FR Doc 06-327
[Federal Register: January 12, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 8)]
[Notices]
[Page 2027-2029]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr12ja06-44]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
[CFDA Nos. 84.938B and 84.938C]
Grants and Cooperative Agreements; Availability
AGENCY: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Department of
Education.
ACTION: Notice announcing availability of funds and application
deadline for the Assistance for Homeless Youth program and the
Emergency Impact Aid for Displaced Students program under sections 106
and 107 of the Hurricane Education Recovery Act, Division B, Title IV
of Public Law 109-148.
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SUMMARY: Under the Emergency Impact Aid for Displaced Students
(Emergency Impact Aid) program (section 107 of the Hurricane Education
Recovery Act, Division B, Title IV of Pub. L. 109-148 (the Act)), we
will award grants to eligible State educational agencies (SEAs) to
enable them to make emergency impact aid payments to eligible local
educational agencies (LEAs) and eligible BIA-funded schools for the
cost of educating public and nonpublic school students displaced by
Hurricanes Katrina or Rita during school year 2005-2006. Under the
Assistance for Homeless Youth program (section 106 of the Act), we will
award grants to eligible SEAs to enable them to provide financial
assistance to LEAs serving homeless children and youth displaced by
Hurricanes Katrina or Rita in order to address the educational and
related needs of these students in a manner consistent with section 723
of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
An SEA will not apply separately for funding under the Emergency
Impact Aid and Assistance for Homeless Youth programs. Rather, an SEA
will submit a single application that covers both programs. The data
that the SEA provides in its application will be used to determine
allocations under both the Emergency Impact Aid program and the
Assistance for Homeless Youth program. In this notice, we announce the
availability of funds under the two programs and establish the deadline
for submission of the single SEA grant application.
SEA Application Deadline: February 2, 2006.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: There is available to SEAs under the
Emergency Impact Aid program a total of $645 million and under the
Assistance for Homeless Youth program a total of $5 million. We will
use the data on the numbers of displaced public and nonpublic students
that the Department is collecting under this application to determine
the amount of funding that an SEA receives under the Emergency Impact
Aid program.
Under the Assistance for Homeless Youth program, the Department is
authorized to disburse funding to SEAs based on demonstrated need, as
determined by the Secretary. The Secretary believes that the data that
we are collecting under this application provides a reasonable and
appropriate basis not only for allocating funds under the Emergency
Impact Aid program, but also for determining the relative needs of SEAs
for funding for public school students under the Assistance for
[[Page 2028]]
Homeless Youth program. Therefore, in order to minimize the burden on
SEAs, we will use data on the numbers of displaced public school
students that the Department is collecting under this application to
make allocations under the Assistance for Homeless Youth program.
Available Funds under the Emergency Impact Aid program:
$645,000,000.
Available Funds under the Assistance for Homeless Youth program:
$5,000,000.
Period of Fund Availability under the Emergency Impact Aid program:
SEAs, LEAs, and BIA-funded schools must obligate funds received under
section 107 of the Act by July 31, 2006. The SEA must return to the
Department any funds that are not obligated by SEAs, LEAs, or BIA-
funded schools by this deadline.
Period of Fund Availability under the Assistance for Homeless Youth
program: LEAs have until September 30, 2007 to obligate funds received
under section 106 of the Act. We strongly encourage SEAs to make these
funds available to LEAs at the earliest possible date. Furthermore, we
strongly encourage LEAs that receive assistance under this program to
obligate the funds in a timely fashion to address the immediate needs
of homeless students displaced by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita.
LEA Application Deadline under the Emergency Impact Aid program:
For the Emergency Impact Aid program, the Act requires LEAs to apply to
their SEAs for funds no later than 14 days after the date of
publication of this notice (i.e., no later than January 26, 2006.
LEA Application Deadline under the Assistance for Homeless Youth
program: There is no statutory deadline for LEA applications under this
program. Rather, each SEA that receives funding under the Assistance
for Homeless Youth program will set a reasonable deadline for the
submission of LEA applications. The SEA will distribute funds to LEAs
based on demonstrated need, for the purposes of carrying out section
723 of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
Student Enrollment Data: In the application for SEA funding, we
request quarterly data on the numbers of displaced students enrolled in
public, nonpublic, and BIA-funded schools as of four different count
dates. SEAs will report separate counts of students without
disabilities and students with disabilities. SEAs are required to
submit data for the first quarterly count in the initial applications.
The Department encourages SEAs to provide enrollment data for the first
two quarters of the 2005-2006 school year (i.e., the two quarters that
will have passed as of the date the SEA applications are due) in the
initial applications. SEAs and LEAs that meet the initial deadlines may
provide enrollment data for the subsequent quarters of the 2005-2006
school year at later dates.
We will use the enrollment data that are included in the SEA
application to make initial payments under the Emergency Impact Aid
program. In addition, we intend to use a portion of this data to make
allocations under the Assistance for Homeless Youth program.
Specifically, we intend to use the data on displaced public school
students during the first two quarters, as reported in the SEA
applications, to make final allocations under the Assistance for
Homeless Youth program.
