Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 97 / Monday, May 20, 2013 / Rules and Regulations 29237 

Register by using the article search 

feature at: www.federalregister.gov. 

Specifically, through the advanced 

search feature at this site, you can limit 

your search to documents published by 

the Department. 

Dated: May 15, 2013. 

Michael K. Yudin, 

Delegated the authority to perform the 

functions and the duties of the Assistant 

Secretary for Special Education and 

Rehabilitative Services. 

[FR Doc. 2013–11988 Filed 5–17–13; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

34 CFR Chapter III 

[CFDA Number: 84.133B–9] 

Final Priority; National Institute on 

Disability and Rehabilitation 

Research—Rehabilitation Research 

and Training Centers 

AGENCY: Office of Special Education and 

Rehabilitative Services, Department of 

Education. 

ACTION: Final priority. 

SUMMARY: The Assistant Secretary for 

Special Education and Rehabilitative 

Services announces a priority for the 

Disability and Rehabilitation Research 

Projects and Centers Program 

administered by the National Institute 

on Disability and Rehabilitation 

Research (NIDRR). Specifically, we 

announce a priority for a Rehabilitation 

Research and Training Center (RRTC) on 

Community Living and Participation for 

Individuals with Psychiatric 

Disabilities. The Assistant Secretary 

may use this priority for competitions in 

fiscal year (FY) 2013 and later years. We 

take this action to focus research 

attention on areas of national need. We 

intend this priority to improve 

outcomes among individuals with 

disabilities. 

DATES: Effective Date: This priority is 

effective June 19, 2013. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Marlene Spencer, U.S. Department of 

Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW., 

Room 5133, Potomac Center Plaza 

(PCP), Washington, DC 20202–2700. 

Telephone: (202) 245–7532 or by email: 

marlene.spencer@ed.gov. 

If you use a telecommunications 

device for the deaf (TDD) or a text 

telephone (TTY), call the Federal Relay 

Service (FRS), toll free, at 1–800–877– 

8339. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of 

Program: The purpose of the Disability 

and Rehabilitation Research Projects 

and Centers Program is to plan and 

conduct research, demonstration 

projects, training, and related activities, 

including international activities, to 

develop methods, procedures, and 

rehabilitation technology that maximize 

the full inclusion and integration into 

society, employment, independent 

living, family support, and economic 

and social self-sufficiency of individuals 

with disabilities, especially individuals 

with the most severe disabilities, and to 

improve the effectiveness of services 

authorized under the Rehabilitation Act 

of 1973, as amended (Rehabilitation 

Act). 

Rehabilitation Research and Training 

Centers 

The purpose of the RRTCs, which are 

funded through the Disability and 

Rehabilitation Research Projects and 

Centers Program, is to achieve the goals 

of the Rehabilitation Act through 

advanced research, training, technical 

assistance, and dissemination activities 

in general problem areas, as specified by 

NIDRR. These activities are designed to 

benefit rehabilitation service providers, 

individuals with disabilities, and the 

family members or other authorized 

representatives of individuals with 

disabilities. Additional information on 

the RRTC program can be found at: 

www.ed.gov/rschstat/research/pubs/resprogram.html#RRTC. 

Program Authority: 29 U.S.C. 762(g) and 

764(b)(2). 

Applicable Program Regulations: 34 

CFR part 350. 

We published a notice of proposed 

priority in the Federal Register on 

February 28, 2013 (78 FR 13597). That 

notice contained background 

information and our reasons for 

proposing the particular priority. 

There are differences between the 

notice of proposed priority and this 

notice of final priority as discussed 

under Analysis of Comments and 

Changes. 

Public Comment: In response to our 

invitation in the notice of proposed 

priority, two parties submitted 

comments on the proposed priority. One 

of these commenters wrote in support of 

the priority, and one had a specific 

comment and recommendation. 

Generally, we do not address 

technical and other minor changes or 

suggested changes the law does not 

authorize us to make under the 

applicable statutory authority. In 

addition, we do not address general 

comments that raised concerns not 

directly related to the proposed priority. 

Analysis of Comments and Changes: 

An analysis of the comments and of any 

changes in the priority since publication 

of the proposed priority follows. 

Comment: One commenter 

recommended that NIDRR require the 

RRTC to include individuals with 

disabilities in its target audience as it 

disseminates educational materials and 

research findings under paragraph 

(c)(iii) of the priority. 

