[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 61 (Thursday, March 30, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16462-16464]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-7826]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
Education of Migratory Children
AGENCY: Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of final criteria for FY 1995 consortium incentive
grants under part C of title I of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act of 1965.
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SUMMARY: The Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education
(Assistant Secretary) establishes final criteria for awarding fiscal
year (FY) 1995 Migrant Education Program (MEP) consortium incentive
grants under section 1308(d) of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Improving America's
Schools Act (IASA), to State educational agencies (SEAs) with approved
consortium arrangements.
EFFECTIVE DATE: This notice takes effect on May 1, 1995.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James English, Office of Migrant
Education, U.S. Department of Education, 600 Independence Avenue SW.,
Portals Building, Room 4100, Washington, DC 20202-6135. Telephone:
(202) 260-1394. Individuals who use a telecommunications device for the
deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-
800-877-8339 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through
Friday.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The MEP, authorized in Title I, Part C of the ESEA, is a State-
operated, formula grant program under which SEAs receive funds to
improve the academic achievement and welfare of migratory children who
reside in their States. Consistent with the emphasis that the
reauthorized ESEA places upon removing barriers to coordination and
integration of programs that serve migratory children, sections 1303(d)
and 1308(d) of the ESEA encourage SEAs to consider whether consortium
arrangements with other States or appropriate entities would result in
a more effective and efficient delivery of MEP services.
[[Page 16463]]
In this regard, section 1303(d) directs the Secretary to consult
with SEAs whose MEP allocations in any year will be $1 million or less
about the desirability of forming consortia. This section also directs
the Secretary to approve any SEA's consortium proposal that (1) reduces
MEP administrative costs or program function costs, and (2) increases
the amount of MEP funds available for direct services to migratory
children that add substantially to the educational attainment or
welfare of those children. While an SEA may form a consortium
arrangement with any appropriate entity, in light of the strong
interstate emphases in the MEP the Secretary anticipates that SEAs will
consider the benefits of forming consortium arrangements on a multi-
State basis. The Secretary also anticipates that SEAs will want to plan
their consortium activities to be implemented on a multiyear basis. The
Department already has begun discussions with SEA officials about the
circumstances in which consortium arrangements might enhance their
programs for migratory children.
To encourage SEAs to form consortium arrangements that meet the
requirements of section 1303(d), section 1308(d) of the ESEA directs
the Secretary to reserve up to $1.5 million of the funds appropriated
for the MEP for competitive incentive awards to SEAs with consortium
arrangements approved by the Secretary. Section 1308(d) also limits the
size of each grant to no more than $250,000, and provides that not
fewer than 10 grants shall be made to eligible SEAs with approved
consortium arrangements whose MEP formula grant allocations are less
than $1 million. While the provision offers all SEAs an incentive to
participate in consortium arrangements, it was enacted particularly to
benefit those SEAs that, because of the small size of their MEP
allocations, may have particular difficulty in both administering the
MEP and providing an adequate level of direct services to migratory
children.
Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking
In accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553),
it is the practice of the Department of Education to offer interested
parties the opportunity to comment on proposed rulemaking documents.
However, in accordance with section 437(d)(1) of the General Education
Provisions Act, the Assistant Secretary has determined that, in order
that SEAs may use the incentive grant funds as quickly as possible to
promote their programs of direct services for migratory children under
the MEP formula-grant program, it is desirable to waive public comment
for the first year of implementation of this new discretionary grant.
This waiver will apply only to the criteria and process included in
this notice for awarding FY 1995 consortium incentive grants. Any
criteria and procedures that the Department establishes for the award
of consortium incentive grants in future years will be based on
experiences with this FY 1995 award process, and will be published in
proposed form in the Federal Register with an opportunity for
interested parties to comment.
Eligibility for Consortium Incentive Grants
The criteria and procedures announced in this notice govern only
the award of consortium incentive grants for FY 1995. These criteria
and procedures reflect consideration of comments on a preliminary
proposal discussed with State MEP Directors in a meeting in McAllen,
Texas on January 26-27, 1995. The Secretary will reserve $1.5 million
to implement this consortium incentive grant program in FY 1995. Only
SEAs with approved consortium arrangements will be eligible for
incentive grants. Consistent with section 1303(d), a consortium
arrangement will be approved if it (1) reduces the overall amount of
MEP administrative or program function costs across the participating
SEAs from the amount that would be incurred in the absence of the
consortium, and (2) makes more funds available, overall across the
participating SEAs, for direct educational or support services to
migratory children so as to add substantially to their welfare or
educational attainment than would have been available in the absence of
the consortium.
