FR Doc E5-7986
[Federal Register: December 28, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 248)]
[Notices]
[Page 76787-76790]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr28de05-66]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Parental Information and Resource Centers
AGENCY: Office of Innovation and Improvement, Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of proposed priorities and eligibility requirements.
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SUMMARY: The Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement
proposes priorities and eligibility requirements under the Parental
Information and Resource Centers (PIRC) program. The Assistant Deputy
Secretary may use one or more of the priorities for and apply these
eligibility requirements to competitions in fiscal year (FY) 2006 and
in later years. We intend these priorities and requirements to help
ensure that funded projects will effectively address the purposes of
the PIRC program.
DATES: We must receive your comments on or before January 27, 2006.
ADDRESSES: Address all comments about these proposed priorities and
requirements to Steven L. Brockhouse, U.S. Department of Education, 400
Maryland Avenue, SW., room 4W229, Washington, DC 20202-5970. If you
prefer to send your comments through the Internet, use the following
address: steve.brockhouse@ed.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steven L. Brockhouse. Telephone: (202)
260-2476 or via Internet: steve.brockhouse@ed.gov.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may
call the Federal Relay Service (FRS) 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 these proposed
priorities and requirements. To ensure that your comments have maximum
effect in developing the notice of final priorities and eligibility
requirements, we urge you to identify clearly the specific proposed
priority or requirement that each comment addresses.
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 these proposed
priorities and requirements. 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 these proposed priorities and requirements in room
4W229, 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.
Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities in Reviewing the Rulemaking
Record
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
rulemaking record for these proposed priorities and requirements. If
you want to schedule an appointment for this type of aid, please
contact the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
General Information
PIRC projects help implement successful and effective parental
involvement policies, programs, and activities that lead to
improvements in student academic achievement and strengthen
partnerships among parents, teachers, principals, administrators, and
other school personnel in meeting the education needs of children.
Section 5563(b) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965,
as amended (ESEA), describes project requirements for the recipients of
PIRC grants, including requirements to serve both rural and urban
areas; to use at least one-half of the funds awarded to a project to
serve areas with high concentrations of low-income children; and to use
at least 30 percent of the funds awarded to a project to establish,
expand, or operate early childhood parent education programs.
In this notice, we are proposing four separate priorities. We are
also proposing eligibility requirements that define the nonprofit
organizations that may apply and clarify the types of entities that may
serve as the applicant and fiscal agent if the application is submitted
by a consortium that includes a nonprofit organization and one or more
local educational agencies (LEAs).
Background on Proposed Priorities
The first and second proposed priorities, addressing the geographic
distribution of awards and statewide impact, respectively, would help
ensure that, to the extent possible, PIRC project services would be
widely available.
Proposed Priority 1, Geographic Distribution of Awards, is designed
to help ensure that there will be a high-quality PIRC in most or all
States. The highest-ranking application from a State would receive
priority for an award, provided that the application is of sufficient
quality that the proposed project will likely succeed in meeting the
purposes of the PIRC program, in implementing effective activities, and
in achieving intended results. Additionally, we are proposing that to
meet this proposed priority an applicant must provide services in a
single State only.
Under the ESEA, each State establishes its own policies, standards,
and requirements in a number of areas, including standards for adequate
yearly progress under section 1111 of Title I of the ESEA, procedures
for parental involvement and communication under section 1118 of Title
I of the ESEA, and requirements related to supplemental educational
services and other educational options available to parents under
section 1116 of that title. It is important that there is a high-
quality federally funded PIRC in most or all States to help ensure that
PIRC services
[[Page 76788]]
addressing these subject areas are tailored to the particular
standards, policies, and requirements of the State in which the PIRC
project operates.
Furthermore, the proposed priority would help ensure that PIRC
grants would be distributed in all geographic regions of the United
States, consistent with section 5562(b) of the ESEA.
Use of this priority would permit the Department to fund additional
applications of exceptional quality from any State, even though only
the highest-ranking application from a State could qualify for this
priority.
Proposed Priority 2, Statewide Impact of PIRC Services, encourages
projects that propose broad statewide services. Currently, some PIRCs
operate on a statewide basis while others focus activities and services
only on specific local communities. The Department believes that it is
important that each PIRC provide statewide services.
This priority would help to ensure that parents from across a
State, whether in urban or rural areas, would have access to
information and essential services. A grantee could provide statewide
services through a variety of approaches, including the Internet.
We believe that having PIRC projects with identifiable statewide
responsibilities would help to facilitate the development of more
effective relationships between PIRC projects and State educational
agency officials, especially those responsible for the implementation
of Title I of the ESEA.
Proposed Priority 2 would not restrict a project to providing
services exclusively on a statewide basis. PIRC projects would continue
to have the flexibility to include other activities that are tailored
to meet the needs of particular communities, geographic regions, or
LEAs in their State. Finally, the priority would not require that a
project provide all services to all communities in the State, because
such an approach would be impractical based on the resources that are
likely to be available for PIRC grants.
