Special Education--Technical Assistance and Dissemination To Improve Services and Results for Children With Disabilities Notice inviting applications for new awards for fiscal year (FY) 2002, CFDA No. 84.326B [OSERS]

[Federal Register: August 9, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 154)]
[Notices]
[Page 52373-52375]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr09au02-149]

[[Page 52373]]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Part VIII

Department of Education

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services; Special
Education--Technical Assistance and Dissemination to Improve Services
and Results for Children With Disabilities; Notice

[[Page 52374]]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No.: 84.326B]

Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services; Special
Education--Technical Assistance and Dissemination To Improve Services
and Results for Children With Disabilities

AGENCY: Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice inviting applications for new awards for fiscal year
(FY) 2002.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Assistant Secretary for Special Education and
Rehabilitative Services invites applications for FY 2002 under the
Special Education--Technical Assistance and Dissemination to Improve
Services and Results for Children with Disabilities. This program is
authorized by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA),
as amended. This notice provides closing dates, a priority, and other
information regarding the transmittal of applications.

Waiver of Rulemaking

It is generally our practice to offer interested parties the
opportunity to comment on proposed priorities. However, section
661(e)(2) of IDEA makes the rulemaking procedures in the Administrative
Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553) inapplicable to the priority in this
notice.

General Requirements

(a) The project funded under this notice must make positive efforts
to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with
disabilities in project activities (see section 606 of IDEA).
(b) Applicants and grant recipients funded under this notice must
involve individuals with disabilities or parents of individuals with
disabilities in planning, implementing, and evaluating the projects
(see section 661(f)(1)(A) of IDEA).
(c) The project funded under this priority must budget for a two-
day Project Directors' meeting in Washington, DC during each year of
the project.
(d) If the project maintains a Web site, it must include relevant
information and documents in an accessible form.
Purpose of Program: The purpose of this program is to provide
technical assistance and information--through such mechanisms as
institutes, regional resource centers, clearinghouses, and programs
that support States and local entities in building capacity--to (1)
improve early intervention, educational, and transitional services and
results for children with disabilities and their families; and (2)
address systemic-change goals and priorities.
Eligible Applicants: State educational agencies, local educational
agencies, institutions of higher education, other public agencies,
nonprofit private organizations, for-profit organizations, outlying
areas, freely associated States, and Indian tribes or tribal
organizations.
Applications Available: August 9, 2002.
Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: September 9, 2002.
Intergovernmental Review: This program is subject to the
requirements of 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.
This document provides early notification of our specific plans and
actions for this program.
Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: September 19, 2002.
Estimated Available Funds: $700,000.
Maximum Awards: $700,000.
Estimated Number of Awards: Under this priority, the Secretary will
make one award for a cooperative agreement.

Note: The Department is not bound by any estimates in this
notice.

Project Period: The project funded in this notice is for a project
period of up to 60 months.
Applicable Regulations: (a) The Education Department General
Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 80,
81, 82, 85, 86, 97, 98, and 99; and (b) The selection criteria, chosen
from the general selection criteria in 34 CFR 75.210. The specific
selection criteria for this priority are included in the application
package for the competition.

Note: The regulations in 34 CFR part 86 apply to institutions of
higher education only.

Priority: Under sections 661(e) and 685 of IDEA and 34 CFR
75.105(c)(3), we give an absolute preference to applications that meet
the following priority. We will fund under this competition only those
applications that meet this priority:

Absolute Priority--Urban Inclusion Technical Assistance Center
(84.326B)

Background: Compared with suburban and rural local educational
agencies (LEAs), urban LEAs place disproportionately more children with
disabilities, particularly children with severe disabilities, in
segregated classrooms or in separate schools, where they are less
likely to have access to and instruction in the general education
curriculum. In urban LEAs, special education services are often not
aligned with or part of comprehensive school improvement efforts
because special education is viewed as a separate system or a
placement.
In addition, in many schools special education is seen as the only
viable option to provide support to students who are falling behind. In
these cases, children who could benefit substantially from
scientifically-based interventions in such areas as reading are
unnecessarily referred to special education.
Priority: The purpose of this priority is to support a center to
promote placing children with disabilities in general education
classrooms by assisting urban schools and LEAs to implement practices
that have been shown to be effective in providing expanded access to,
and improving results in, the general education classroom. In
conducting its activities, the Center must put particular emphasis on
education in the general education curriculum.
The Center funded under this priority must do the following:
(a) Identify effective practices for promoting inclusive placement
in general education classrooms. These practices must include both
effective practices in educating children, including early
identification of children with learning difficulties and pre-referral
intervention strategies, and effective practices in assisting and
encouraging schools and LEAs to adopt those practices. The Center must
identify these practices through such means as the Department's ``What
Works'' clearinghouse, and planned OSERS centers targeted on (1)
disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically
diverse students in special education and (2) improving access to and
participation in the general education curriculum for children in
elementary and secondary schools.
(b) Conduct a range of activities using the practices identified in
paragraph (a) that promote instruction and support services in general
education classrooms. These activities must include:
(1) General dissemination activities such as maintenance of a
website and presentations at conferences that provide information on
effective practices to broad audiences; and
(2) Creating partnerships with a limited number of LEAs that have

