FR Doc 03-11628
[Federal Register: May 9, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 90)]
[Notices]
[Page 25017-25019]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr09my03-77]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
RIN 1820 ZA19
National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research
AGENCY: Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services,
Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of proposed priority.
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SUMMARY: The Assistant Secretary for Special Education and
Rehabilitative Services proposes a priority for a Technical Assistance
Resource Center on Parenting with a Disability under the Disability and
Rehabilitation Research Projects (DRRP) Program under the National
Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR). The
Assistant Secretary may use this priority for competitions in fiscal
year (FY) 2003 and later years. We take this action to focus research
attention on an identified national need. We intend this priority to
improve rehabilitation services and outcomes for individuals with
disabilities.
DATES: We must receive your comments on or before June 9, 2003.
ADDRESSES: Address all comments about this proposed priority to Donna
Nangle, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., room
3412, Switzer Building, Washington, DC 20202-2645. If you prefer to
send your comments through the Internet, use the following address:
donna.nangle@ed.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Donna Nangle. Telephone: (202) 205-
5880.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may
call the TDD number at (202) 205-4475 or via the Internet:
donna.nangle@ed.gov. 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 proposed priority.
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 proposed
priority. Please let us know of any further opportunities we should
take to reduce potential costs or increase potential benefits while
[[Page 25018]]
preserving the effective and efficient administration of the program.
During and after the comment period, you may inspect all public
comments about this priority in Room 3412, Switzer Building, 330 C
Street, 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 this proposed priority. If you want to schedule
an appointment for this type of aid, please contact the person listed
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
We will announce the final priority in a notice in the Federal
Register. We will determine the final priority 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, subject to meeting applicable rulemaking
requirements.
Note: This notice does not solicit applications. In any year in
which we choose to use this proposed priority, we invite
applications through a notice published 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 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 competitive
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
priority a competitive or absolute preference over other applications
(34 CFR 75.105(c)(1)).
Note: NIDRR supports the goals of President Bush's New Freedom
Initiative (NFI). The NFI can be accessed on the Internet at the
following site: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/freedominitiative/freedominitiative.html.
The proposed priority is in concert with NIDRR's Long-Range Plan
(the Plan). The Plan is comprehensive and integrates many issues
relating to disability and rehabilitation research topics. While
applicants will find many sections throughout the Plan that support
potential research to be conducted under this proposed priority, a
specific reference is included for the topic presented in this notice.
The Plan can be accessed on the Internet at the following site: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/NIDRR/Products.
Through the implementation of the Plan, NIDRR seeks to: (1) Improve
the quality and utility of disability and rehabilitation research; (2)
foster an exchange of expertise, information, and training to
facilitate the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the unique
needs of traditionally underserved populations; (3) determine best
strategies and programs to improve rehabilitation outcomes for
underserved populations; (4) identify research gaps; (5) identify
mechanisms of integrating research and practice; and (6) disseminate
findings.
Disability and Rehabilitation Research Projects (DRRP) Program
The purpose of the DRRP Program is to plan and conduct research,
demonstration projects, training, and related activities that help to
maximize the full inclusion and integration of individuals with
disabilities into society and to improve the effectiveness of services
authorized under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (the Act).
An applicant for assistance under this program must demonstrate in its
application how it will address, in whole or in part, the needs of
individuals with disabilities from minority backgrounds (34 CFR
350.40(a)). The approaches an applicant may take to meet this
requirement are found in 34 CFR 350.40(b).
Priority
Background
This DRRP will provide expertise or information to assist people
who have disabilities to fulfill their roles as parents. Dissemination
is the systematic distribution of information or knowledge through a
variety of ways to potential users or beneficiaries. Utilization
relates research findings to practical applications in planning,
policymaking, program administration, and delivery of services to
individuals with disabilities.
