Department of Education March 4, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Secretary amends the regulations governing the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) to provide greater flexibility to school districts designing MSAP programs for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 grant competition announced in a notice inviting applications for new awards published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register. These changes remove provisions in the regulations that require districts to use binary racial classifications and prohibit the creation of magnet schools that result in minority group enrollments in magnet and feeder schools exceeding the district-wide average of minority group students. This new flexibility is necessary to permit school districts interested in receiving funds under this program to determine how best to meet program requirements while also taking into account intervening Supreme Court case law, including the Court's decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No 1 et al., 551 U.S. 701 (2007) (Parents Involved).