG for call routing.
Additional Information: It is typical for an ALI and MSAG to contain short forms of road names and their elements that do not meet the NG911 standards (e.g. AV – instead of AVE, 1 ST – instead of 1ST ST) each PSAP should focus on standardizing their ALI and MSAG to contain the official street names instead of the short formats. This will require a mass update of the ALI and MSAG through Comtech to insure no wireline 911 calls are alienated and unable to be routed to the appropriate PSAP.
Criteria: ALI Synchronization to GIS Road Centerline accuracy rate of 98% or above.
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Critical Errors
Definition: Critical errors in the GIS data will prevent GIS datasets from being provisioned to the statewide geodatabase for NG911 call routing and to the Comtech ALI 6.0 file.
Additional Information: All errors identified as critical are identified as such in the GIS Data Summary Report under the Analytics tab within GIS Data Hub each time the GIS data undergoes QC. The following are critical errors:
- Acceptable Values in all data layers
- Address Range Overlaps
- Duplicate Values
- Empty Geometry in all data layers
- Features Outside of Polygon (Road Centerlines and Site/Structure Address Points
- Road Centerline features broken a Polygon (PSAP and Provisioning Boundary)
- Globally Unique ID in all data layers
- Multipart Geometry (RCL)
- Null Value in Field in all mandatory fields
- Polygon Compare (Overhangs)
- Polygon overlap check
Criteria: Zero Critical Errors
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Monthly Uploads
Definition: Iowa NG911 GIS data is now a critical component of the Iowa 911 System. Updated GIS information is imperative for correct call routing. In order to incentivize providing updated GIS information, grant dollars will be awarded on a monthly basis.
Criteria: NG911 GIS Data meeting all the above benchmarks, uploaded monthly.
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Future Standardization Effort – Will be added to Critical in a future Grant year
In an effort to ensure standardization of the statewide geodatabase the following warning QC checks will be added:
- Unacceptable Values – added to all NENA Required-Yes fields; the check will identify where there are extra spaces or where a NULL should be present instead of a space
- Acceptable Values – added to the County fields and Discrepancy Agency ID fields; the check will ensure that County is included with the name of the county and that the discrepancy agency ID is consistent throughout the data
