39168 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 139 /Tuesday, July 21, 1998 / Notices

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Special Education—Technical

Assistance and Dissemination to

Improve Services and Results for

Children With Disabilities; Notice

Inviting Applications for New Awards

for Fiscal Year 1998

SUMMARY: On June 4, 1997, the President

signed into law Public Law 105–17, the

Individuals with Disabilities Education

Act Amendments of 1997, amending the

Individual with Disabilities Education

Act (IDEA).

This notice provides closing dates and

other information regarding the

transmittal of applications for fiscal year

1998 competitions under one program

authorized by IDEA, as amended:

Special Education—Technical

Assistance and Dissemination to

Improve Services and Results for

Children with Disabilities (one priority).

This notice supports the National

Education Goals by helping to improve

results for children with disabilities.

Waiver of Rulemaking

It is generally the practice of the

Secretary to offer interested parties the

opportunity to comment on proposed

priorities. However, section 661(e)(2) of

IDEA makes the Administrative

Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553)

inapplicable to the priorities in this

notice. In order to make awards on a

timely basis, the Secretary has decided

to publish this priority in final under

the authority of section 661(e)(2).

General Requirements

(a) Projects funded under this notice

must make positive efforts to employ

and advance in employment qualified

individuals with disabilities in project

activities (see Section 606 of IDEA);

(b) Applicants and grant recipients

funded under this notice must involve

individuals with disabilities or parents

of individuals with disabilities in

planning, implementing, and evaluating

the projects (see Section 661(f)(1)(A) of

IDEA);

(c) Projects funded under these

priorities must budget for a two-day

Project Directors’ meeting in

Washington, D.C. during each year of

the project; and

(d) Grant recipients funded under this

notice must carry out activities that

benefit, directly or indirectly, children

with disabilities of all ages (see Section

661(a)(4) of IDEA.

Note: The Department of Education is not

bound by any estimates in this notice.

Special Education—Technical

Assistance and Dissemination To

Improve Services and Results for

Children With Disabilities

Purpose of Program: The purpose of

this program is to provide technical

assistance and information through such

mechanisms as institutes, regional

resource centers, clearinghouses and

programs that support States and local

entities in building capacity, to improve

early intervention, educational, and

transitional services and results for

children with disabilities and their

families, and address systemic-change

goals and priorities.

Eligible Applicants: State and local

educational agencies; institutions of

higher education; other public agencies;

private nonprofit organizations; outlying

areas; freely associated States; Indian

tribes or tribal organizations; and forprofit organizations.

Applicable Regulations: (a) The

Education Department General

Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in

34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82,

85, and 86; and (b) The selection criteria

included in regulations for this program

in 34 CFR 320.30.

Note: The regulations in 34 CFR part 86

apply to institutions of higher education

only.

Priority: Under section 685 of the

Individuals with Disabilities Education

Act and 34 CFR 75.105(c)(3), the

Secretary gives an absolute preference to

applications that meet the following

priority. The Secretary funds under this

competitions only those applications

that meet this absolute priority:

Absolute Priority—National

Clearinghouse on Careers and

Professions Related to Early Intervention

and Education for Children With

Disabilities (84.326P)

Background

During the last ten years, significant

changes have had an impact on

professional development programs.

The characteristics of children with

disabilities have changed and in many

ways have become more complex.

Today, there are more children who

have entered life with marked

disabilities, who are expected to

continue to thrive, and who require

interdisciplinary approaches that

provide them with essential support.

Additionally, the cultural and linguistic

characteristics of the student population

have changed significantly. In order for

educational programs to be effective, the

Nation’s schools need a work force of

educators, related services providers,

and early intervention personnels that is

more culturally and linguistically

diverse than in the past. Professional

development programs have

significantly changed as well, through

new developments in assistive

technology, changes in financial support

for students entering special education

fields, and, in particular, changes in

Federal legislation.

The IDEA Amendments of 1997 direct

the Secretary to provide technical

assistance through clearinghouses and

other means in order to build capacity

for improving early intervention,

education, and transition services and

results for children with disabilities,

and their families. The National

Clearinghouse on Careers and

Professions Related to Early

Intervention and Education for Children

with Disabilities supported through this

priority will be responsible for

identifying and responding to exigent

issues, emerging trends, and strategies

for ensuring an adequate supply of

qualified professionals and

paraprofessionals available to meet the

needs of children with disabilities.

It is essential that the Clearinghouse

establishes and maintains varied paths

for the dissemination of a wide array of

critical information, and provides

information to a broad base of

individuals, including students, parents,

administrators, and researchers. It is

also necessary for the Clearinghouse to

coordinate its services with individuals

and professional organizations and

disseminate comprehensive materials

related to the recruitment, preparation

and effectiveness of professionals and

paraprofessionals who provide services

to children with disabilities and their

families. For the purposes of this

priority, ‘‘professionals’’ include early

intervention personnel, special

education teachers, general education

teachers, adapted physical educators,

and related services providers such as

psychologists, occupational and

physical therapists, orientation and

mobility specialists, and speechlanguage pathologists.