Discussion: NIDRR agrees that the 

RRTC must provide information to 

individuals with disabilities as part of 

its mission to serve as a national 

resource center on community living 

and participation for individuals with 

psychiatric disabilities. Paragraph (c)(i) 

of the priority requires the RRTC to 

provide information and technical 

assistance to individuals with 

psychiatric disabilities and their 

representatives. Paragraph (c)(iv) 

requires the RRTC to involve key 

stakeholders in the conduct of its 

research activities in order to maximize 

the relevance and usability of the 

findings. 

Changes: To emphasize the 

importance of including individuals 

with psychiatric disabilities in the 

activities of this RRTC, we added ‘‘key 

stakeholders, including individuals 

with disabilities’’ as a requirement of 

dissemination specified in paragraph 

(c)(iii) and we clarified that the term 

‘‘key stakeholders’’ in paragraph (c)(iv) 

includes individuals with psychiatric 

disabilities. 

Final Priority 

Background 

This final priority is in concert with 

NIDRR’s Long-Range Plan for Fiscal 

Years 2013–2017 (Plan). The Plan, 

which was published in the Federal 

Register on April 4, 2013 (78 FR 20299), 

can be accessed on the Internet at the 

following site: www.ed.gov/about/ 

offices/list/osers/nidrr/policy.html. 

Through the implementation of the 

Plan, NIDRR seeks to improve the health 

and functioning, employment, and 

community living and participation of 

individuals with disabilities through 

comprehensive programs of research, 

engineering, training, technical 

assistance, and knowledge translation 

and dissemination. The Plan reflects 

NIDRR’s commitment to quality, 

relevance, and balance of its programs 

to ensure appropriate attention to all 

aspects of well-being of individuals 

with disabilities and to all types and 

degrees of disability. 

This priority reflects a major area or 

domain of NIDRR’s research agenda 

(community living and participation), 

combined with a specific broad 


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29238 Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 97 / Monday, May 20, 2013 / Rules and Regulations 

disability population (psychiatric 

disability). 

Definitions 

The research that is proposed under 

this priority must be focused on one or 

more stages of research. If the RRTC is 

to conduct research that can be 

categorized under more than one 

research stage, or research that 

progresses from one stage to another, 

those research stages must be clearly 

specified. For the purposes of this 

priority, the stages of research, which 

we published for comment on January 

25, 2013 (78 FR 5330), are: 

(i) Exploration and Discovery means 

the stage of research that generates 

hypotheses or theories by conducting 

new and refined analyses of data, 

producing observational findings, and 

creating other sources of research-based 

information. This research stage may 

include identifying or describing the 

barriers to and facilitators of improved 

outcomes of individuals with 

disabilities, as well as identifying or 

describing existing practices, programs, 

or policies that are associated with 

important aspects of the lives of 

individuals with disabilities. Results 

achieved under this stage of research 

may inform the development of 

interventions or lead to evaluations of 

interventions or policies. The results of 

the exploration and discovery stage of 

research may also be used to inform 

decisions or priorities. 

(ii) Intervention Development means 

the stage of research that focuses on 

generating and testing interventions that 

have the potential to improve outcomes 

for individuals with disabilities. 

Intervention development involves 

determining the active components of 

possible interventions, developing 

measures that would be required to 

illustrate outcomes, specifying target 

populations, conducting field tests, and 

assessing the feasibility of conducting a 

well-designed intervention study. 

Results from this stage of research may 

be used to inform the design of a study 

to test the efficacy of an intervention. 

(iii) Intervention Efficacy means the 

stage of research during which a project 

evaluates and tests whether an 

intervention is feasible, practical, and 

has the potential to yield positive 

outcomes for individuals with 

disabilities. Efficacy research may assess 

the strength of the relationships 

between an intervention and outcomes, 

and may identify factors or individual 

characteristics that affect the 

relationship between the intervention 

and outcomes. Efficacy research can 

inform decisions about whether there is 

sufficient evidence to support ‘‘scalingup’’ an intervention to other sites and 

contexts. This stage of research can 

include assessing the training needed 

for wide-scale implementation of the 

intervention, and approaches to 

evaluation of the intervention in real 

world applications. 

(iv) Scale-Up Evaluation means the 

stage of research during which a project 

analyzes whether an intervention is 

effective in producing improved 

outcomes for individuals with 

disabilities when implemented in a realworld setting. During this stage of 

research, a project tests the outcomes of 

an evidence-based intervention in 

different settings. The project examines 

the challenges to successful replication 

of the intervention, and the 

circumstances and activities that 

contribute to successful adoption of the 

intervention in real-world settings. This 

stage of research may also include welldesigned studies of an intervention that 

has been widely adopted in practice, but 

that lacks a sufficient evidence-base to 

demonstrate its effectiveness. 

Priority—RRTC on Community Living 

and Participation for Individuals with 

Psychiatric Disabilities. 