Proposed Priority 3, Understanding State and Local Report Cards and
Opportunities for Public School Choice and Supplemental Educational
Services, builds on our experience in using a similar priority for the
most recent PIRC program competition held in FY 2003. Through this
priority, we would focus specifically on helping parents (particularly
parents of children attending schools identified for school
improvement, corrective action, or restructuring under Title I of the
ESEA) to understand the information contained in State and local report
cards so that they can make informed decisions about the public school
choice and supplemental educational services options that may be
available to them to help their children achieve academically.
State and local school report cards are critical tools for
promoting accountability for LEAs and schools and for helping parents
see where schools and districts are succeeding and where there is still
work to do. The more parents know about the academic achievement of
their children and their schools, the more likely they are to be
involved in their local schools and the public school system. Further,
when parents are equipped with information on academic results, they
can also make better decisions regarding the options for public school
choice and supplemental educational services that are available to
them.
(Guidance on report cards under Title I of the ESEA is available
at:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/reportcardsguidance.doc
; guidance on supplemental educational services is available at: http://
http://
school choice is available at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/schoolchoiceguid.doc.)
Proposed Priority 4, Technical Assistance in the Implementation of
LEA and School Parental Involvement Policy under section 1118 of the
ESEA helps to focus attention on the needs of school districts and
schools that continue to face challenges in implementing effective
policies and activities for parental involvement-especially for those
activities that afford parents substantial and meaningful opportunities
to participate in the education of their children and to contribute to
their children's academic growth and improvement.
Research on effective parental involvement provides substantial
evidence that families have a major influence on their children's
achievement in school and through life. When schools, families, and
community groups work together to support learning, children tend to do
better in school, stay in school longer, and like school more.
Title I of the ESEA requires that parents be afforded substantial
and meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their
children. Specifically, section 1118 of the ESEA provides the framework
for parental involvement policies, plans, and activities at the local
level. For example, section 1118 requires that every school district
and every school receiving Title I funds have a written parental
involvement policy; that LEAs and schools develop the written parental
involvement policy jointly with parents of children participating in
Title I programs; and that LEAs work in cooperation with their Title I
schools to build the capacity of parents and school staff for strong
parental involvement, which in turn should improve academic
achievement.
Background on Proposed Eligibility Requirements
We are also proposing to clarify the PIRC eligibility requirements.
The history of the PIRC program has focused on the involvement of
nonprofit organizations as applicants for awards under the PIRC
program. Section 5563(b)(1) of the ESEA generally provides that any
nonprofit organization that submits an application for a PIRC project
must focus on parents in its governance or organizational interest. The
references to the inclusion of parents and representation of the
interests of parents in section 5563(b)(1) of the ESEA do not further
define the types of parents to be included or represented. Other
provisions in section 5563, as well as sections 5561, 5562 and 5564 of
the ESEA, clarify that the parents whose interests are of concern to
the PIRC program are parents of pre-school and school-aged children,
including those parents who are educationally or economically
disadvantaged.
The proposed eligibility requirements would define the term
``nonprofit organization'' for purposes of the PIRC program to clarify
that in order to be an eligible applicant for a PIRC project, a
nonprofit organization must, at a minimum, be one that either
represents the interests of parents of pre-school and school-aged
children, including parents who are educationally or economically
disadvantaged or includes parents of pre-school and school-aged
children, including parents who are educationally or economically
disadvantaged, on the organization's board of directors.
Faith-based and community organizations that meet the standards in
the proposed definition would continue to be eligible applicants for
the PIRC program.
Additionally, section 5563(a) of the ESEA permits the submission of
an application from a consortium that includes a nonprofit organization
and one or more LEAs. In the case of an application from a consortium,
we propose to require that a nonprofit organization serve as the
applicant and fiscal agent. Under the proposed clarification, State and
local governments, including LEAs,
[[Page 76789]]
intermediate school districts, and schools, therefore, would not be
eligible to submit an application on behalf of a consortium or serve as
the fiscal agent of a PIRC grant.
We will announce the final priorities and eligibility requirements
in a notice in the Federal Register. We will determine the final
priorities and eligibility requirements after considering responses to
this notice and other information available to the Department. This
notice does not preclude us from proposing or funding additional
priorities or establishing additional requirements, subject to meeting
applicable rulemaking requirements.
Note: This notice does not solicit applications. In any year in
which we choose to use one or more of these priorities, we invite
applications through a notice in the Federal Register. When inviting
applications we designate each priority as absolute, competitive
preference, or invitational. The effect of each type of priority
follows:
Absolute priority: Under an absolute priority we consider only
applications that meet the priority (34 CFR 75.105(c)(3)).
