Notice of special final competition procedures for fiscal year (FY) 2001 Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program grants.

[Federal Register: July 18, 2001 (Volume 66, Number 138)]

[Notices]

[Page 37460-37461]

From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

[DOCID:fr18jy01-44]

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No: 84.349A]

Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program Grants

AGENCY: Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice of special final competition procedures for fiscal year

(FY) 2001 Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program

grants.

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SUMMARY: On April 24, 2001, the Secretary published in the Federal

awards and final procedures and requirements for a FY 2001 competition

for Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program grants.

The application deadline under that notice was June 25, 2001, which was

extended to July 2, 2001 for applicants in certain areas of Louisiana,

Texas, and Florida that the President declared as disaster areas due to

Tropical Storm Allison (June 26, 2001; 66 FR 33953-33954).

The notice inviting applications contained an absolute priority,

competitive and invitational preferences, and selection criteria that

apply to this competition. In addition, the notice indicated that 34

CFR part 75 of the Education Department General Administrative

Regulations (EDGAR) applies to these grants, which includes

[[Page 37461]]

provisions in Sec. 75.217 governing the Secretary's selection of

applications for new awards.

Due to the unexpected receipt of over two hundred grant

applications, the limited estimated number (10) of possible grant

awards, and the importance of identifying the highest-quality early

childhood educator professional development programs for replication

from this large applicant pool, the Secretary announces special final

competition procedures that will govern this competition and FY 2001

awards of these grants.

Competition Procedures. Except as stated below, the Secretary will

follow the procedures in part 75 for selecting applications for new

grants, including the procedures in Sec. 75.217.

As indicated in Sec. 75.217(a), the Secretary will select

applications for new grants on the basis of the authorizing statute,

the absolute priority, and the competitive preferences and selection

criteria previously published in the Federal Register in the notice

inviting applications. In selecting applications, the Secretary will

use a two-tier process of review by experts who include persons who are

not employees of the Federal Government.

In the first tier of review, panels of experts will evaluate

eligible applications against the selection criteria published in the

notice inviting applications. Depending upon the quality of the

applications and their relative merit, the Secretary plans to select

between approximately 30-50 of the highest-quality eligible

applications that meet the absolute priority, based upon the points

awarded under the selection criteria and competitive preferences during

the first-tier review. Those applications then will qualify for a

second-tier review.

In the second tier of review, a smaller number of panels comprised

of experts who have specialized research-based knowledge about early

childhood education, early literacy, and language development will

review the applications that qualify for this tier of review. These

specialized expert panels will evaluate the applications against the

selection criteria published in the notice inviting applications. This

second-tier review will be independent of the first-tier review. The

Secretary will prepare a rank order of the applications in the second-

tier review, based solely on the evaluation of their quality according

to the selection criteria and their qualification for additional points

under each of the competitive preferences.

The Secretary then will use the criteria in Sec. 75.217(d) to

determine the order in which the second group of applications will be

selected for grants.

Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking: It is the Secretary's general

practice, in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) (5

U.S.C. 553), to offer interested parties the opportunity to comment on

proposed rules. Section 437(d)(1) of the General Education Provisions

Act (GEPA), however, exempts from this requirement rules that apply to

the first competition under a new program such as this one. In

addition, section 553(b)(A) of the APA provides that procedural rules,

such as those in this notice, are not subject to rulemaking. Because of

the unanticipated need for special competition procedures and to ensure

timely awards of these grant funds, the Secretary has decided to forego

public comment with respect to these procedures in accordance with

section 437(d)(1) of GEPA and section 553(b)(A) of the APA. These

procedures will be applicable only to the FY 2001 competition.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Doris F. Sligh, Compensatory Education

Programs, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, 400 Maryland

Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20202-6132. Telephone: (202) 260-0999, or via

Internet: Doris.Sligh@ed.gov.

If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may

call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339. If

you are an individual with a disability, you may obtain a copy of this

notice in an alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape,

or computer diskette) on request to the contact person listed in the

preceding paragraph.

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:

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.

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. 6622 and Public Law No. 106-554.

Dated: July 12, 2001.

Thomas M. Corwin,

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary

Education.

[FR Doc. 01-17914 Filed 7-17-01; 8:45 am]

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