11868 Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 41 / Thursday, March 2, 1995 / Notices

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Bilingual Education: Comprehensive

School Grants

AGENCY: Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice of final priority for fiscal

year (FY) 1995.

SUMMARY: The Secretary announces a

priority for FY 1995 under the Bilingual

Education: Comprehensive School

Grants program authorized in title VII of

the Elementary and Secondary

Education Act of 1965, as amended (the

Act). The Secretary takes this action to

implement a provision of the Act by

focusing Federal financial assistance on

an identified national need. The priority

is intended to provide financial

assistance to those local educational

agencies (LEAs) or LEAs in

collaboration with institutions of higher

education (IHEs), community-based

organizations (CBOs), other LEAs, or a

State educational agency (SEA)

proposing projects that will serve

schools with significant concentrations

of limited English proficient (LEP)

students.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This priority takes effect

April 3, 1995.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Harry Logel, U.S. Department of

Education, 600 Independence Ave.,

SW., Room 5090, Switzer Building,

Washington, DC 20202–6510.

Telephone: (202) 205–5530. Individuals

who use a telecommunications device

for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal

Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1–

800–877–8339 between 8 a.m. and 8

p.m., Eastern time, Monday through

Friday.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The

Comprehensive School Grants program

is a new program. Under section 7114(a)

of the Act, the purpose of the program

is to assist LEAs or LEAs in

collaboration with IHEs, CBOs, other

LEAs, or an SEA to implement

schoolwide bilingual education

programs or special alternative

instructional programs for reforming,

restructuring, and upgrading all relevant

programs and operations, within an

individual school, that serve virtually

all LEP children and youth in schools

with significant concentrations of these

children and youth.

To assist those schools with

significant concentrations of LEP

children and youth, the Secretary

requires that to be eligible for funding

the project must serve only schools in

which the number of LEP students, in

each school served, equals at least 25

percent of the total student enrollment.

By using a 25 percent threshold the

Secretary is targeting those schools in

which LEP students constitute a major

portion of the school population. The

Secretary chose a percentage threshold

rather than a number threshold to

include schools with small student

enrollments. Using the 25 percent

threshold, approximately 4,400 schools

would be eligible to participate under

this program. These numbers are based

on data from the Descriptive Study of

Services to LEP Students conducted by

Development Associates, Inc., in 1993.

Note: This notice of final priority does not

solicit applications. A notice inviting

applications under this competition for FY

1995 will be published in the Federal

Register at a later date.

Priority

Under section 7114(a) of the Act, the

Secretary gives an absolute preference to

applications that meet the following

priority. The Secretary funds under this

competition only applications that meet

this absolute priority:

Projects that serve only schools in

which the number of LEP students, in

each school served, equals at least 25

percent of the total student enrollment.

Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking

In accordance with the

Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C.

553), it is the practice of the Department

of Education to offer interested parties

the opportunity to comment on

proposed priorities. However, in order

to make timely grant awards in FY 1995,

the Director, in accordance with section

437(d)(1) of the General Education

Provisions Act, has decided to issue this

final priority, which will apply only to

the FY 1995 grant competition.

Elsewhere in this issue of the Federal

Register, the Director is publishing a

notice of proposed priority for this

program and offering interested parties

the opportunity to comment. The

proposed priority, which is identical to

the final priority, would apply to grant

competitions under the program

beginning in FY 1996.

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 this program.

Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 7424.

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance

Number 84.290 Bilingual Education:

Comprehensive School Grants.)

Dated: February 6, 1995.

Eugene E. Garcia,

Director, Office of Bilingual Education and

Minority Languages Affairs.

[FR Doc. 95–5038 Filed 3–1–95; 8:45 am]

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