4642 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 15 / Monday, January 26, 2009 / Notices 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

Compliance Agreement 

AGENCY: Department of Education. 

ACTION: Notice of written findings and 

compliance agreement with the 

Nebraska Department of Education. 

SUMMARY: This notice is being published 

in the Federal Register consistent with 

section 457(b)(2) of the General 

Education Provisions Act (GEPA). 

Section 457 of GEPA authorizes the U.S. 

Department of Education (the 

Department) to enter into a compliance 

agreement with a recipient that is failing 

to comply substantially with Federal 

program requirements. In order to enter 

into a compliance agreement, the 

Department must determine, in written 

findings, that the recipient cannot 

comply with the applicable program 

requirements until a future date. 

On October 8, 2008, the Department 

entered into a compliance agreement 

with the Nebraska Department of 

Education (NDE). Section 457(b)(2) of 

GEPA requires the Department to 

publish written findings leading to a 

compliance agreement, with a copy of 

the compliance agreement, in the 

Federal Register. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Collette Roney, U.S. Department of 

Education, Office of Elementary and 

Secondary Education, 400 Maryland 

Avenue, SW., room 3W210, 

Washington, DC 20202–6132. 

Telephone: (202) 401–5245. 

If you use a telecommunications 

device for the deaf (TDD), you may call 

the Federal Relay Service (FRS) at 1– 

800–877–8339. 

Individuals with disabilities may 

obtain this document in an accessible 

format (e.g., Braille, large print, 

audiotape, or computer diskette) on 

request to the contact person listed 

under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Title I of the Elementary and 

Secondary Education Act of 1965 (Title 

I), as amended by the No Child Left 

Behind Act of 2001, requires each State 

receiving Title I funds to satisfy certain 

requirements. 

Under Title I, each State is required 

to adopt academic content and student 

academic achievement standards in at 

least mathematics, reading or language 

arts, and science. These standards must 

include the same knowledge and levels 

of achievement expected of all public 

school students in the State. Content 

standards must specify what all 

students are expected to know and be 

able to do; contain coherent and 

rigorous content; and encourage the 

teaching of advanced skills. 

Achievement standards must be aligned 

with the State’s academic content 

standards and must describe at least 

three levels of proficiency to determine 

how well students in each grade are 

mastering the content standards. A State 

must provide descriptions of the 

competencies associated with each 

student’s academic achievement level 

and must determine the assessment 

scores (‘‘cut scores’’) that differentiate 

among the achievement levels. 

Title I also requires each State to 

implement a student assessment system 

to evaluate whether students are 

mastering the subject material reflected 

in the State’s academic content 

standards. By the 2005–2006 school 

year, States were required to administer 

mathematics and reading or language 

arts assessments yearly during grades 3– 

8 and once during grades 10–12. 

Further, beginning with the 2007–2008 

school year, each State was required to 

administer a science assessment in at 

least one grade in each of the following 

grade spans: 3–5, 6–9, and 10–12. 

In addition to a general assessment, 

Title I requires States to develop and 

administer at least one alternate 

assessment for students with disabilities 

who cannot participate in the general 

assessment, with or without 

accommodations. An alternate 

assessment may be based on grade-level 

academic achievement standards, 

alternate academic achievement 

standards, or modified academic 

achievement standards. Like the general 

assessment, any alternate assessment 

must satisfy the requirements for high 

technical quality, including validity, 

reliability, accessibility, objectivity, and 

consistency with nationally recognized 

professional and technical standards. 

Prior to the 2008–2009 school year, 

Nebraska employed a system of local 

assessments. Under this system, each 

local educational agency (LEA) in the 

State developed and administered its 

own standards and assessment system. 

In August 2007, NDE submitted 

evidence of its standards and 

assessment system to the Department. 

The Assistant Secretary for Elementary 

and Secondary Education (Assistant 

Secretary) submitted that evidence to a 

panel of experts for peer review. 

Following that review, the Assistant 

Secretary concluded that NDE’s 

standards and assessment system did 

not meet a number of the Title I 

requirements. Subsequently, the 

Nebraska legislature passed Legislative 

Bill (LB) 1157, which requires the State 

to implement a statewide standards and 

assessment system in place of the 

former system of local assessments. 

Section 454 of GEPA, 20 U.S.C. 1234c, 

sets out the remedies available to the 

Department when it determines that a 

recipient ‘‘is failing to comply 

substantially with any requirement of 

law’’ applicable to Federal program 

funds the Department administers. 