NIDRR research addresses many aspects of parenting with a
disability. NIDRR projects develop and evaluate assistive devices for
use in child care; analyze employment and health care benefits and
options to enhance families; assess the impact of public and private
policies on parents with a disability; and investigate models of home-
based care and positive family roles as community integration
strategies. The resource center may provide information and technical
assistance on custody, prenatal and neonatal, adoption, adaptive
parenting equipment, and general parenting information. Information and
technical assistance will assist individuals with a wide range of
disabilities including, but not limited to, parents with physical,
vision, hearing, intellectual, and behavioral disabilities.
In addition to parents with disabilities and their families,
individuals in need of information about parenting with a disability
may include advocates and personal care providers (especially those
working in independent living); legal, social service, and medical
professionals; rehabilitation personnel; teachers and school
administrators; librarians and information specialists; and members of
the media.
Proposed Priority--Resource and Technical Assistance Center on
Parenting with a Disability
The Assistant Secretary proposes to fund one DRRP that will focus a
dissemination, utilization, training, and technical assistance project
to be a ``Resource and Technical Assistance Center on Parenting with a
Disability.'' The references for this topic can be found in the Plan,
chapter 2, Dimensions of Disability: Disability, Employment, and
Independent Living and chapter 8, Knowledge Dissemination and
Utilization: Overview. The DRRP must:
(1) Develop quality standards to guide the identification of
information for dissemination;
(2) Provide information and technical assistance to people with
disabilities who are or wish to be parents. A variety of methods and
tools will be developed to provide information and technical
assistance. Tools might include such items as: Catalogues and listings
of assistive technology, fact sheets, and articles for publication in
various media. Methods to reach interested parties might include:
interactive features of the Internet, wide area telephone service,
presentations at
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meetings or conferences and personal visits;
(3) Develop parent-to-parent support methods, including approaches
for sharing of information about ``best practices'' in parenting with a
disability;
(4) Train parents, potential parents, service providers and others
on issues relating to parenting with a disability and the research,
information and services available to them; and
(5) Evaluate project technical assistance and information
dissemination activities.
In carrying out the purposes of the priority, the DRRP must:
[sbull] Through consultation with the NIDRR project officer,
coordinate and establish partnerships, as appropriate, with other
projects sponsored by OSERS, academic institutions and organizations
that are relevant to the project's proposed activities;
[sbull] Demonstrate how the project will yield measurable results
for people with disabilities;
[sbull] Identify specific performance targets and propose outcome
indicators, along with time lines to reach these targets; and
[sbull] Using information developed from the project's
dissemination, training, and technical assistance activities, with
emphasis on materials from NIDRR projects, provide materials,
consultation, technical assistance, and related capacity-building
activities to NIDRR grantees on how to assist parents with
disabilities.
Executive Order 12866
This notice of proposed priority 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 priority
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 priority, we have
determined that the benefits of the proposed priority justify the
costs.
Summary of potential costs and benefits: The potential cost
associated with this proposed priority is minimal while the benefits
are significant. Grantees may anticipate costs associated with
completing the application process in terms of staff time, copying, and
mailing or delivery. The use of e-Application technology reduces
mailing and copying costs significantly.
The benefits of the Resource and Technical Assistance Center on
Parenting with a Disability has been well established over the years in
that similar projects have been completed. This proposed priority will
generate new knowledge through a dissemination, utilization, training,
and technical assistance project.
The benefit of this proposed priority and proposed applications and
project requirements will be the establishment of a new DRRP projects
that generates, disseminates, and promotes the use of new information
that will improve the options for disable individuals to perform
regular activities in the community.
Applicable Program Regulations: 34 CFR part 350.
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
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the Washington, DC, area at (202) 512-1530.
Note: The official version of this document is 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.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 84.133A, Disability
Rehabilitation Research Project.)
Program Authority: 29 U.S.C. 762(g) and 764(a).
Dated: May 6, 2003.
Robert H. Pasternack,
Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.
[FR Doc. 03-11628 Filed 5-8-03; 8:45 am]
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