The Assistant Secretary for Special 

Education and Rehabilitative Services 

establishes a priority for an RRTC on 

Community Living and Participation for 

Individuals with Psychiatric 

Disabilities. 

The RRTC must contribute to 

improving the community living and 

participation outcomes of individuals 

with psychiatric disabilities by: 

(a) Conducting research activities in 

one or more of the following priority 

areas, focusing on individuals with 

psychiatric disabilities as a group or on 

individuals in specific disability or 

demographic subpopulations of 

individuals with psychiatric disabilities: 

(i) Technology to improve community 

living and participation outcomes for 

individuals with psychiatric disabilities. 

(ii) Individual and environmental 

factors associated with improved 

community living and participation 

outcomes for individuals with 

psychiatric disabilities. 

(iii) Interventions that contribute to 

improved community living and 

participation outcomes for individuals 

with psychiatric disabilities. 

Interventions include any strategy, 

practice, program, policy, or tool that, 

when implemented as intended, 

contributes to improvements in 

outcomes for individuals with 

psychiatric disabilities. 

(iv) Effects of government practices, 

policies, and programs on community 

living and participation outcomes for 

individuals with psychiatric disabilities. 

(v) Practices and policies that 

contribute to improved community 

living and participation outcomes for 

transition-aged youth with psychiatric 

disabilities; 

(b) Focusing research on one or more 

specific stages of research. If the RRTC 

plans to conduct research that can be 

categorized under more than one of the 

research stages, or research that 

progresses from one stage to another, 

those stages must be clearly specified. 

These stages and their definitions are 

provided at the beginning of the Final 

Priority section in this notice; and 

(c) Serving as a national resource 

center related to community living and 

participation for individuals with 

psychiatric disabilities, their families, 

service and support providers, and other 

stakeholders by conducting knowledge 

translation activities that include, but 

are not limited to: 

(i) Providing information and 

technical assistance to service 

providers, individuals with psychiatric 

disabilities and their representatives, 

and other key stakeholders; 

(ii) Providing training, including 

graduate, pre-service, and in-service 

training, to rehabilitation service 

providers and other disability service 

providers, to facilitate more effective 

delivery of services to individuals with 

psychiatric disabilities. This training 

may be provided through conferences, 

workshops, public education programs, 

in-service training programs, and 

similar activities; 

(iii) Disseminating research-based 

information and materials related to 

community living and participation for 

individuals with psychiatric disabilities 

to key stakeholders, including 

individuals with psychiatric disabilities; 

and 

(iv) Involving key stakeholder groups, 

including individuals with psychiatric 

disabilities, in the activities conducted 

under paragraph (a) in order to 

maximize the relevance and usability of 

the new knowledge generated by the 

RRTC. 

Types of Priorities 

When inviting applications for a 

competition using one or more 

priorities, we designate the type of each 

priority as absolute, competitive 

preference, or invitational through a 

notice in the Federal Register. The 

effect of each type of priority follows: 

Absolute priority: Under an absolute 

priority, we consider only applications 

that meet the priority (34 CFR 

75.105(c)(3)). 

Competitive preference priority: 

Under a competitive preference priority, 

we give competitive preference to an 


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Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 97 / Monday, May 20, 2013 / Rules and Regulations 29239 

application by (1) awarding additional 

points, depending on the extent to 

which the application meets the priority 

(34 CFR 75.105(c)(2)(i)); or (2) selecting 

an application that meets the priority 

over an application of comparable merit 

that does not meet the priority (34 CFR 

75.105(c)(2)(ii)). 

Invitational priority: Under an 

invitational priority, we are particularly 

interested in applications that meet the 

priority. However, we do not give an 

application that meets the priority a 

preference over other applications (34 

CFR 75.105(c)(1)). 

This notice does not preclude us from 

proposing additional priorities, 

requirements, definitions, or selection 

criteria, subject to meeting applicable 

rulemaking requirements. 

Note: This notice does not solicit 

applications. In any year in which we choose 

to use this priority, we invite applications 

through a notice in the Federal Register. 

Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 

Regulatory Impact Analysis 

Under Executive Order 12866, the 

Secretary must determine whether this 

regulatory action is ‘‘significant’’ and, 

therefore, subject to the requirements of 

the Executive order and subject to 

review by the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB). Section 3(f) of Executive 

Order 12866 defines a ‘‘significant 

regulatory action’’ as an action likely to 

result in a rule that may— 

(1) Have an annual effect on the 

economy of $100 million or more, or 

adversely affect a sector of the economy, 

productivity, competition, jobs, the 

environment, public health or safety, or 

State, local or tribal governments or 

communities in a material way (also 

referred to as an ‘‘economically 

significant’’ rule); 

(2) Create serious inconsistency or 

otherwise interfere with an action taken 

or planned by another agency; 

(3) Materially alter the budgetary 

impacts of entitlement grants, user fees, 

or loan programs or the rights and 

obligations of recipients thereof; or 

(4) Raise novel legal or policy issues 

arising out of legal mandates, the 

President’s priorities, or the principles 

stated in the Executive order. 