Specifically, the Department is 

authorized to— 

(1) Withhold funds; 

(2) Compel compliance through a 

cease and desist order; 

(3) Enter into a compliance agreement 

with the recipient; or 

(4) Take any other action authorized 

by law. 

20 U.S.C. 1234c(a). 

In a letter dated October 11, 2007, to 

Douglas Christenson, Nebraska’s thenCommissioner of Education, the 

Assistant Secretary notified NDE that, in 

order to remain eligible to receive Title 

I funds, it would have to enter into a 

compliance agreement with the 

Department. The purpose of a 

compliance agreement is ‘‘to bring the 

recipient into full compliance with the 

applicable requirements of law as soon 

as feasible and not to excuse or remedy 

past violations of such requirements.’’ 

20 U.S.C. 1234f(a). In order to enter into 

a compliance agreement with a 

recipient, the Department must 

determine, in written findings, that the 

recipient cannot comply until a future 

date with the applicable program 

requirements. 

In accordance with the requirements 

of section 457(b) of GEPA, 20 U.S.C 

1234f(b), on July 10, 2008, Department 

officials conducted a public hearing in 

Nebraska to assess whether a 

compliance agreement with NDE might 

be appropriate. Robert Evnen of 

Nebraska’s State Board of Education 

testified at this hearing. The Department 

considered the testimony provided at 

the July 2008 public hearing and all 

other relevant information and materials 

and concluded that NDE would not be 

able to correct its non-compliance with 

Title I standards and assessment 

requirements immediately, particularly 

in light of LB 1157, Nebraska’s recently 

passed State law, which requires the 

State to implement a statewide 

standards and assessment system in 

place of the former system of local 

assessments. 

On December 19, 2008, the Assistant 

Secretary issued written findings, 

holding that compliance by NDE with 

the Title I standards and assessment 

requirements is genuinely not feasible 

until a future date. Under Title I, NDE 

was required to implement its final 

Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 15 / Monday, January 26, 2009 / Notices 4643 

assessment system no later than the 

2005–2006 school year. The evidence 

that NDE submitted in August 2007 

indicated that, well after the statutory 

deadline had passed, its locally 

developed standards and assessment 

system still did not fully meet Title I 

requirements. In addition, due to the 

enormity and complexity of the work 

needed to bring NDE’s standards and 

assessment system into full compliance, 

NDE cannot immediately comply with 

all of the Title I requirements. 

The Assistant Secretary also 

determined that a compliance 

agreement represents a viable means of 

bringing about compliance because of 

the steps NDE had already taken to 

comply and the plan it had developed 

for further action. The compliance 

agreement sets out the action plan that 

NDE must implement to come into 

compliance with Title I requirements. 

This plan, coupled with specific 

reporting requirements, will allow the 

Assistant Secretary to monitor closely 

NDE’s progress in meeting the terms of 

the compliance agreement. 

Nebraska’s Deputy Commissioner of 

Education, Marge Harouff, signed the 

compliance agreement on October 2, 

2008, and the Assistant Secretary signed 

the compliance agreement on October 8, 

2008. 

As required by section 457(b)(2) of 

GEPA, 20 U.S.C. 1234f(b)(2), the text of 

the Assistant Secretary’s written 

findings is set forth as Appendix A and 

the compliance agreement is set forth as 

Appendix B of this notice. 

Electronic Access to This Document 

You may view this document, as well 

as all other Department of Education 

documents published in the Federal 

Register, in text or Adobe Portable 

Document Format (PDF) on the Internet 

at the following site: http://www.ed.gov/ 

news/fedregister. 

To use PDF, you must have the Adobe 

Acrobat Reader, which is available free 

at this site. If you have questions about 

using PDF, call the U.S. Government 

Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1– 

888–293–6498; or in the Washington, 

DC area at (202) 512–1530. 

Note: 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 on GPO 

Access at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/ 

index.html. 

(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1234c, 1234f) 

Dated: January 16, 2009. 

Kerri L. Briggs, 

Assistant Secretary for Elementary and 

Secondary Education. 

Appendix A 

Written Findings of the Assistant Secretary 

for Elementary and Secondary Education 

Regarding the Compliance Agreement 

Between the U.S. Department of Education 

and the Nebraska Department of Education 

I. Introduction 

The Assistant Secretary for Elementary and 

Secondary Education (Assistant Secretary) of 

the U.S. Department of Education 

(Department) has determined, pursuant to 20 

U.S.C. 1234c and 1234f, that the Nebraska 

Department of Education (NDE) has failed to 

comply substantially with certain 

requirements of Title I, Part A of the 

Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 

1965 (Title I), as amended by the No Child 

Left Behind Act of 2001, 20 U.S.C. 6301 et 

seq., and that it is genuinely not feasible for 

NDE to achieve full compliance immediately. 

