FR Doc 03-8400
[Federal Register: April 7, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 66)]
[Notices]
[Page 16789-16790]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr07ap03-52]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Elementary and Secondary Education Act; Implementation
AGENCY: Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of proposed deadlines for final implementation.
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The Deputy Under Secretary for Safe and Drug-Free Schools proposes
deadline dates for final implementation of requirements under the
Unsafe School Choice Option (USCO), under section 9532 of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, as amended by
the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This notice proposes deadlines by
which each State must identify persistently dangerous schools, as well
as offer students in those schools and students who are victims of
violent criminal offenses while on school property the opportunity to
transfer to a safe school.
DATES: We must receive your comments on or before May 7, 2003.
ADDRESSES: Address all comments about this notice to William
Modzeleski, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW.,
Room 3E314, Washington, DC 20202-6123. If you prefer to send your
comments through the Internet, use the following address:
safeschl@ed.gov. Please specify ``USCO Comments'' in the subject line
of your electronic message.
If you want to comment on the information collection requirements,
you must send your comments to the Department representative named in
that section.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kristen Hayes, U.S. Department of
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Room 3E340, Washington, DC 20202-
6123. Telephone: (202) 708-9431. Or via Internet: Kristen.Hayes@ed.gov. Individuals who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD)
may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-
8339.
Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer
diskette) on request to the contact person listed under FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Invitation to Comment
We invite you to submit comments regarding this notice of proposed
deadlines. We invite you to assist us in complying with the specific
requirements of Executive Order 12866 and its overall requirement of
reducing regulatory burden that might result from this notice. Please
let us know of any further opportunities we should take to reduce
potential costs or increase potential benefits while preserving the
effective and efficient administration of the program.
During and after the comment period, you may inspect all public
comments about this notice of proposed deadlines in Room 3E314, FB6,
400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Washington, DC, between the hours of 8:30
a.m. and 4 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through Friday of each week
except Federal holidays.
[[Page 16790]]
Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities
On request, we will supply an appropriate aid, such as a reader or
print magnifier, to an individual with a disability who needs
assistance to review the comments or other documents in the public
record for this notice of proposed deadlines. If you want to schedule
an appointment for this type of aid, please contact the person listed
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
Proposed Deadlines and Affected Parties
We propose establishing two deadlines related to implementation of
the USCO provisions: (1) The date by which each State must identify
persistently dangerous public elementary and secondary schools; and (2)
the date by which each State must allow students who attend a
persistently dangerous school, and students who are victims of violent
criminal offenses while at school or on the grounds of the school, to
transfer to a safe school.
We propose that each State identify those schools that meet its
definition of a persistently dangerous school by July 1, 2003 and each
July 1st thereafter, and that each State allow students attending a
persistently dangerous public elementary or secondary school to
transfer to a safe school by the start of the 2003-2004 school year and
by the start of every school year thereafter. We propose that, by the
start of the 2003-2004 school year, each State must have in place its
policy to allow students who are victims of violent criminal offenses
while in or on the grounds of a school they attend to transfer to a
safe public school. We recognize that the start of the school year will
vary from local educational agency (LEA) to LEA. The opportunity to
transfer provided by USCO must be offered to affected students by the
start of the school year in their LEA. This policy would remain in
place for future years. Changes, consistent with statutory
requirements, may be made as needed by the State.
Background
Title IX, section 9532 of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act as reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act 2001 establishes
the USCO requirements. Accordingly, each State receiving ESEA funds
must establish and implement a statewide USCO policy. This policy must
provide to a student attending a persistently dangerous public
elementary or secondary school the opportunity to transfer to a safe
public elementary school or secondary school (which may be a public
charter school) within the LEA in which the student is currently
enrolled. This policy must provide the same transfer opportunity to a
student who becomes the victim of a violent criminal offense while in
or on the grounds of that student's public elementary or secondary
school.
Each State must establish a policy to address both USCO provisions
after consultation with a representative sample of LEAs.
Section 9532 requires that, as a condition of receiving ESEA funds,
each State certify to the Secretary that it is in compliance with the
USCO requirements. Each State has already provided the required
certification in its application for ESEA funding available on July 1,
2002. However, we recognized that not all States were able to meet all
of the requirements of the USCO by that date. Thus, we permitted each
State to ``qualify'' its respective certification, pending completion
of the activities necessary to comply with the USCO provisions, and to
report quarterly on its progress toward full compliance. We also issued
draft non-regulatory guidance in July 2002 that outlined the
implementation steps that would constitute full compliance with the
USCO provisions.
We propose these deadlines to ensure that students who attend
persistently dangerous schools or who are the victims of violent
criminal offenses while in school or on school grounds are offered the
opportunity to transfer to a safe public school as quickly as possible.
Such transfers will help ensure the opportunity for students to learn
in a safe environment.
We believe that the proposed deadlines appropriately balance the
amount of time needed by each State to implement these provisions with
the compelling interest of having students attend a safe school.
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
Although the Department of Education is not collecting data, the
statute does contain information collection requirements. As required
by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3507(d)), the
Department of Education submitted a copy of the information collection
to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for its review and
approval.
We estimate annual recordkeeping burden for this collection of
information to average 20 hours for each of 56 respondents, including
the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources,
gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing
the collection of information. Thus, we estimate the total annual
reporting and recordkeeping burden for this collection to be 1120
hours.
If you want to comment on the information collection requirements,
please send your comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs, OMB, room 10235, New Executive Office Building, Washington, DC
20503; Attention: Desk Officer for U.S. Department of Education.
Electronic Access to This Document
You may view this document, as well as all other Department of
Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe
Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at the following site:
http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/.
To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available
free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the U.S.
Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in
the Washington, DC, area at (202) 512-1530.
You may also view this document in text or PDF at the following
site: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSDFS/index.html.
Note: The official version of this document is the document
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html.
Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 7912.
Dated: April 4, 2003.
Judge Eric Andell,
Deputy Under Secretary for Safe and Drug-Free Schools.
[FR Doc. 03-8400 Filed 4-4-03; 8:45 am]
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