‘‘Paraprofessionals’’ include

paraeducators, teachers’ aides,

instructional assistants, occupational

and physical therapy assistants, and

speech-language pathology assistants.

Priority: The Secretary establishes an

absolute priority to support a national

clearinghouse that works toward

ensuring the availability of an adequate

number and the high quality of

personnel to improve services and

results for infants and children with

disabilities. In order to accomplish these

purposes, the clearinghouse must:

(a) Conduct nation-wide, outreach

activities to encourage individuals to
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 139 /Tuesday, July 21, 1998 / Notices 39169

pursue careers in special education. To

accomplish this objective, the

clearinghouse must develop, implement

and maintain comprehensive and

coordinated communication campaigns

that:

(1) Utilize the full range of media

outlets;

(2) Reflect cutting edge formats and

designs;

(3) Are customized in design and

communication approach to promote

the full range of career opportunities in

special education and related services

and early intervention services;

(4) Are customized in design and

communication approach to attract

individuals from culturally and

economically diverse backgrounds and

individuals with disabilities, across

varying age levels and professional

experiences.

(b) Conduct activities that assist State

educational agencies (SEAs), local

educational agencies (LEAs),

institutions of higher education (IHEs),

agencies that administer the Infants and

Toddlers with Disabilities program

under IDEA, and other appropriate

entities in improving the quality of

professionals and paraprofessionals who

serve children with disabilities,

including children with limited English

proficiency and children from culturally

diverse backgrounds. To accomplish

this objective, the clearinghouse must:

(1) Collect, synthesize, and

disseminate information on emerging

approaches to professional preparation

and career development for special

education, related service, and early

intervention personnel;

(2) Collect and disseminate

information on current national, State,

and professional standards,

competencies, dual certifications, and

reciprocity agreements applied by States

and professional organizations to the

credentialing or licensing of

professional and paraprofessional

personnel;

(3) Identify and disseminate

information on effective strategies,

through collaboration with appropriate

entities, to identify and promote the

credentialing of current early

intervention, education, transition, and

related services personnel who are

lacking permanent certification or

license;

(4) Develop and disseminate, through

collaboration with appropriate entities,

guidelines for instituting standards or

certifications for paraprofessionals,

where such standards do not exist; and

(5) Develop and disseminate periodic

highlights or reviews of pressing issues,

trends, and emerging research regarding

professional development programs for

special education, related service, and

early intervention personnel.

(c) Conduct activities that would

promote an adequate supply of qualified

professionals and paraprofessionals who

serve children with disabilities. To

accomplish this objective, the

clearinghouse must:

(1) Collect and disseminate

information on the ongoing and

emerging areas of personnel needs

identified by States, LEAs, and other

entities;

(2) Collect and disseminate

information on the availability of

qualified service providers, including

those from traditionally

underrepresented populations (e.g.,

persons from culturally or linguistically

diverse backgrounds, and persons with

disabilities);

(3) Collect and disseminate

information on preservice professional

development programs that prepare

both professionals and

paraprofessionals, including programs

that provide special education

preparation for general educators. At a

minimum, this information must

include, for each program: the areas of

preparation and their academic level,

the program head or chair, telephone, email, FAX, mailing address and web

address, if available, the number of full

or part time faculty, tuition costs, and

the availability of stipends or

scholarships. Programs that receive

Federal support for students should be

identified with the source of those

funds, particularly if from the Office of

Special Education Programs or other

offices in the U.S. Department of

Education. Preservice professional

development programs that provide

specific services for students with

disabilities, and the description of those

services, must also be included. The

Clearinghouse is also encouraged to

collect information on the numbers of

students enrolled, and graduating from,

each of the identified programs;

(4) Arrange with producers of

scholarship publications to include in

such publications information on

scholarship opportunities available

through OSEP-supported professional

development programs; and

(5) Identify, synthesize, and

disseminate information on effective

strategies used to recruit and retain both

professionals and paraprofessionals who

provide services to children with

disabilities. Effective strategies should

be identified for use by States, LEAs,

and IHEs. Special emphasis should be

placed on identifying recruitment and

retention strategies and materials that

have been particularly effective in urban

and rural settings, and with traditionally

under-represented populations (e.g.,

minorities and persons with

disabilities).

(d) In order to satisfy the objectives in

paragraphs (a), (b), and (c), the

clearinghouse must also:

(1) Conduct timely updates of all

information and data bases to ensure

that information disseminated is

accurate and current;

(2) Establish advisory groups to

provide recommendations to the

clearinghouse relative to the activities or

products described above and to ensure

that all constituency needs are met;

(3) Employ multiple dissemination

mechanisms and approaches, including

the establishment and maintenance of a

user-friendly web site that permits the

downloading of all clearinghouse

information bases and incorporates

hotlinks to available training programs

and other relevant information sources;

and

(4) Establish and implement a

comprehensive system of evaluation to

determine the impact of the

clearinghouse activities. Evaluations

should be conducted at least annually,

identify strategies for improvement, and

include relevant achievements.