Specifically, the Assistant Secretary has 

determined that NDE did not meet, within 

the statutory timeframe, a number of the Title 

I requirements for Nebraska’s general and 

alternate assessments under section 

1111(b)(3) of Title I. 

For the following reasons, the Assistant 

Secretary has concluded that it would be 

appropriate to enter into a compliance 

agreement with NDE. During the effective 

period of the compliance agreement, which 

ends October 8, 2011, NDE will be eligible to 

receive Title I funds as long as it complies 

with the terms and conditions of the 

agreement as well as the provisions of Title 

I and other applicable Federal statutory and 

regulatory requirements. 

II. Relevant Statutory and Regulatory 

Provisions 

A. Title I, Part A of the Elementary and 

Secondary Education Act of 1965, as 

amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 

2001 

Title I provides financial assistance, 

through State educational agencies, to local 

educational agencies to provide services in 

high-poverty schools to students who are 

failing or at risk of failing to meet the State’s 

student academic achievement standards. 

Under Title I, each State, including the 

District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, was 

required to adopt academic content and 

student academic achievement standards in 

at least mathematics, reading or language 

arts, and science. These standards must 

include the same knowledge and levels of 

achievement expected of all public school 

students in the State. Content standards must 

specify what all students are expected to 

know and be able to do; contain coherent and 

rigorous content; and encourage the teaching 

of advanced skills. Academic achievement 

standards must be aligned with the State’s 

academic content standards and must 

describe at least three levels of proficiency to 

determine how well students in each grade 

are mastering the content standards. A State 

must provide descriptions of the 

competencies associated with each student’s 

academic achievement level and must 

determine the assessment scores (‘‘cut 

scores’’) that differentiate among the 

achievement levels. 

Each State was also required to implement 

a student assessment system used to evaluate 

whether students are mastering the subject 

material reflected in the State’s academic 

content standards. By the 2005–2006 school 

year, States were required to administer 

mathematics and reading or language arts 

assessments yearly during grades 3–8 and 

once during grades 10–12. Further, beginning 

with the 2007–2008 school year, each State 

was required to administer a science 

assessment in at least one grade in each of 

the following grade spans: 3–5, 6–9, and 10– 

12. A State’s assessment system must: 

• Be the same assessment system used to 

measure the achievement of all public school 

students in the State; 

• Be designed to provide coherent 

information about student attainment of State 

academic content standards across grades 

and subjects; 

• Provide for the inclusion of all students 

in the grades assessed, including students 

with disabilities and limited English 

proficient (LEP) students; 

• Be aligned with the State’s academic 

content and student academic achievement 

standards; 

• Express student results in terms of the 

State’s student academic achievement 

standards; 

• Be valid, reliable, and of adequate 

technical quality for the purposes for which 

they are used and be consistent with 

nationally recognized professional and 

technical standards; 

• Involve multiple measures of student 

academic achievement, including measures 

that assess higher order thinking skills and 

understanding of challenging content; 

• Objectively measure academic 

achievement, knowledge, and skills without 

evaluating or assessing personal family 

beliefs and attitudes; 

• Enable results to be disaggregated by 

gender, each major racial and ethnic group, 

migrant status, students with disabilities, 

English proficiency status, and economically 

disadvantaged students; 

• Provide individual student reports; and 

• Enable itemized score analyses. 

20 U.S.C. 6311(b)(3); 34 CFR 200.2 

In addition to a general assessment, States 

were required to develop and administer at 

least one alternate assessment for students 

with disabilities who cannot participate in 

the general assessment, with or without 

accommodations. 34 CFR 200.6(a)(2). An 

alternate assessment may be based on gradelevel academic achievement standards, 

alternate academic achievement standards, or 

modified academic achievement standards. 

Like the general assessment, any alternate 

assessment must satisfy the requirements for 

high technical quality, including validity, 

reliability, accessibility, objectivity, and 

consistency with nationally recognized 

professional and technical standards. 

B. The General Education Provisions Act 

The General Education Provisions Act 

(GEPA) provides a number of options when 

4644 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 15 / Monday, January 26, 2009 / Notices 

the Assistant Secretary determines a 

recipient of Department funds is ‘‘failing to 

comply substantially with any requirement of 

law applicable to such funds.’’ 20 U.S.C. 

