Grants and Cooperative Agreements; Availability, 2027-2029 [06-327]
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Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 8 / Thursday, January 12, 2006 / Notices
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Submission for OMB Review;
Comment Request
Department of Education.
The IC Clearance Official,
Regulatory Information Management
Services, Office of the Chief Information
Officer invites comments on the
submission for OMB review as required
by the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995.
DATES: Interested persons are invited to
submit comments on or before February
13, 2006.
ADDRESSES: Written comments should
be addressed to the Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs,
Attention: Rachel Potter, Desk Officer,
Department of Education, Office of
Management and Budget, 725 17th
Street, NW., Room 10222, New
Executive Office Building, Washington,
DC 20503 or faxed to (202) 395–6974.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section
3506 of the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35) requires
that the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) provide interested
Federal agencies and the public an early
opportunity to comment on information
collection requests. OMB may amend or
waive the requirement for public
consultation to the extent that public
participation in the approval process
would defeat the purpose of the
information collection, violate State or
Federal law, or substantially interfere
with any agency’s ability to perform its
statutory obligations. The IC Clearance
Official, Regulatory Information
Management Services, Office of the
Chief Information Officer, publishes that
notice containing proposed information
collection requests prior to submission
of these requests to OMB. Each
proposed information collection,
grouped by office, contains the
following: (1) Type of review requested,
e.g., new, revision, extension, existing
or reinstatement; (2) Title; (3) Summary
of the collection; (4) Description of the
need for, and proposed use of, the
information; (5) Respondents and
frequency of collection; and (6)
Reporting and/or Recordkeeping
burden. OMB invites public comment.
AGENCY:
erjones on PROD1PC68 with NOTICES
SUMMARY:
Dated: January 4, 2006.
Angela C. Arrington,
IC Clearance Official, Regulatory Information
Management Services, Office of the Chief
Information Officer.
Federal Student Aid
Type of Review: Extension.
Title: Lender’s Application Process
(LAP).
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Frequency: On Occasion.
Affected Public: State, local, or tribal
gov’t, SEAs or LEAs; Businesses or other
for-profit.
Reporting and Recordkeeping Hour
Burden:
Responses: 58.
Burden Hours: 9.
Abstract: The Lender’s Application
Process is submitted by lenders who are
eligible for reimbursement of interest
and special allowance, as well as
Federal Insured Student Loan (FISL)
claims payment, under the Federal
Family Education Loan Program. The
information will be used by ED to
update Lender Indentification Numbers
(LID’s) lenders names, addresses with 9
digit zip codes and other pertinent
information.
Requests for copies of the information
collection submission for OMB review
may be accessed from https://
edicsweb.ed.gov, by selecting the
‘‘Browse Pending Collections’’ link and
by clicking on link number 2916. When
you access the information collection,
click on ‘‘Download Attachments’’ to
view. Written requests for information
should be addressed to U.S. Department
of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue,
SW., Potomac Center, 9th Floor,
Washington, DC 20202–4700. Requests
may also be electronically mailed to
IC_DocketMgr@ed.gov or faxed to 202–
245–6623. Please specify the complete
title of the information collection when
making your request.
Comments regarding burden and/or
the collection activity requirements
should be electronically mailed to
IC_DocketMgr@ed.gov. Individuals who
use a telecommunications device for the
deaf (TDD) may call the Federal
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1–
800–877–8339.
[FR Doc. E6–192 Filed 1–11–06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
[CFDA Nos. 84.938B and 84.938C]
Grants and Cooperative Agreements;
Availability
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.
AGENCY:
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2027
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
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Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 8 / Thursday, January 12, 2006 / Notices
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
VerDate Aug<31>2005
15:02 Jan 11, 2006
Jkt 208001
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
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Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
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.
(https://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, BIAfunded 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
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Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 8 / Thursday, January 12, 2006 / Notices
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 eGrants 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: https://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
VerDate Aug<31>2005
15:02 Jan 11, 2006
Jkt 208001
at the following site: https://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: https://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]
BILLING CODE 4000–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
A National Dialogue: The Secretary of
Education’s Commission on the Future
of Higher Education
A National Dialogue: The
Secretary of Education’s Commission on
the Future of Higher Education, U.S.
Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of public hearing.
AGENCY:
SUMMARY: This notice sets forth the
schedule and proposed agenda of an
upcoming public hearing with members
of A National Dialogue: The Secretary of
Education’s Commission on the Future
of Higher Education (Commission).
Notice of this meeting is required by
section 10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory
Committee Act and is intended to notify
the public of their opportunity to attend.
DATE: Tuesday, February 7, 2006.
TIME: Tuesday, February 7, 2006: 9 a.m.
to 4 p.m.
ADDRESSES: The public hearing will be
held in Seattle, WA, at the Seattle
Crowne Plaza, 1113 Sixth Avenue,
Seattle, WA.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Cheryl Oldham, Executive Director, A
National Dialogue: The Secretary of
Education’s Commission on the Future
of Higher Education, 400 Maryland
Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20202–
3510; telephone: (202) 205–8741.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The
Commission is established by the
Secretary of Education to begin a
national dialogue about the future of
higher education in this country. The
purpose of this Commission is to
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2029
consider how best to improve our
system of higher education to ensure
that our graduates are well prepared too
meet our future workforce needs and are
able to participate fully in the changing
economy. The Commission shall
consider federal, state, local and
institutional roles in higher education
and analyze whether the current goals of
higher education are appropriate and
achievable. The Commission will also
focus on the increasing tuition costs and
the perception of many families,
particularly low-income families, that
higher education is inaccessible.
The agenda for this public hearing
will begin with presentations from
panels of invited speakers addressing
the four areas of focus for the
Commission: access, accountability,
affordability, and quality. After the
presentations by invited speakers, there
will be time reserved for comments from
the public.
If you are interested in participating
in the public comment period to present
comments to the Commission, you are
requested to reserve time on the agenda
of the meeting by email or phone. Please
include your name, the organization you
represent if appropriate, and a brief
description of the issue you would like
to present. Participants will be allowed
approximately three to five minutes to
present their comments, depending on
the number of individuals who reserve
time on the agenda. At the meeting,
participants are also encouraged to
submit four written copies of their
comments. Persons interested in making
comments are encourage to address the
following issues and questions:
(1) How accessible is higher education
today: Is this changing?
(2) Do students have access to the
institutions best suited to their needs
and abilities:
(3) What is the real cost of educating
college students? How fast is it rising?
(4) What is the true price of a college
education?
(5) What is the quality of higher
education in America?
(6) How well are universities meeting
specific national needs?
Given the expected number of
individuals interested in providing
comments at the meeting, reservations
for presenting comments should be
made as soon as possible. Persons who
are unable to obtain reservations to
speak during the meetings are
encouraged to submit written
comments. Written comments will be
accepted at the meeting site or may be
mailed to the Commission at the address
listed above.
Individuals who will need
accommodations for a disability in order
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 8 (Thursday, January 12, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2027-2029]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-327]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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. (https://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: https://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: https://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: https://www.gpoaccess.gov/
nara/.
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]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