[[Page 52375]]

demonstrated the ability and willingness to adopt new practices to help
them design, implement, and evaluate practices that will expand or
improve education in inclusive general education classroom for students
with disabilities, including students with severe disabilities. Through
these partnerships, the Center must provide technical assistance,
training, and other support to the LEAs.
(c) In promoting access and participation in general education
classrooms, the Center must:
(1) Take advantage of new tools for improving results for students
provided by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2002. These include:
(A) School accountability for all students including, specifically,
students with disabilities;
(B) Curricula and accountability systems aligned with statewide
accountability systems; and
(C) State academic achievement standards that address, at a
minimum, reading and mathematics; and
(2) Address the need for on-going, high quality professional
development to ensure that personnel have skills and knowledge based on
the most current findings related to effective practice; and
(3) Include ways that families, communities, and schools can work
together to improve results.
(d) Evaluate its activities based on clear, measurable goals that
are clearly linked to results.
Fourth and Fifth Years of Project: In deciding whether to continue
this project for the fourth and fifth years, the Secretary will
consider the requirements of 34 CFR 75.253(a) for continuation awards.
The Secretary will also consider the following:
(a) The recommendation of a review team consisting of experts
selected by the Secretary. The team will conduct its review in
Washington, DC during the last half of the project's second year. A
project must budget for the travel associated with this one-day
intensive review.
(b) The timeliness and effectiveness with which all requirements of
the negotiated cooperative agreement have been or are being met by the
project.
(c) Evidence of the degree to which the project's activities have
contributed to changed practice and improved student outcomes.
Page Limit: Part III of each application submitted under this
notice, the application narrative, is where an applicant addresses the
selection criteria that are used by reviewers in evaluating the
application. You must limit Part III to the equivalent of no more than
70 pages, using the following standards:
A ``page'' is 8.5" x 11" (on one side only) with one-inch
margins (top, bottom, and sides).
Double-space (no more than three lines per vertical inch)
all text in the application narrative, including titles, headings,
footnotes, quotations, and captions, as well as all text in charts,
tables, figures, and graphs.
Use a font that is either 12-point or larger or no smaller
than 10 pitch (characters per inch).
The page limit does not apply to Part I--the cover sheet; Part II--
the budget section, including the narrative budget justification; Part
IV, the assurances and certifications; or the one-page abstract, the
resumes, the bibliography or references, or the letters of support.
However, you must include all of the application narrative in Part III.
We will reject without consideration or evaluation any application
if --
You apply these standards and exceed the page limit; or
You apply other standards and exceed the equivalent of the
page limit.
For Applications Contact: Education Publications Center (ED Pubs),
PO Box 1398, Jessup, Maryland 20794-1398. Telephone (toll free): 1-877-
4ED-Pubs (1-877-433-7827). FAX: 301-470-1244. If you use a
telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may call (toll free)
1-877-576-7734.
You may also contact Ed Pubs at its Web site: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingFR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.ed.gov/pubs/edpubs.html.
Or you may contact Ed Pubs at its e-mail address:
edpubs@inet.ed.gov.
If you request an application from Ed Pubs, be sure to identify
this competition as follows: CFDA No. 84.326B.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Grants and Contracts Services Team,
U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., room 3317,
Switzer Building, Washington, DC 20202-2550. Telephone: (202) 205-8207.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you 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 Grants and Contracts Services Team under
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
However, the Department is not able to reproduce in an alternative
format the standard forms included in the application package.

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://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingFR.html&log=linklog&to=http://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://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingFR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.access.gpo/nara/index.html.

Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1485.

Dated: August 6, 2002.
Loretta Petty Chittum,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative
Services.
[FR Doc. 02-20255 Filed 8-8-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P