1234c. In such a case, the Assistant Secretary 

is authorized to: 

(1) Withhold funds; 

(2) Compel compliance through a cease 

and desist order; 

(3) Enter into a compliance agreement with 

the recipient; or 

(4) Take any other action authorized by 

law. 

20 U.S.C. 1234c(a) 

Under section 457 of GEPA, the Assistant 

Secretary may enter into a compliance 

agreement with a recipient that is failing to 

comply substantially with specific program 

requirements. 20 U.S.C. 1234f. The purpose 

of a compliance agreement is ‘‘to bring the 

recipient into full compliance with the 

applicable requirements of law as soon as 

feasible and not to excuse or remedy past 

violations of such requirements.’’ 20 U.S.C. 

1234f(a). Before entering into a compliance 

agreement with a recipient, the Assistant 

Secretary must hold a hearing at which the 

recipient, affected students and parents or 

their representatives, and other interested 

parties are invited to participate. At that 

hearing, the recipient has the burden of 

persuading the Assistant Secretary that full 

compliance with applicable requirements of 

law is not feasible until a future date. 20 

U.S.C. 1234f(b)(1). If, on the basis of all the 

evidence presented, the Assistant Secretary 

determines that full compliance is genuinely 

not feasible until a future date, the Assistant 

Secretary must make written findings to that 

effect and must publish those findings, 

together with the substance of any 

compliance agreement, in the Federal 

Register. 20 U.S.C. 1234f(b)(2). 

A compliance agreement must contain the 

terms and conditions with which the 

recipient must comply during the period that 

agreement is in effect. 20 U.S.C. 1234f(c)(2). 

If the recipient fails to comply with any of 

the terms and conditions of the compliance 

agreement, the Assistant Secretary may 

consider the agreement to be no longer in 

effect, and may take any of the compliance 

actions set forth above. 20 U.S.C. 1234f(d). 

III. Analysis 

In deciding whether a compliance 

agreement between the Assistant Secretary 

and NDE is appropriate, the Assistant 

Secretary must determine whether 

compliance by NDE with the Title I standards 

and assessment requirements is genuinely 

not feasible until a future date. 20 U.S.C. 

1234f(b)(2). 

A. NDE Has Failed To Comply Substantially 

With Title I Standards and Assessment 

Requirements 

Prior to the 2008–2009 school year, 

Nebraska employed a system of local 

assessments. Under this system, each local 

educational agency (LEA) in the state 

developed and administered its own 

standards and assessment system. In August 

2007, NDE submitted evidence of its 

standards and assessment system, which the 

Assistant Secretary submitted to a panel of 

experts for peer review. Following that 

review, the Assistant Secretary concluded 

that NDE’s standards and assessment system 

did not meet a number of the Title I 

requirements for standards and assessments. 

In April 2008, the Nebraska legislature 

passed Legislative Bill 1157, which requires 

the state to implement a statewide standards 

and assessment system in place of the former 

system of local assessments. In light of this 

new state law, the Assistant Secretary has 

determined that, to demonstrate that its 

statewide standards and assessment system 

complies with Title I requirements, NDE 

must submit evidence to satisfy each 

component of the Department’s December 

2007 Standards and Assessment Peer Review 

Guidance: Information and Examples for 

Meeting Requirements of the No Child Left 

Behind Act of 2001 (available at: http:// 

www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/ 

saaprguidance.doc). In particular, NDE must 

submit evidence pertaining to each of the 

following required components of standards 

and assessment systems: 

1. Academic content standards; 

2. Academic achievement standards; 

3. Full assessment system; 

4. Technical quality; 

5. Alignment; 

6. Inclusion; and 

7. Reporting. 

B. NDE Cannot Immediately Correct Its 

Noncompliance With the Title I Standards 

and Assessment Requirements 

Under Title I, NDE was required to 

implement its final standards and assessment 

system no later than the 2005–2006 school 

year. 20 U.S.C. 6311(b)(3). The evidence that 

NDE submitted in August 2007 indicated 

that, well after the statutory deadline had 

passed, its standards and assessment system 

still did not fully meet Title I requirements. 

Moreover, the state law that was passed in 

2008 effectively requires Nebraska to begin 

anew in developing and implementing a 

statewide system of standards and 

assessments years after it was required to 

have compliant standards and assessments in 

place. Due to the enormity and complexity of 

the work that is needed to bring NDE’s 

standards and assessment system into full 

compliance, NDE cannot immediately 

comply with all of the Title I requirements. 