We also are aware that it may take some time for SEAs and LEAs to
count, retroactively for the first and second quarters of the 2005-2006
school year, all students who may have now moved to other States or
districts. Therefore, SEAs and LEAs that meet these specified timelines
may make upward or downward revisions to their initial child counts in
the event that they collect more satisfactory data that were not
available at the time of their initial application submission. If the
Secretary determines that an SEA has received an initial payment that
is less than or in excess of what it should have received under the
Emergency Impact Aid program for any quarter, the Secretary will make
appropriate upward or downward revisions to subsequent payments that
the SEA is eligible to receive this year. If the SEA is not eligible
for subsequent payments, the SEA must promptly refund the amount of any
overpayment to the Secretary. SEAs must submit any application
amendments affecting allocations under the Emergency Impact Aid program
to the Department no later than April 30, 2006.
Given the much lower funding level under the Assistance to Homeless
Youth program, however, we do not intend to make multiple payments
under that program or to use revised data to make adjustments to
allocations under the program.
Other Requirements: LEAs must make Emergency Impact Aid payments to
accounts on behalf of displaced nonpublic school students within 14
calendar days of receiving payments from the SEAs.
The Secretary may solicit from any applicant at any time during the
respective periods of availability additional information needed to
process an application for either program. In addition, all displaced
public school students included in the counts in the SEA application
must participate in State accountability systems consistent with the
guidance letter to States from Secretary Margaret Spellings on
September 29, 2005. (http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/secletter/050929.html
)
Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking: Under the Administrative Procedure
Act (APA) (5 U.S.C. 553), the Department generally offers interested
parties the opportunity to comment on proposed program requirements.
Section 437(d)(2) of the General Education Provisions Act (20 U.S.C.
1232(d)(2)), however, allows the Secretary to exempt from rulemaking
requirements regulations where the Secretary determines that conducting
rulemaking will cause extreme hardship to the intended beneficiaries of
the program or programs affected by the regulations.
The Secretary has determined that conducting rulemaking for the
Assistance for Homeless Youth and Emergency Impact Aid programs,
including the procedures permitting SEAs and LEAs to amend their
applications to submit revised student count data and allowing for
upward or downward adjustment of subsequent payments under the
Emergency Impact Aid program and the procedures for awarding funds
under the Assistance for Homeless Youth program, would cause extreme
hardship to the beneficiaries of these programs for several significant
reasons. The Act was signed into law on December 30, 2005, and
specifies very tight timelines that SEAs and LEAs must meet to receive
assistance under the Emergency Impact Aid program. Specifically, the
Act requires the collection and submission of extremely time-critical
student data and related information in applications from SEAs that
will reflect data from LEAs, BIA-funded schools, and parents of
displaced nonpublic school children. The Emergency Impact Aid program's
purpose is to provide immediate aid for the costs related to the
education of these displaced students for the 2005-2006 school year,
and the Act further requires that the recipients obligate all funds by
the end of 2005-2006 school year.
Furthermore, SEAs and LEAs throughout the country have tremendous
needs and expenses related to educating homeless students displaced by
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It is essential, therefore, that the
Department also award funding under the Assistance for Homeless Youth
program at the earliest possible date. Therefore, in order to avoid
further
[[Page 2029]]
harm and hardship to applicants under either program and make timely
grant awards, the Secretary is waiving rulemaking for these one-time
programs under the Act.
Electronic Submission of Applications: An eligible SEA that seeks
funding under the Assistance for Homeless Youth program and the
Emergency Impact Aid program, as authorized under sections 106 and 107
of the Act, must submit its application to the Department on or before
February 2, 2006, no later than 4:30 p.m., Washington, DC time. You
must submit your initial application electronically using the
Department's Electronic Grant Application System (e-Application)
available through the Department's e-Grants system. You may not e-mail
an electronic copy of a grant application to us.
You can access the electronic application for the Assistance for
Homeless Youth and Emergency Impact Aid programs at: http://e-grants.ed.gov
.
Once you access this site, you will receive specific instructions
regarding the information to include in your application. The regular
hours of operation of the e-Application Web site are 6 a.m. Monday
until 7 p.m. Wednesday; and 6 a.m. Thursday until midnight, Saturday
(Washington, DC time). Please note that the system is unavailable on
Sundays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For the Emergency Impact Aid program:
Ms. Catherine Schagh, Director, Impact Aid Program, U.S. Department of
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20202-6244.
Telephone: (202) 260-3858 or via the Internet: Impact.Aid@ed.gov. For
the Assistance for Homeless Youth program: Mr. Gary Rutkin, Program
Officer, Homeless Children and Youth Program, U.S. Department of
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20202-6244.
Telephone: (202) 260-4412 or via the Internet: gary.rutkin@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 the application package in an alternative
format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer diskette) on
request to one of the contact persons listed in this section.
Electronic Access to This Document: You may view this document, as
well as 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.
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
.
Program Authority: Division B, Title IV of Pub. L. 109-148.
Dated: January 10, 2006.
Henry L. Johnson,
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education.
[FR Doc. 06-327 Filed 1-10-06; 12:50 pm]
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