[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 103 (Tuesday, May 30, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28280-28282]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-13066]



      

[[Page 28279]]

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Part III





Department of Education





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Knowledge Dissemination and Utilization Program for Fiscal Year 1995; 
Notices

Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 103 / Tuesday, May 30, 1995 / Notices 
 
[[Page 28280]] 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research


Knowledge Dissemination and Utilization (D&U) Program; Notice of 
Final Funding Priority for Fiscal Years 1995-1996 for the Knowledge 
Dissemination and Utilization Program

SUMMARY: The Secretary announces a final funding priority for the 
Knowledge Dissemination and Utilization (D&U) Program under the 
National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) 
for fiscal years l995-1996. The Secretary takes this action to ensure 
that rehabilitation knowledge generated from projects and centers 
funded by NIDRR and others is utilized fully to improve the lives of 
individuals with disabilities and their families.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This priority takes effect on June 29, 1995.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Esquith, U.S. Department of 
Education, 600 Independence Avenue, SW., Switzer Building, room 3424, 
Washington, DC 20202-2601. Telephone: (202) 205-8801. Individuals who 
use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the TDD 
number at (202) 205-8133.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice contains one final priority 
under the D&U program, in the area of community integration for 
individuals with mental retardation. Authority for the D&U program of 
NIDRR is contained in sections 202 and 204(a) and 204(b)(6) of the 
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. 760-762). This 
priority supports the National Education Goal that calls for all 
Americans to possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a 
global economy and exercise the rights and responsibilities of 
citizenship.
    On March 31, 1955, the Secretary published a notice of proposed 
priority in the Federal Register at 60 FR 16760. The comments received 
in response to that notice, and the Secretary's responses to them, are 
discussed in the following section of this notice.

