[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 7, 1995)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 12648]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-5450]
[[Page 12647]]
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Part V
Department of Education
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34 CFR Part 75
Direct Grant Programs; Final Rule
Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 44 / Tuesday, March 7, 1995 / Rules
and Regulations
[[Page 12648]]
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
34 CFR Part 75
Direct Grant Programs
AGENCY: Department of Education.
ACTION: Optional procedure for conducting fiscal year 1995 grant
competitions under the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994.
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SUMMARY: The Secretary establishes an optional procedure for conducting
fiscal year (FY) 1995 grant competitions under the Improving America's
Schools Act of 1994. The Secretary takes this action to reduce the need
for Federal regulations, to ensure timely award of grants in FY 1995,
and to provide an additional mechanism for awarding grants that
addresses Congress' intent in enacting the affected program
authorities.
EFFECTIVE DATE: This procedure takes effect April 6, 1995.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steven N. Schatken, Office of the
General Counsel, U.S. Department of Education, 600 Independence Avenue
SW., Room 5100, FB10-B, Washington, D.C. 20202-2241. Telephone: (202)
401-8300. 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: The Improving America's Schools Act of 1994
(IASA) was enacted on October 20, 1994 (Pub. L. 103-382). The IASA
authorizes numerous discretionary grant programs under which the
Secretary will be conducting competitions in FY 1995. The Secretary
wishes to conduct these grant competitions as quickly as possible so
that grantees will have adequate time for planning and preparation
before the next school year begins. The Secretary also intends to keep
Federal regulation to a minimum under the IASA in order to provide
flexibility to State and local governments and other eligible
applicants in designing effective programs to serve the intended
beneficiaries of these programs.
The Secretary will be using several techniques to meet the goals of
fewer regulations and expedited grant awards, including, for some
programs, using procedures currently in the Education Department
General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) for programs that do not
have regulations. For these programs, EDGAR provides selection criteria
for choosing among competing grant applications (34 CFR 75.210).
However, the EDGAR selection criteria are necessarily very general, and
for some programs the EDGAR criteria may not adequately focus grant
applications on specific provisions that are contained in the program
statutes that govern the competitions. Therefore, the Secretary
establishes the following procedure that may be used to create more
targeted selection criteria in appropriate situations. The Secretary
will soon publish a separate notice of proposed rulemaking in the
Federal Register to amend EDGAR and make this a permanent option in
future fiscal years for all of the Department's discretionary grant
programs.
Procedure for Establishing Statutory Selection Criteria
Under this procedure, the Secretary may establish selection
criteria for evaluating applications by assigning points to particular
statutory provisions, such as allowable activities, application content
requirements, or other pre-award and post-award conditions.
Applications would be evaluated based on how well the applicants
address each of those statutory provisions. The Secretary may also
include any of the selection criteria in EDGAR (34 CFR 75.210), but the
EDGAR criteria would not otherwise apply.
Each of the criteria, whether based on a statutory provision or
taken from EDGAR, would be assigned a maximum number of points that an
applicant could score under that criterion. The selection criteria
would be included in the application package that the Department
provides to all applicants.
This procedure applies only to fiscal year 1995 grant competitions
under programs that were newly enacted in, or substantially revised by,
the IASA. To the extent that any regulations in EDGAR are inconsistent
with this procedure, those regulations would not apply if this
procedure is used.
Example: A hypothetical program statute creates a discretionary
grant program for support of innovative secondary school programs.
Among other requirements, the statute provides that each application
must describe how the applicant for a grant will address the needs of
limited English proficient children.
Under this procedure, the Secretary would create a full set of
selection criteria for the fiscal year 1995 grant competition from the
statute and EDGAR, with a total maximum score for all of the criteria
determined by the Secretary. (Usually, the Department's grant
competitions are based on selection criteria that have a total maximum
score of 100.) As one of the criteria, the Secretary could evaluate
applications based on how well the applicant proposes to meet the needs
of limited English proficient children. The Secretary might decide to
award up to 10 points for this criterion. Applicants who best addressed
the needs of limited English proficient children would score the
highest number of points under this criterion.
Waiver of Public Comment
It is the practice of the Secretary to ask for public comment.
However, in accordance with section 437(d)(1) of the General Education
Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232(d)(1)), the Secretary has determined
that, in order to make timely grant awards in fiscal year 1995 under
the IASA, it is necessary to waive public comment on this procedure.
The Secretary will request public comment on this procedure for future
fiscal years in a separate notice of proposed rulemaking.
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980
This procedure has been examined under the Paperwork Reduction Act
of 1980 and has been found to contain no information collection
requirements.
Authority: Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 (Pub. L. 103-
382).
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number does not apply)
Dated: February 28, 1995.
Richard W. Riley,
Secretary of Education.
[FR Doc. 95-5450 Filed 3-6-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
