[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 61 (Thursday, March 30, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16462-16464]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-7826]



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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Office of Elementary and Secondary Education


Education of Migratory Children

AGENCY: Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice of final criteria for FY 1995 consortium incentive 
grants under part C of title I of the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act of 1965.

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SUMMARY: The Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education 
(Assistant Secretary) establishes final criteria for awarding fiscal 
year (FY) 1995 Migrant Education Program (MEP) consortium incentive 
grants under section 1308(d) of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Improving America's 
Schools Act (IASA), to State educational agencies (SEAs) with approved 
consortium arrangements.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This notice takes effect on May 1, 1995.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James English, Office of Migrant 
Education, U.S. Department of Education, 600 Independence Avenue SW., 
Portals Building, Room 4100, Washington, DC 20202-6135. Telephone: 
(202) 260-1394. 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:

Background

    The MEP, authorized in Title I, Part C of the ESEA, is a State-
operated, formula grant program under which SEAs receive funds to 
improve the academic achievement and welfare of migratory children who 
reside in their States. Consistent with the emphasis that the 
reauthorized ESEA places upon removing barriers to coordination and 
integration of programs that serve migratory children, sections 1303(d) 
and 1308(d) of the ESEA encourage SEAs to consider whether consortium 
arrangements with other States or appropriate entities would result in 
a more effective and efficient delivery of MEP services. 
[[Page 16463]] 
    In this regard, section 1303(d) directs the Secretary to consult 
with SEAs whose MEP allocations in any year will be $1 million or less 
about the desirability of forming consortia. This section also directs 
the Secretary to approve any SEA's consortium proposal that (1) reduces 
MEP administrative costs or program function costs, and (2) increases 
the amount of MEP funds available for direct services to migratory 
children that add substantially to the educational attainment or 
welfare of those children. While an SEA may form a consortium 
arrangement with any appropriate entity, in light of the strong 
interstate emphases in the MEP the Secretary anticipates that SEAs will 
consider the benefits of forming consortium arrangements on a multi-
State basis. The Secretary also anticipates that SEAs will want to plan 
their consortium activities to be implemented on a multiyear basis. The 
Department already has begun discussions with SEA officials about the 
circumstances in which consortium arrangements might enhance their 
programs for migratory children.
    To encourage SEAs to form consortium arrangements that meet the 
requirements of section 1303(d), section 1308(d) of the ESEA directs 
the Secretary to reserve up to $1.5 million of the funds appropriated 
for the MEP for competitive incentive awards to SEAs with consortium 
arrangements approved by the Secretary. Section 1308(d) also limits the 
size of each grant to no more than $250,000, and provides that not 
fewer than 10 grants shall be made to eligible SEAs with approved 
consortium arrangements whose MEP formula grant allocations are less 
than $1 million. While the provision offers all SEAs an incentive to 
participate in consortium arrangements, it was enacted particularly to 
benefit those SEAs that, because of the small size of their MEP 
allocations, may have particular difficulty in both administering the 
MEP and providing an adequate level of direct services to migratory 
children.

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 rulemaking documents. 
However, in accordance with section 437(d)(1) of the General Education 
Provisions Act, the Assistant Secretary has determined that, in order 
that SEAs may use the incentive grant funds as quickly as possible to 
promote their programs of direct services for migratory children under 
the MEP formula-grant program, it is desirable to waive public comment 
for the first year of implementation of this new discretionary grant. 
This waiver will apply only to the criteria and process included in 
this notice for awarding FY 1995 consortium incentive grants. Any 
criteria and procedures that the Department establishes for the award 
of consortium incentive grants in future years will be based on 
experiences with this FY 1995 award process, and will be published in 
proposed form in the Federal Register with an opportunity for 
interested parties to comment.