Analysis of Comments and Responses

    The Secretary received 13 letters of comment prior to the deadline 
date for receipt of comments. All but one of these comments supported 
the idea of an information center on community integration and mental 
retardation, but several made suggestions for additional activities. 
These comments are synopsized below, along with the Secretary's 
responses and any changes to the priority.
    Comment: One commenter pointed out that the Background statement 
was misleading in stating that ``48 percent of all individuals with 
mental retardation nationwide resided in large congregate care 
settings.''
    Discussion: The Secretary agrees that the statement should be 
revised to clarify that the percentage refers to all persons residing 
in other than their family homes.
    Changes: The statement has been revised to read, ``of the 347,000 
persons with mental retardation who resided in out-of-home care, 48 
percent were in settings of 16 or more beds.''
    Comment: A number of commenters urged NIDRR to continue research in 
the area of community integration and mental retardation, and many 
suggested specific research topics or areas for investigation.
    Discussion: NIDRR currently maintains support for four 
Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers (RRTCs) in community 
integration for persons with developmental disabilities, including 
mental retardation, and supports additional work in this area in 
centers on families, ADA technical assistance and training projects, 
and discrete research projects. NIDRR expects to initiate a number of 
activities to review these programs, the state-of-the-art, and 
opportunities for future research in order to establish a timely and 
coherent agenda of research in community integration. However, the 
Secretary has determined that there is a need for information and 
technical assistance to community-based service providers, State and 
local agencies, consumer advocates, and consumers and their families 
about the findings of research, best practices, and integration 
strategies. This priority addresses that need.
    Changes: None.
    Comment: One commenter urged that the Department include 
information to facilitate community integration for individuals with 
mental illness in the activities under this priority.
    Discussion: While the Secretary does not dispute the possible value 
of such an activity, he declines to add it to this priority for several 
reasons. First, the knowledge base on community integration is 
different for the two disability categories, as are the populations 
that would be the targets of the information dissemination and 
technical assistance activities. In addition, NIDRR has just announced 
a priority for an RRTC on long-term mental illness that will work to 
further develop and disseminate a knowledge base in the specific area 
of peer support and community integration.
    Changes: None.
    Comment: One commenter stated that it is not clear that consumers 
and their families are dissatisfied with the Intermediate Care 
Facilities (ICFs) that now exist, and also noted that studies show ICFs 
of four to six residents have favorable integration outcomes.
    Discussion: The Secretary agrees that the dissemination Center must 
provide information and assistance that addresses a range of consumer 
and family goals. The background statement to the proposed priority 
expressed agreement with this commenter's point in that it did endorse 
the residential facility serving ``six or fewer individuals'' as a 
positive model.
    Changes: None.
    Comment: The same commenter noted that there are different concerns 
among different segments of the consumer and family populations, 
contending that some parent groups value health and safety while others 
focus on inclusion and integration, and stating that it would be 
important to address the range of concerns.
    Discussion: The Secretary agrees that the range of concerns of self 
advocates and family advocates should be taken into consideration, but 
the primary focus of this Center is on community integration because 
that is one of NIDRR's statutorily-mandated objectives. The Secretary 
believes that maintenance of healthy and safe environments is a 
component of successful community integration.
    Changes: None.
    Comment: One commenter stated that NIDRR grantees should establish 
training and technical assistance resources with sophisticated 
knowledge of local conditions in each State and that are easily 
accessed by local providers.
    Discussion: The Secretary believes this is one strategy grantees 
could use to disseminate information, but prefers to let the applicants 
present those approaches to dissemination that they believe will be 
most effective.
    Changes: None.
    Comment: One commenter suggested that the new Center be required to 
inform all State and local government agencies dealing with mental 
retardation of its existence and the type of services it offers.
    Discussion: The Secretary agrees that it is important that the 
Center address the information needs of State and local government 
agencies, but believes that the phrase ``all state and local government 
agencies dealing with mental retardation'' is too vague and could pose 
a potential burden on the grantee to identify all agencies 
[[Page 28281]] regardless of their role. Therefore, the Secretary has 
revised the statement of priority to require that the Center advise all 
State Developmental Disabilities Councils and all State Protection and 
Advocacy Systems of its existence and proposed services.
    Changes: The phrase, ``The Center must advise every State 
Developmental Disabilities Council and every State Protection and 
Advocacy System of its existence and proposed services'', has been 
added at the end of the bullet requiring broad coordination.
    Comment: One commenter stated that it is inappropriate for NIDRR to 
limit the work of this Center to community integration for individuals 
with mental retardation since Congress has stated that ``supported 
employment'' is for people with various types of disabilities, and 
people with mental retardation have resources for extended on-going 
support services that people with other disabilities do not have.
    Discussion: The Secretary points out that the dissemination Center 
will not focus primarily on supported employment and will not provide 
resources for extended support services. NIDRR supports ongoing 
research and demonstrations on supported employment, and on community 
integration and independent living, for persons with physical, sensory, 
and emotional disabilities. The purpose of the Center to be established 
under this priority is to compile and disseminate what has been learned 
in previous research and demonstration projects about community 
integration strategies for a population that has often been 
institutionalized. Research to promote community integration is a 
statutorily-authorized objective of NIDRR.
    Changes: None.
    Comment: One commenter recommended that the priority specifically 
detail responsibilities related to lifelong learning and literacy 
education.
    Discussion: The Secretary agrees that literacy and opportunities 
for lifelong learning often are important components of community 
integration. However, the Secretary intentionally elected not to 
require that any specific components be addressed, but to encourage 
applicants to address those components that they believe are most 
critical and in which there is a substantial knowledge base for 
dissemination. The peer review panel will assess the appropriateness of 
the scope presented by the applicants.
    Changes: None.
    Comment: One commenter stated that the priority should require the 
grantee to address bankers, lenders, and financial policymakers in the 
private and public sectors to promote mortgage availability for 
individuals with mental retardation.
    Discussion: The Secretary elects to allow applicants to address 
those components of community integration which it believes are most 
critical and likely to have the greatest impact on community 
integration.
    Changes: None.

    Note: This notice does not solicit applications. A notice 
inviting applications under this competition is published in the 
this issue of the Federal Register.

Priority

    Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(3) the Secretary gives an absolute 
preference to applications that meet the following priority. The 
Secretary will fund under this program only applications that meet this 
absolute priority:

Facilitating Community Integration for Individuals with Mental 
Retardation

Background
    NIDRR has supported Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers in 
the area of mental retardation and developmental disabilities since 
1965. In addition, NIDRR has supported a number of research projects 
targeted on this population in areas such as transition from school to 
work, public policy and expenditures for developmental disabilities in 
the U.S., and successful transitions from nursing homes into the 
community. As a result of such research and training efforts over many 
years, a large body of knowledge now exists relative to enabling 
individuals with mental retardation to live in their communities.
    The population in public institutions for persons with mental 
retardation has decreased from 195,000 in 1967 to 81,200 persons in 
1991, (Lakin, 1993) as a result of public policy decisions and vigorous 
efforts of public leadership groups to effect deinstitutionalization. 
However, successful integration into communities that includes 
residential, employment, and full participation components is not 
easily achieved.
    During the past eight years there have been major developments in 
the understanding of community integration needs and strategies, 
including: funding models that allow for individualized options; 
systems for assessing support needs for an individual and in a 
community; models for both formal and informal support systems, and for 
integrating the two approaches; and model strategies for systems change 
within States. (Horner, 1994). Yet in nearly every State, policy and 
practice do not reflect these advances in knowledge and understanding, 
and do not take advantage of the best practices models and 
implementation strategies that have evolved through research and 
practice.
    As a result, innovative supports for living in their own home or 
community are available to very few of those who potentially could 
benefit from them. Many thousands of people with developmental 
disabilities continue to live in private and public institutions and 
``mini-institutions'' in the community. In many cases, 
``deinstitutionalization has resulted in trans-institutionalization'' 
(Taylor, 1994). There are approximately 64,800 persons with mental 
retardation and related conditions who are not receiving any form of 
residential services and who are now on waiting lists for community 
residential services (Lakin et al., 1993). And, of the 347,000 persons 
with mental retardation who resided in out-of-home care, 48 percent 
were in settings of 16 or more beds. However, in 1992, there were 8 
States that provided services to more than 60 percent of consumers in 
family-scale settings serving six or fewer individuals, while 
conversely, six States served fewer than 10 percent of their clients in 
such small settings (Braddock, 1994).
    Thus, there is a demand for community integration assistance, 
coupled with a tremendous variation in State ability to meet those 
demands. This variation in services indicates that there is a critical 
need for information about innovative, state-of the-art practices and 
for training and technical assistance on how to improve policies and 
practices on community integration at the State and community levels.
    NIDRR received substantial public comment on its 1995 proposed 
priorities, contending that there is a national need for information on 
best practices for community integration and a demand for training of 
service providers and consumers to help communities overcome the 
challenges of fully including all of their citizens and their families, 
and to make community integration a reality. State and local policy 
makers, regulators, and service agencies, as well as community service 
providers require training and technical assistance to enable them to 
address the issues that will emerge as States and localities move 
toward a system of individualized supports. States and communities 
require information and training on policies and strategies that could 
assist them in shifting from a provider-driven to a consumer-driven 
service delivery system. The quality of community 
[[Page 28282]] services delivered to persons with disabilities and 
their families will also depend on the ability of educational, 
employment and residential service agencies to effectively address the 
training needs of their approximately 250,000 direct service personnel 
(Wallace, T. & Johnson, D., 1992 and Braddock, 1994).
    The Secretary believes that there is a critical need for 
dissemination of information on model programs, integrated statewide 
systems of service delivery, exemplary practices, and systems change 
strategies. In addition, there is a need to develop more effective 
mechanisms for training community-level service providers to ensure the 
implementation of best practices, and to provide training and technical 
assistance to consumer-directed self-advocacy organizations and parent 
organizations.
Priority
    Under this priority, the Secretary supports a dissemination and 
technical assistance Center that--(1) Identifies and disseminates 
exemplary practices in community integration for individuals with 
mental retardation; and (2) provides training and technical assistance 
to State and local agencies, community-based service providers, and 
consumer-controlled advocacy organizations to facilitate the adoption 
of exemplary practices in community integration for individuals with 
mental retardation. In addition to activities proposed by the applicant 
to carry out these purposes, the Center must conduct the following 
activities:
    <bullet> Design and implement a national information resource on 
community integration to serve policymakers and administrators, 
community-based service providers, consumer-controlled advocacy 
organizations, and individuals with mental retardation and their 
families, ensuring that information is available in accessible formats 
appropriate to individuals with a range of sensory, cognitive, and 
other disabilities;
    <bullet> Prepare materials on important topical issues, which might 
include for example: strategies to address social and cultural barriers 
to full inclusion; strategies for cross-agency collaboration in the 
development of individualized services or case management practices; 
and reasonable accommodations to facilitate community inclusion, and 
use them in information dissemination, training, and technical 
assistance activities as appropriate; and
    <bullet> Coordinate with existing NIDRR-funded projects and 
centers, and build upon the products of past NIDRR projects and similar 
efforts funded by other Federal agencies, to ensure that the best and 
most current information on needs and best practices is incorporated 
into the information dissemination, training, and technical assistance 
of this Center. The Center must advise every State Developmental 
Disabilities Council and every State Protection and Advocacy System of 
its existence and proposed services.

Applicable Program Regulations

    34 CFR parts 350 and 355.

    Program Authority: 29 U.S.C. 760-762.

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 84.133D, Knowledge 
Dissemination and Utilization Program)

    Dated: May 23, 1995.
Howard R. Moses,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative 
Services.
[FR Doc. 95-13066 Filed 5-26-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P