Competitive preference priority: Under a competitive preference
priority we give competitive preference to an application by either
(1) awarding additional points, depending on how well or the extent
to which the application meets the competitive priority (34 CFR
75.105(c)(2)(i)); or (2) selecting an application that meets the
competitive priority over an application of comparable merit that
does not meet the priority (34 CFR 75.105(c)(2)(ii)).
Invitational priority: Under an invitational priority we are
particularly interested in applications that meet the invitational
priority. However, we do not give an application that meets the
invitational priority a competitive or absolute preference over
other applications (34 CFR 75.105(c)(1)).
Priorities
Proposed Priority 1--Geographic Distribution of Awards
This proposed priority supports an application that meets the
following three conditions:
(1) The application is the highest-ranking application proposing to
implement a PIRC project in a State, based on the selection criteria
and competitive preference priorities used for this competition.
(2) The application's PIRC project proposes to provide services
only in that State.
(3) The application is of sufficient quality to show that the
proposed project is likely to succeed in meeting the purposes of the
PIRC program, in implementing effective activities, and in achieving
intended results.
For the purpose of selecting applications under this priority, we
use the definition of the term ``State'' in 34 CFR 77.1(c).
Proposed Priority 2--Statewide Impact of PIRC Services
This proposed priority supports applications that would implement
broad statewide strategies to provide parents from across the State,
particularly parents who are educationally or economically
disadvantaged, with services that enhance their ability to participate
effectively in their child's education, including their ability to
communicate effectively with public school personnel in the school that
their child attends.
Proposed Priority 3--Understanding State and Local Report Cards and
Opportunities for Public School Choice and Supplemental Educational
Services
This priority supports applications that would implement activities
that effectively assist parents in understanding State and local report
cards under Title I of the ESEA and, in cases where their child attends
a school identified as in need of improvement, corrective action, or
restructuring under Title I, in understanding their options for public
school choice or supplemental educational services.
Proposed Priority 4--Technical Assistance in the Implementation of
Local Educational Agency and School Parental Involvement Policy Under
Section 1118 of the ESEA
This priority supports applications that would provide technical
assistance in the implementation of LEA and school parental involvement
policies under Title I of the ESEA in order to improve student academic
achievement and school performance.
Requirements
Proposed Eligibility Requirements
We propose to define the term ``nonprofit organization'' for
purposes of the PIRC program as an organization that:
(1) Is owned and operated by one or more corporations or
associations whose net earnings do not benefit, and cannot lawfully
benefit, any private shareholder or entity, as set forth in 34 CFR part
77; and
(2) Is an organization that:
(a) Represents the interests of parents of pre-school and school-
age children (including parents who are educationally or economically
disadvantaged); or
(b) Is governed by a board of directors whose membership includes
such parents.
We also propose that for an application submitted by a consortium
that includes a nonprofit organization and one or more LEAs, that the
nonprofit organization must serve as the applicant and fiscal agent for
the consortium. State and local governments, including LEAs,
intermediate school districts, and schools, would not be eligible to
submit an application on behalf of a consortium or serve as the fiscal
agent of a PIRC grant.
Executive Order 12866
This notice of proposed priorities and eligibility requirements has
been reviewed in accordance with Executive Order 12866. Under the terms
of the order, we have assessed the potential costs and benefits of this
regulatory action.
The potential costs associated with the notice of proposed
priorities and eligibility requirements are those resulting from
statutory requirements and those we have determined as necessary for
administering this program effectively and efficiently.
In assessing the potential costs and benefits--both quantitative
and qualitative--of this notice of proposed priorities and eligibility
requirements, we have determined that the benefits of the proposed
priorities and requirements justify the costs.
We have also determined that this regulatory action does not unduly
interfere with State, local, and tribal governments in the exercise of
their governmental functions.
Summary of potential costs and benefits: The potential cost
associated with these proposed priorities and eligibility requirements
is minimal while the benefits are significant. Applicants may
anticipate costs with completing the application process in terms of
staff and partner time, copying, and mailing or delivery. The use of E-
Application technology would reduce mailing and copying costs
significantly.
The benefit of the proposed priorities and requirements is that
they will help applicants prepare higher-quality proposals that are
better focused on critical information needs for parents.
Intergovernmental Review
This program is subject to Executive Order 12372 and the
regulations in 34 CFR part 79. One of the objectives of the Executive
order is to foster an intergovernmental partnership and a strengthened
federalism. The Executive order relies on processes developed by State
and local governments for coordination and review of proposed Federal
financial assistance.
[[Page 76790]]
This document provides early notification of our specific plans and
actions for this program.
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/news/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 at the following site:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/pirc/applicant.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.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 84.310A)
Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 7273 et seq.
Dated: December 22, 2005.
Nina Shokraii Rees,
Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement.
[FR Doc. E5-7986 Filed 12-27-05; 8:45 am]
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