This final regulatory action is not a 

significant regulatory action subject to 

review by OMB under section 3(f) of 

Executive Order 12866. 

We have also reviewed this final 

regulatory action under Executive Order 

13563, which supplements and 

explicitly reaffirms the principles, 

structures, and definitions governing 

regulatory review established in 

Executive Order 12866. To the extent 

permitted by law, Executive Order 

13563 requires that an agency— 

(1) Propose or adopt regulations only 

upon a reasoned determination that 

their benefits justify their costs 

(recognizing that some benefits and 

costs are difficult to quantify); 

(2) Tailor its regulations to impose the 

least burden on society, consistent with 

obtaining regulatory objectives and 

taking into account—among other things 

and to the extent practicable—the costs 

of cumulative regulations; 

(3) In choosing among alternative 

regulatory approaches, select those 

approaches that maximize net benefits 

(including potential economic, 

environmental, public health and safety, 

and other advantages; distributive 

impacts; and equity); 

(4) To the extent feasible, specify 

performance objectives, rather than the 

behavior or manner of compliance a 

regulated entity must adopt; and 

(5) Identify and assess available 

alternatives to direct regulation, 

including economic incentives—such as 

user fees or marketable permits—to 

encourage the desired behavior, or 

provide information that enables the 

public to make choices. 

Executive Order 13563 also requires 

an agency ‘‘to use the best available 

techniques to quantify anticipated 

present and future benefits and costs as 

accurately as possible.’’ The Office of 

Information and Regulatory Affairs of 

OMB has emphasized that these 

techniques may include ‘‘identifying 

changing future compliance costs that 

might result from technological 

innovation or anticipated behavioral 

changes.’’ 

We are issuing this final priority only 

on a reasoned determination that its 

benefits justify its costs. In choosing 

among alternative regulatory 

approaches, we selected those 

approaches that maximize net benefits. 

Based on the analysis that follows, the 

Department believes that this regulatory 

action is consistent with the principles 

in Executive Order 13563. 

We also have determined that this 

regulatory action does not unduly 

interfere with State, local, and tribal 

governments in the exercise of their 

governmental functions. 

In accordance with both Executive 

orders, the Department has assessed the 

potential costs and benefits, both 

quantitative and qualitative, of this 

regulatory action. The potential costs 

are those resulting from statutory 

requirements and those we have 

determined as necessary for 

administering the Department’s 

programs and activities. 

The benefits of the Disability and 

Rehabilitation Research Projects and 

Centers Program have been well 

established over the years, as projects 

similar to the one envisioned by the 

final priority have been completed 

successfully. The new RRTC will 

generate, and promote the use of, new 

knowledge that will improve the 

options for individuals with disabilities 

to perform regular activities of their 

choice in the community. 

Accessible Format: Individuals with 

disabilities can obtain this document in 

an accessible format (e.g., braille, large 

print, audiotape, or compact disc) on 

request to the program contact person 

listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT. 

Electronic Access to This Document: 

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 via the Federal Digital System 

at: www.gpo.gov/fdsys. At this site you 

can view this document, as well as all 

other documents of this Department 

published in the Federal Register, in 

text or Adobe Portable Document 

Format (PDF). To use PDF you must 

have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is 

available free at the site. 

You may also access documents of the 

Department published in the Federal 

Register by using the article search 

feature at: www.federalregister.gov. 

Specifically, through the advanced 

search feature at this site, you can limit 

your search to documents published by 

the Department. 

Dated: May 15, 2013. 

Michael K. Yudin, 

Delegated the authority to perform the 

functions and the duties of the Assistant 

Secretary for Special Education and 

Rehabilitative Services. 

[FR Doc. 2013–11978 Filed 5–17–13; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

34 CFR Chapter III 

[CFDA Number: 84.373Y] 

Final Priority; Technical Assistance To 

Improve State Data Capacity—National 

Technical Assistance Center To 

Improve State Capacity To Accurately 

Collect and Report IDEA Data 

AGENCY: Office of Special Education and 

Rehabilitative Services, Department of 

Education. 

ACTION: Final priority. 


emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with RULES