As a result, the Assistant Secretary finds that 

it is genuinely not feasible for NDE to come 

into compliance with the applicable 

requirements of law until a future date. 

C. NDE Can Meet the Terms and Conditions 

of a Compliance Agreement 

At the public hearing, which was held on 

July 10, 2008, Robert Evnen of Nebraska’s 

State Board of Education testified that it was 

not feasible for NDE to come into compliance 

with the Title I standards and assessment 

requirements until a future date. NDE has 

developed a comprehensive action plan, 

incorporated into the compliance agreement, 

which sets out a very specific schedule that 

NDE has agreed to meet for attaining 

compliance with the Title I standards and 

assessment requirements. As a result, NDE is 

committed to meeting a stringent, but 

reasonable, schedule for coming into 

compliance with the applicable 

requirements. The action plan also sets out 

documentation and reporting requirements 

with which NDE must comply. These 

provisions will allow the Assistant Secretary 

to ascertain promptly whether NDE is 

meeting each of its commitments under the 

compliance agreement. 

IV. Conclusion 

For the foregoing reasons, the Assistant 

Secretary finds the following: (1) That full 

compliance by NDE with the standards and 

assessment requirements of Title I is 

genuinely not feasible until a future date; and 

(2) that NDE can meet the terms and 

conditions of the attached compliance 

agreement. Therefore, the Assistant Secretary 

has determined that it is appropriate to enter 

into a compliance agreement with NDE. 

Dated: December 19, 2008. 

Kerri L. Briggs, 

Assistant Secretary for Elementary and 

Secondary Education. 

Appendix B 

Compliance Agreement Under Title I of the 

Elementary and Secondary Education Act 

Between the United States Department of 

Education and the Nebraska Department of 

Education 

Title I of the Elementary and Secondary 

Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 (Title I), as 

amended by the No Child Left Behind Act 

(NCLB) of 2001, requires each State receiving 

Title I funds to satisfy certain requirements. 

Each State was required to adopt academic 

content and achievement standards in at least 

mathematics, reading/language arts, and, 

beginning in the 2005–2006 school year, 

science. These standards must include the 

same knowledge and levels of achievement 

expected of all public school students in the 

State. Content standards must specify what 

all students are expected to know and be able 

to do; contain coherent and rigorous content; 

and encourage the teaching of advanced 

skills. Achievement standards must be 

aligned with the State’s content standards 

and must describe at least three levels of 

proficiency to determine how well students 

in each grade are mastering the content 

standards. A State must provide descriptions 

of the competencies associated with each 

achievement level and must determine the 

assessment scores (‘‘cut scores’’) that 

differentiate among the achievement levels. 

Each State was also required to implement 

a student assessment system used to evaluate 

whether students are mastering the subject 

material reflected in the State’s academic 

standards. By the 2005–2006 school year, 

States were required to administer 

mathematics and reading/language arts 

assessments yearly during grades 3–8 and 

once during grades 10–12. Further, beginning 

with the 2007–2008 school year, each State 

is required to administer a science 

assessment in at least one grade in each of 

the following grade spans: 3–5, 6–9, and 10– 

12. A State’s assessment system must: 

• Be the same assessment system used to 

measure the achievement of all public school 

students in the State; 

Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 15 / Monday, January 26, 2009 / Notices 4645 

• Be designed to provide coherent 

information about student attainment of State 

standards across grades and subjects; 

• Provide for the inclusion of all students 

in the grades assessed, including students 

with disabilities and limited English 

proficient (LEP) students; 

• Be aligned with the State’s content and 

achievement standards; 

• Express student results in terms of the 

State’s student achievement standards; 

• Be valid, reliable, and of adequate 

technical quality for the purpose for which 

they are used and be consistent with 

nationally recognized professional and 

technical standards; 

• Involve multiple measures of student 

academic achievement, including measures 

that assess higher order thinking skills and 

understanding of challenging content; 

• Objectively measure academic 

achievement, knowledge, and skills without 

evaluating or assessing personal family 

beliefs and attitudes; 

• Enable results to be disaggregated by 

gender, each major racial and ethnic group, 

migrant status, English proficiency status, 

students with disabilities, and economically 

disadvantaged students; 

• Provide individual student reports; and 

• Enable itemized score analyses. 