Under this priority, the Secretary will

make one award for a cooperative

agreement with a project period of up to

60 months subject to the requirements

of 34 CFR 75.253(a) for continuation

awards. In determining whether to

continue the clearinghouse for the

fourth and fifth years of the project

period, the Secretary, in addition to the

requirements of 34 CFR 75.253(a) will

consider:

(a) The recommendation of a review

team consisting of three experts selected

by the Secretary. The team’s review,

including a two-day site visit to the

clearinghouse, is to be conducted during

the last half of the project’s second year.

Costs associated with the services to be

performed by the review team must also

be included in the clearinghouse budget

for year two. These costs are estimated

to be approximately $4,000; and

(b) The timeliness and effectiveness

with which all requirements of the

negotiated cooperative agreement have

been or are being met by the

clearinghouse.

Project Period: Up to 60 months.

Maximum Award: The Secretary

rejects and does not consider an

application that proposes a budget

exceeding $700,000 for any single

budget period of twelve months. The

Secretary may change the maximum

amount through a notice published in

the Federal Register.

Page Limits: Part III of the application,

the application narrative, is where an
39170 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 139 /Tuesday, July 21, 1998 / Notices

applicant addresses the selection

criteria that are used by reviewers in

evaluating the application. An applicant

must limit Part III to the equivalent of

no more than 70 double-spaced pages,

using the following standards: (1) A

‘‘page’’ is 81⁄2′′×11′′ (on one side only)

with one-inch margins (top, bottom, and

sides). (2) All text in the application

narrative, including titles, headings,

footnotes, quotations, references, and

captions, as well as all text in charts,

tables, figures, and graphs, must be

double-spaced (no more than 3 lines per

vertical inch). If using a proportional

computer font, use no smaller than a 12-

point font, and an average character

density no greater than 18 characters per

inch. If using a nonproportional font or

a typewriter, do not use more than 12

characters to the inch.

The page limit does not apply to Part

I—the cover sheet; Part II—the budget

section (including the narrative budget

justification); Part IV—the assurances

and certifications; or the one-page

abstract, resumes, bibliography, and

letters of support. However, all of the

application narrative must be included

in Part III. If an application narrative

uses a smaller print size, spacing, or

margin that would make the narrative

exceed the equivalent of the page limit,

the application will not be considered

for funding.

For Applications and General

Information Contact: Requests for

applications and general information

should be addressed to the Grants and

Contracts Services Team, 600

Independence Avenue, S.W., room

3317, Switzer Building, Washington,

D.C. 20202–2641. The preferred method

for requesting information is to FAX

your request to: (202) 205–8717.

Telephone: (202) 260–9182.

Individuals who use a

telecommunications device for the deaf

(TDD) may call the TDD number: (202)

205–8953.

Individuals with disabilities may

obtain a copy of this notice or the

application packages referred to in this

notice in an alternate format (e.g.

Braille, large print, audiotape, or

computer diskette) by contacting the

Department as listed above. However,

the Department is not able to reproduce

in an alternate format the standard

forms included in the application

package.

Intergovernmental Review: This

program is subject to the requirements

of Executive Order 12372 and the

regulations in 34 CFR Part 79. The

objective of the Executive order is to

foster an intergovernmental partnership

and a strengthened federalism by

relying on processes developed by State

and local governments for coordination

and review of proposed Federal

financial assistance.

In accordance with the order, this

document is intended to provide early

notification of the Department’s specific

plans and actions for those programs.

INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION ACT APPLICATION NOTICE FOR FISCAL YEAR 1998

CFDA No. and name Applications

available

Application

deadline

date

Deadline for

intergovernmental review

Maximum

award (per

year)*

Page limit**

Estimated

number of

awards

84.326P National Clearinghouse on Careers and Professions Related to Early Intervention and Education for

Children with Disabilities ............................................... 7/24/98 8/24/98 9/22/98 $700,000 70 1

* The Secretary rejects and does not consider an application that proposes a budget exceeding the amount listed for each priority for any single budget period of 12 months.

**Applicants must limit the Application Narrative, Part III of the Application, to the page limits noted above. Please refer to the ‘‘Page Limit’’

section of this notice for the specific requirements. The Secretary rejects and does not consider an application that does not adhere to this requirement.

Electronic Access to This Document:

Anyone may view this document, as

well as all other Department of

Education documents published in the

Federal Register, in text or portable

document format (pdf) on the World

Wide Web at either of the following

sites:

http://ocfo.ed.gov/fedreg.htm

http://www.ed.gov/news.html

To use the pdf you must have the Adobe

Acrobat Reader Program with Search,

which is available free at either of the

previous sites. If you have questions

about using the pdf, call the U.S.

Government Printing Office at (202)

512–1530 or, toll free at 1–888–293–

6498.

Anyone may also view these

documents in text copy only on an

electronic bulletin board of the

Department. Telephone: (202) 219–1511

or, toll free, 1–800–222–4922. The

documents are located under Option

G—Files/Announcements, Bulletins,

and Press Releases.

Note: The official version of a document is

the document published in the Federal

Register.

Dated: July 14, 1998.

Judith E. Heumann,

Assistant Secretary for Special Education and

Rehabilitative Services.

[FR Doc. 98–19342 Filed 7–20–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P