§ 694.8 Under what conditions may the Secretary approve a request from a Partnership applying for a GEAR UP grant to waive a portion of the matching requirement? ( a ) The Secretary may approve a Partnership applicant's request for a waiver of up to 75 percent of the matching requirement for up to two years if the applicant demonstrates in its application a significant economic hardship that stems from a specific, exceptional, or uncontrollable event, such as a natural disaster, that has a devastating effect on the members of the Partnership and the community in which the project would operate.
( b ) ( 1 ) The Secretary may approve a Partnership applicant's request to waive up to 50 percent of the matching requirement for up to two years if the applicant demonstrates in its application a pre-existing and an on-going significant economic hardship that precludes the applicant from meeting its matching requirement.
( 2 ) In determining whether an applicant is experiencing an on-going economic hardship that is significant enough to justify a waiver under this paragraph, the Secretary considers documentation of such factors as: ( i ) Severe distress in the local economy of the community to be served by the grant (*e.g.,* there are few employers in the local area, large employers have left the local area, or significant reductions in employment in the local area).
( ii ) Local unemployment rates that are higher than the national average.
( iii ) Low or decreasing revenues for State and County governments in the area to be served by the grant.
( iv ) Significant reductions in the budgets of institutions of higher education that are participating in the grant.
( v ) Other data that reflect a significant economic hardship for the geographical area served by the applicant.
( 3 ) At the time of application, the Secretary may provide tentative approval of an applicant's request for a waiver under paragraph (b)(1) of this section for all remaining years of the project period. Grantees that receive tentative approval of a waiver for more than two years under this paragraph must submit to the Secretary every two years by such time as the Secretary may direct documentation that demonstrates that— ( i ) The significant economic hardship upon which the waiver was granted still exists; and
( ii ) The grantee tried diligently, but unsuccessfully, to obtain contributions needed to meet the matching requirement.
( c ) The Secretary may approve a Partnership applicant's request in its application to match its contributions to its scholarship fund, established under section 404E of the HEA, on the basis of two non-Federal dollars for every one Federal dollar of GEAR UP funds.
( d ) The Secretary may approve a request by a Partnership applicant that has three or fewer institutions of higher education as members to waive up to 70 percent of the matching requirement if the Partnership applicant includes— ( 1 ) A fiscal agent that is eligible to receive funds under title V, or Part B of title III, or section 316 or 317 of the HEA, or a local educational agency;
( 2 ) Only participating schools with a 7th grade cohort in which at least 75 percent of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act; and
( 3 ) Only local educational agencies in which at least 50 percent of the students enrolled are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act.
(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1070a-23)
[75 FR 65798, Oct. 26, 2010]