For purposes of section 1303(d), ``administrative or program
function costs'' include all costs that an SEA or its local operating
agencies pay from MEP funds to support MEP activities other than direct
educational or support services for migratory children. Administrative
and program function costs would include the costs of general program
administration paid from funds reserved under section 1603(c) of ESEA,
as well as the costs of other, program-specific administrative
activities, such as identification and recruitment, interstate,
intrastate, and interagency coordination, and parent advisory councils.
The term ``direct educational or support services'' means any
instructional or support activities provided directly to migratory
children, as well as training of instructional or support staff who
provide instructional or support services directly to migratory
children. For purposes of section 1303(d), the term ``other appropriate
entity'' can mean any public or private agency or organization.
A single SEA may be part of more than one consortium arrangement.
However, consistent with section 1303(d) of the ESEA, each consortium
arrangement that the Secretary approves must separately decrease the
total amount of MEP administrative or program function costs across the
participating SEAs and, conversely, increase the total amount of MEP
funds that are made available for direct services to migratory children
across the participating SEAs. SEAs will submit the information that
the Department needs to review and approve the SEA's consortium
arrangement, and determine the size of the SEA's consortium incentive
grant, through the FY 1995 MEP application or in conjunction with the
optional consolidated State plan under section 14302 of the ESEA.
Amount of an SEA's Incentive Grants
Each SEA with one or more consortium arrangements that the
Secretary determines meet the criteria in section 1303(d) of the ESEA,
and whose consortium arrangements increase the amount of MEP funds
available for direct services to migratory children in its State, will
receive one incentive award. In determining the size of an SEA's award,
the Secretary will rank SEAs seeking incentive grants on the basis of
the total percentage increase in MEP funds that the SEA will make
available for direct services to migratory children in its State as a
result of the SEA's participation in the consortium arrangements, as
compared to the level of direct services that would be made available
to migratory children in the State in the absence of the consortia.
Example I: SEA A has one consortium arrangement that increases the
amount of funds available for direct services in State A by 10 percent,
while SEA B has two consortium arrangements that increase the total
amount of funds available for direct services in State B by 8 percent.
State A would be ranked higher than State B even if SEA B's consortium
arrangements permit more total funds to be used for direct services.
Example II: SEA C and SEA D participate together in one consortium and
this consortium is the only one in which each SEA participates. If the
amount available for direct services increases in total across the two
States due to participation in the consortium, but the amount available
for direct services in State C does not increase, the
[[Page 16464]] consortium arrangement will be approved, but only State
D, and not State C, will receive an incentive grant.
From the information that an SEA submits, the Department will
calculate, for each State, the total percentage increase in MEP funds
available for direct services as a result of all the approved
consortium arrangements in which an applicant SEA participates. The
Department will then rank these percentages in descending order and
divide the distribution into thirds (that is, by terciles). Each SEA
ranked in the highest third of the distribution will receive an
incentive grant that is three-times the size of the grant received by
each SEA ranked in the lowest third, while each SEA ranked in the
middle third will receive an incentive grant that is twice the size of
that provided to each SEA ranked in the lowest third. Within each
third, grant awards will be of equal size, except that adjustments will
be made so that no consortium incentive grant will be greater than
$250,000 or 100 percent of the amount of funds awarded to the SEA under
its formula grant allocation, whichever is less.
An SEA may use incentive grant funds awarded under section 1308(d)
of the ESEA only to provide direct services to migratory children.
These funds are in addition to, and not in place of, the funds awarded
under the MEP formula grant.
The Secretary implements section 1308(d) in this way in order to
(1) reward all SEAs whose participation in consortium arrangements
increases direct services to migratory children in their State, (2)
provide larger awards to those SEAs whose consortium arrangements most
enhance their capacity to deliver direct services, and (3) ensure that
FY 1995 funds under this program are available to SEAs as soon as
possible.
Because of the criteria and procedures announced in this notice for
awarding FY 1995 consortium incentive grants, the regulations and
selection criteria contained in 34 CFR Part 205 (Migrant Education
Coordination Program) do not apply to this competition.
Applicability of the Education Department General Administrative
Regulations (EDGAR)
In view of the process that the Department will use to obtain
information on proposed SEA consortium arrangements, and the criteria
it will use to determine, by formula, the amount of consortium
incentive grant that each applicant SEA will receive, the regulations
in 34 CFR Part 75 (Direct Grant Programs) of the Education Department
General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) do not apply. Instead, the
incentive grant program is being administered, like the MEP itself,
under the provisions of 34 CFR Parts 76, 77, 80, 81, 85, and 86 of
EDGAR.
(Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 6393(d), 6398(d))
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 84.011, Migratory
Education Basic State Formula Grant Program)
Dated: March 10, 1995.
Thomas W. Payzant,
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education.
[FR Doc. 95-7826 Filed 3-29-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
