Department of Education August 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Federal Perkins Loan Program allows for assignment of certain defaulted loans from schools to continued collection efforts when the school has exhausted all of its efforts in recovering an outstanding loan. The Perkins Assignment Form serves as the transmittal document in the assignment of such loans to the Federal Government. Schools participating in the Federal Perkins Loan Program, formerly the National Direct/Defense Student Loan Program (NDSL), currently use this form to assign defaulted loans to the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) for collection. These defaulted loans may, as outlined in 20 U.S.C. 1087cc and under program regulations 34 CFR 674.50, be assigned to the Federal government (i.e., U.S. Department of Education) for collection when the school has exhausted all efforts in the recovery of the outstanding loan. In addition, schools use this form to assign loans for which a school has approved a total and permanent disability discharge request, in accordance with 34 CFR 674.61(b)(2)(v).

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011), is a survey that focuses on children's early school experiences beginning with kindergarten and continuing through the fifth grade. It includes the collection of data from parents, teachers, school administrators, and non-parental care providers, as well as direct child assessments. Like the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K),\[1]\ the ECLS-K:2011 is exceptionally broad in its scope and coverage of child development, early learning, and school progress, drawing together information from multiple sources to provide rich data about the population of children who were kindergartners in the 2010-11 school year.

On September 23, 2011, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) invited State educational agencies (SEAs) to request flexibility pursuant to the authority in section 9401 of ESEA, which allows the Secretary of Education to waive, with certain exceptions, any statutory or regulatory requirement of the ESEA for an SEA that receives funds under a program authorized by the ESEA and requests a waiver. In order to ensure that SEAs receiving ESEA flexibility are continuing to meet the intent and purpose of Title I of ESEA, including meeting the educational needs of low-achieving students, closing achievement gaps, and holding schools, local educational agencies, and SEAs accountable for improving the academic achievement of all students, ED will continue to collect all data related to student proficiency rates as well as performance against the annual measurable objectives. This collection will be applicable to SEAs with approved flexibility requests.

The Secretary announces the members of the Performance Review Board (PRB) for the Department of Education for the Senior Executive Service (SES). Under 5 U.S.C. 4314(c)(1) through (5), each agency is required to establish one or more PRBs.

The needs assessment consists of an online survey of a sample of school board members, district administrators, principals, and teachers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The purpose of the sample survey is to assess: the importance these populations attach to the four issues identified in advance by REL Midwest as priorities for the region; for each issue, the types of data and analysis supports, and research and evaluation needs which respondents anticipate would be of particular value; and what factors would increase the likelihood respondents and the populations they represent would turn to the REL for data and analysis supports, or research and evaluation needs in the future. The results of the survey will be used to prioritize the assistance that REL Midwest provides to educators in the region for utilizing their longitudinal data systems, conducting high quality research and evaluation; learning about the best education research; and incorporating data into policy and practice.

The Preauthorized Debit Account (PDA) Application is used to establish electronic debiting for individuals who have requested to have their defaulted federal education debt payments debited from their bank accounts.

This notice sets forth the announcement of a conference call meeting of the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. The notice also describes the functions of the Commission. Notice of the meeting is required by section 10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act and is intended to notify the public of this meeting.

This request from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), of the U.S. Department of Education (ED), is for clearance for the full scale data collection for the 2012-13 Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS:2013) and Principal Follow-up Survey (PFS:2013) to the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS:2012). The seventh cycle of SASS (2011-12) is currently being conducted and the proposed TFS:2013 will be the seventh corresponding cycle of TFS, while PFS:2013 will be the second cycle of PFS. The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) is an in- depth, nationally-representative survey of first through twelfth grade public and private school teachers, principals, schools, library media centers, and school districts. Kindergarten teachers in schools with at least a first grade are also surveyed. For traditional public school districts, principals, schools, teachers, and school libraries, the survey estimates are state-representative. For public charter schools, principals, teachers, and school libraries, the survey estimates are nationally-representative. For private school principals, schools, and teachers, the survey estimates are representative of private school types. The TFS is a survey of teachers with the main purpose of providing a one-year teacher attrition rate. The PFS is a survey of principals that assesses how many school principals work in the same school as reported a year earlier in SASS:2012, how many have moved to become a principal at another school, and how many have left the principalship altogether. Similar to earlier TFS collections, the TFS:2013 sample of 7,000 teachers (drawn using a sampling design similar to that used in earlier TFS collections) is a sub-sample of the teachers who responded to SASS:2012. The PFS:2013 sample includes all of the approximately 9,800 schools whose principals completed questionnaires in SASS:2012.

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (Privacy Act), the Department of Education (Department) publishes this notice to revise the system of records notice for the Investigative Files of the Inspector General (18-10-01), 64 FR 30151-30153 (June 4, 1999), as corrected by 67 FR 4415-4417 (January 30, 2002), as amended by 68 FR 38153-38158 (June 26, 2003), as amended by 75 FR 33608-33610 (June 14, 2010), as corrected by 75 FR 36374-36375 (June 25, 2010). The Department amends this system of records notice by: proposing to revise routine use (14), ``Disclosure to the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (RATB),'' to allow disclosure to any successor entity of the RATB, to the Government Accountability and Transparency Board (GATB) or any successor entity, or to any other Federal, State, local, or foreign agency or other entity responsible for coordinating and conducting oversight of Federal funds, in order to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse related to Federal funds, or for assisting in the enforcement, investigation, prosecution, or oversight of violations of administrative, civil, or criminal law or regulation. This system of records provides essential support for investigative activities of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) relating to the Department's programs and operations, enabling the OIG to secure and maintain the necessary information and to coordinate with other law enforcement agencies as appropriate.

This notice sets forth the schedule and proposed agenda of an up-coming meeting of the Equity and Excellence Commission (Commission). The notice also describes the functions of the Commission. Notice of this meeting is required by section 10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and is intended to notify the public of their opportunity to attend.

As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice requests comments on the 2013-2014 versions of the forms used by individuals applying for federal student aid including the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the Student Aid Report (SAR).

Strategies for Preparing At-Risk Youth for Postsecondary Success focuses on preventing students from dropping out and preparing them for postsecondary education or training.

The Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services announces a priority under the Technical Assistance on State Data Collection program. The Assistant Secretary may use this priority for competitions in fiscal year (FY) 2012 and later years. We take this action to focus attention on an identified national need to provide technical assistance (TA) to States to improve their capacity to meet the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) data collection, analysis, and reporting requirements. We intend this priority to establish a TA center to assist States in developing or enhancing statewide early childhood longitudinal data systems, by which we mean data systems that include child-level data for infants, toddlers, and young children with disabilities (birth through age 5) served through early childhood programs under IDEA Part C and Part B preschool programs. These statewide early childhood longitudinal data systems would be part of a coordinated early learning data system, by which we mean data systems that vertically and horizontally link child, program, and workforce data elements related to children (birth through age 5). This TA will build States' capacity to report high-quality data to meet IDEA reporting requirements.

This form serves as the means by which borrowers in the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) and Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Programs may request an Income-Based or Income- Contingent Repayment Plans if they meet certain statutory and regulaotry criteria.

The Secretary annually announces tests, test forms, and delivery formats that the Secretary determines to be suitable for use in the National Reporting System for Adult Education (NRS).