[Federal Register: April 26, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 81)]
[Notices]
[Page 20756-20758]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr26ap02-68]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
[CFDA No.: 84.144]
Migrant Education Program (MEP) Consortium Incentive Grants
program
ACTION: Notice inviting applications for new awards for fiscal year
2002.
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Purpose of Program: The purpose of the FY 2002 MEP Consortium
Incentive Grants program is to provide incentive grants to State
educational agencies (SEAs) that participate in consortium arrangements
with another State or appropriate entity to improve the delivery of
services to migrant children whose education is interrupted.
Eligible Applicants: SEAs receiving MEP Basic State Formula grants.
Applications Available: April 26, 2002.
Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: June 3, 2002.
Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: August 2, 2002.
Available Funds: $2,300,000.
Estimated Range of Awards: $25,000-$75,000.
Estimated Average Size of Awards: $57,500.
Estimated Number of Awards: 40.
Project Period: Up to 27 months.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Migrant Education Program (MEP) is
authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
(ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Pub. L.
107-110). The MEP provides financial assistance to States to support
high-quality and comprehensive educational programs so that migrant
children are provided with appropriate educational and supportive
services that (1) address their special needs in a coordinated and
efficient manner, and (2) give migrant children the opportunity to meet
challenging State content and student performance standards.
Section 1308(d) of the ESEA authorizes the Secretary to provide
competitive incentive grants to SEAs that participate in consortium
arrangements with another State or appropriate entity to improve the
delivery of services to migrant children. Section 1308(d) also limits
the size of each of these grants to not more than $250,000. For the FY
2002 competition, the Secretary plans to reserve $2.3 million for
consortium incentive grant awards.
Through this notice the Secretary announces requirements and
procedures to govern the competition for FY 2002 grant funds. So that
existing consortia relationships that were established under the ESEA
as previously authorized may be maintained and funded without
disruption of services for migrant students, the Secretary has decided
to announce these requirements and procedures at this time without
first providing the public an opportunity for review and comment.
Except for the new statutory requirement in Section 1308(d) that the
consortium arrangements improve the delivery of services to migrant
students whose education is interrupted, the requirements and
procedures for the upcoming FY 2002 competition are the same as the
Secretary has used for competitions conducted under the ESEA as
previously authorized.
Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking
Under the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553) the
Department generally offers interested parties the opportunity to
comment on proposed regulations. However, in order to make
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timely grant awards in FY 2002, the Secretary has decided to issue
these final requirements without first publishing them as proposals for
public comment. These requirements will apply to the FY 2002 grant
competition only. The Secretary takes this action under section
437(d)(1) of the General Education Provisions Act.
At a later date the Secretary plans to publish a notice of proposed
requirements for this program and offer interested parties the
opportunity to comment. The proposed requirements (or more
specifically, the final requirements resulting from them) would apply
to grant competitions under the program beginning in FY 2003.
Requirements and Procedures To Govern the FY 2002 Grant Competition
The Secretary will award consortium incentive grants for FY 2002
under section 1308(d) to SEAs that propose to form a consortium with
another State or entity and demonstrate in accordance with section
1303(d)(3) of the ESEA that doing so will--
a. Reduce administrative costs or program function costs for State
MEP programs; and
b. Make more MEP funds available for direct services to add
substantially to the welfare or educational attainment of children to
be served.
In addition, section 1308(d) requires that SEAs receiving grants
form consortia to improve the delivery of services to migrant students
whose education has been interrupted.
Applicable Definitions
For purposes of this program, ``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 migrant children. Administrative
and program function costs include the costs of general program
administration paid from funds reserved under section 1004 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 migrant children, as well as
training of instructional or support staff who provide instructional or
support services directly to migrant children.
In addition, for purposes of section 1308(d) the term ``other
appropriate entity'' can mean any public or private agency or
organization.
Application Requirements
A single SEA may be part of more than one consortium arrangement.
However, consistent with the provisions in section 1303(d) of the ESEA,
for the FY 2002 competition each consortium arrangement that the
Secretary approves must separately decrease the amount of MEP
administrative or program function costs in total for the participating
SEAs and, conversely, increase the amount of MEP funds available for
direct services to migrant children in total for the participating
SEAs. An SEA will submit the information that the Department needs in
order to review the SEA's consortium arrangement and determine the size
of the SEA's consortium incentive grant.
Amount of Incentive Grants
Each SEA with one or more consortium arrangements that the
Secretary determines meet the criteria announced in this notice, and
whose consortium arrangements increase the amount of MEP funds
available for direct services to migrant 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 migrant 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 migrant children in the State in the absence of the consortium.
Example 1: SEA A has one consortium arrangement that increases
the amount of funds available for direct services in State A by ten
percent, while SEA B has two consortium arrangements that increase
the total amount of funds available for direct services in State B
by eight percent. SEA A would be ranked higher than SEA B even if
SEA B's consortium arrangements permit more total funds to be used
for direct services.
Example 2: 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 their participation in the
consortium, but the amount available for direct services in State C
does not increase, the 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 Secretary 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 the applicant SEA participates. The
Secretary will then rank these percentages in descending order and
divide the distribution into thirds (that is, into 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.
Use of Consortium Incentive Grant Funds
An SEA may use incentive grant funds awarded under section 1308(d)
of the ESEA only to provide direct services to migrant children. These
funds are in addition to, and not in place of, the funds awarded under
the MEP formula grant.
Applicable Regulations
In view of the process that the Secretary proposes to use to obtain
information on proposed SEA consortium arrangements, and the criteria
it proposes to use to determine, by formula, the amount of the
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 consortium incentive grant program will be administered,
like the MEP itself, under the provisions of 34 CFR parts 76, 77, 79,
80, 82 and 85 of EDGAR.
For Applications and Further Information Contact: To obtain a copy
of the application or to obtain information on the program, call or
write James English, U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary
and Secondary Education, Office of Migrant Education, 400 Maryland
Ave., SW., Room 3E315, FOB6, Washington, DC 20202-6135. Telephone:
(202) 260-1394. Inquiries may be sent by e-mail to james.english@ed.gov
or by FAX at (202) 205-0089. If you use a telecommunications device for
the deaf (TDD), you may call the Federal Information Relay Service
(FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339. A copy of the application can be obtained
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electronically at: http://www.ed.gov/GrantApps.
Individuals who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD)
may call 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 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 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 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. 6398(d).
Dated: April 22, 2002.
Susan B. Neuman,
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education.
[FR Doc. 02-10357 Filed 4-25-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P