Eligibility for Consortium Incentive Grants

    The criteria and procedures announced in this notice govern only 
the award of consortium incentive grants for FY 1995. These criteria 
and procedures reflect consideration of comments on a preliminary 
proposal discussed with State MEP Directors in a meeting in McAllen, 
Texas on January 26-27, 1995. The Secretary will reserve $1.5 million 
to implement this consortium incentive grant program in FY 1995. Only 
SEAs with approved consortium arrangements will be eligible for 
incentive grants. Consistent with section 1303(d), a consortium 
arrangement will be approved if it (1) reduces the overall amount of 
MEP administrative or program function costs across the participating 
SEAs from the amount that would be incurred in the absence of the 
consortium, and (2) makes more funds available, overall across the 
participating SEAs, for direct educational or support services to 
migratory children so as to add substantially to their welfare or 
educational attainment than would have been available in the absence of 
the consortium.
    For purposes of section 1303(d), ``administrative or program 
function costs'' include all costs that an SEA or its local operating 
agencies pay from MEP funds to support MEP activities other than direct 
educational or support services for migratory children. Administrative 
and program function costs would include the costs of general program 
administration paid from funds reserved under section 1603(c) of ESEA, 
as well as the costs of other, program-specific administrative 
activities, such as identification and recruitment, interstate, 
intrastate, and interagency coordination, and parent advisory councils. 
The term ``direct educational or support services'' means any 
instructional or support activities provided directly to migratory 
children, as well as training of instructional or support staff who 
provide instructional or support services directly to migratory 
children. For purposes of section 1303(d), the term ``other appropriate 
entity'' can mean any public or private agency or organization.
    A single SEA may be part of more than one consortium arrangement. 
However, consistent with section 1303(d) of the ESEA, each consortium 
arrangement that the Secretary approves must separately decrease the 
total amount of MEP administrative or program function costs across the 
participating SEAs and, conversely, increase the total amount of MEP 
funds that are made available for direct services to migratory children 
across the participating SEAs. SEAs will submit the information that 
the Department needs to review and approve the SEA's consortium 
arrangement, and determine the size of the SEA's consortium incentive 
grant, through the FY 1995 MEP application or in conjunction with the 
optional consolidated State plan under section 14302 of the ESEA.

Amount of an SEA's Incentive Grants

    Each SEA with one or more consortium arrangements that the 
Secretary determines meet the criteria in section 1303(d) of the ESEA, 
and whose consortium arrangements increase the amount of MEP funds 
available for direct services to migratory children in its State, will 
receive one incentive award. In determining the size of an SEA's award, 
the Secretary will rank SEAs seeking incentive grants on the basis of 
the total percentage increase in MEP funds that the SEA will make 
available for direct services to migratory children in its State as a 
result of the SEA's participation in the consortium arrangements, as 
compared to the level of direct services that would be made available 
to migratory children in the State in the absence of the consortia.
    Example I: SEA A has one consortium arrangement that increases the 
amount of funds available for direct services in State A by 10 percent, 
while SEA B has two consortium arrangements that increase the total 
amount of funds available for direct services in State B by 8 percent. 
State A would be ranked higher than State B even if SEA B's consortium 
arrangements permit more total funds to be used for direct services. 
Example II: SEA C and SEA D participate together in one consortium and 
this consortium is the only one in which each SEA participates. If the 
amount available for direct services increases in total across the two 
States due to participation in the consortium, but the amount available 
for direct services in State C does not increase, the 
[[Page 16464]] consortium arrangement will be approved, but only State 
D, and not State C, will receive an incentive grant.
    From the information that an SEA submits, the Department will 
calculate, for each State, the total percentage increase in MEP funds 
available for direct services as a result of all the approved 
consortium arrangements in which an applicant SEA participates. The 
Department will then rank these percentages in descending order and 
divide the distribution into thirds (that is, by terciles). Each SEA 
ranked in the highest third of the distribution will receive an 
incentive grant that is three-times the size of the grant received by 
each SEA ranked in the lowest third, while each SEA ranked in the 
middle third will receive an incentive grant that is twice the size of 
that provided to each SEA ranked in the lowest third. Within each 
third, grant awards will be of equal size, except that adjustments will 
be made so that no consortium incentive grant will be greater than 
$250,000 or 100 percent of the amount of funds awarded to the SEA under 
its formula grant allocation, whichever is less.
    An SEA may use incentive grant funds awarded under section 1308(d) 
of the ESEA only to provide direct services to migratory children. 
These funds are in addition to, and not in place of, the funds awarded 
under the MEP formula grant.
    The Secretary implements section 1308(d) in this way in order to 
(1) reward all SEAs whose participation in consortium arrangements 
increases direct services to migratory children in their State, (2) 
provide larger awards to those SEAs whose consortium arrangements most 
enhance their capacity to deliver direct services, and (3) ensure that 
FY 1995 funds under this program are available to SEAs as soon as 
possible.
    Because of the criteria and procedures announced in this notice for 
awarding FY 1995 consortium incentive grants, the regulations and 
selection criteria contained in 34 CFR Part 205 (Migrant Education 
Coordination Program) do not apply to this competition.

Applicability of the Education Department General Administrative 
Regulations (EDGAR)

    In view of the process that the Department will use to obtain 
information on proposed SEA consortium arrangements, and the criteria 
it will use to determine, by formula, the amount of consortium 
incentive grant that each applicant SEA will receive, the regulations 
in 34 CFR Part 75 (Direct Grant Programs) of the Education Department 
General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) do not apply. Instead, the 
incentive grant program is being administered, like the MEP itself, 
under the provisions of 34 CFR Parts 76, 77, 80, 81, 85, and 86 of 
EDGAR.

(Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 6393(d), 6398(d))

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 84.011, Migratory 
Education Basic State Formula Grant Program)

    Dated: March 10, 1995.
Thomas W. Payzant,
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education.
[FR Doc. 95-7826 Filed 3-29-95; 8:45 am]
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