In addition to a general assessment, States 

were required to develop at least one 

alternate assessment for students with 

disabilities who cannot participate in the 

general assessment, with or without 

accommodations. An alternate assessment 

may be based on grade-level achievement 

standards, alternate achievement standards, 

or modified achievement standards. Like the 

general assessment, any alternate assessment 

must satisfy the requirements for high 

technical quality, including validity, 

reliability, accessibility, objectivity, and 

consistency with nationally recognized 

professional and technical standards. 

The Nebraska Department of Education 

(NDE) was unable to timely meet certain of 

the requirements for its standards and 

assessment system. In order to be eligible to 

continue to receive Title I funds while 

working to comply with the statutory and 

regulatory requirements from this point 

forward, Nebraska’s Commissioner of 

Education indicated NDE’s interest in 

entering into a compliance agreement with 

the United States Department of Education 

(Department). On July 10, 2008, the 

Department conducted a public hearing 

regarding (1) whether NDE’s full compliance 

with Title I is not feasible until a future date, 

and (2) whether NDE is able to come into 

compliance with the Title I standards and 

assessment requirements within three years. 

Pursuant to this Compliance Agreement 

under 20 U.S.C. section 1234f, NDE must be 

in full compliance with the statutory and 

regulatory requirements, as they may exist 

from this point forward, no later than three 

years from the date of the Assistant 

Secretary’s written findings, a copy of which 

is attached to, and incorporated by reference 

into, this Agreement. In order to achieve 

compliance with the standards and 

assessment requirements, NDE must submit 

evidence to satisfy each component of the 

Department’s December 2007 Standards and 

Assessment Peer Review Guidance: 

Information and Examples for Meeting 

Requirements of the No Child Left Behind 

Act of 2001 (available at: http://www.ed.gov/ 

policy/elsec/guid/saaprguidance.doc). This 

includes documentation for each of the seven 

elements identified in that non-regulatory 

guidance: 

1. Academic content standards; 

2. Academic achievement standards; 

3. Full assessment system; 

4. Technical quality; 

5. Alignment; 

6. Inclusion; and 

7. Reporting. 

During the duration of this Compliance 

Agreement, NDE is eligible to receive Title I, 

Part A funds if it complies with the terms 

and conditions of this Agreement, and all 

other provisions of Title I, Part A and other 

applicable Federal statutory and regulatory 

requirements that are not specifically 

addressed by this Agreement. The attached 

action steps are a detailed plan and specific 

timeline for how NDE intends to come into 

compliance with the Title I standards and 

assessment requirements as they currently 

exist and how NDE intends to demonstrate 

that it has come into compliance with those 

requirements. Except as specified herein, 

these action steps are incorporated into this 

Agreement as though fully restated herein. 

All action steps may be amended by joint 

agreement of the parties, provided full 

compliance is still feasible by the expiration 

of the Agreement. Action steps that relate to 

NDE’s science assessment that have due 

dates beyond the expiration of this 

agreement, and only these particular action 

steps, are not incorporated herein; failure to 

complete these particular action steps prior 

to the expiration of the agreement shall not 

be relied upon as a basis for finding that NDE 

has failed to comply with the terms of the 

compliance agreement. 

By agreeing to the action steps that are 

incorporated into this Agreement, the 

Department expresses no opinion on the legal 

sufficiency of the standards and assessment 

system that will result from the completion 

of those action steps. NDE agrees that the 

Department’s approval of its standards and 

assessment system will be handled through 

the Department’s peer review process and 

that NDE’s successful completion of the 

action steps incorporated herein does not 

bind the Department to approve NDE’s 

standards and assessment system. 

In addition to all terms and conditions set 

forth above, NDE agrees that its continued 

eligibility to receive Title I, Part A funds is 

predicated upon its compliance with all 

statutory and regulatory requirements of that 

program that are not specifically addressed 

by this Agreement, including any 

amendments to the No Child Left Behind Act 

of 2001 enacted after the effective date of this 

Agreement. This agreement is predicated 

upon NDE’s compliance from this point 

forward with Federal and State laws as they 

now exist or as they may be amended in the 

future. 

If NDE fails to comply with any of the 

terms and conditions of this Agreement, 

including the action steps attached hereto 

that are incorporated herein as set forth 

above, the Department may consider the 

Agreement no longer in effect and may take 

any action authorized by law, including the 

withholding of funds or the issuance of a 

cease and desist order. 20 U.S.C. 1234f(d). 

It is so agreed. 

For the Nebraska Department of Education. 

Dated: October 2, 2008. 

Marge Harouff, 

Deputy Commissioner. 

For the United States Department of 

Education. 

Dated: October 8, 2008. 

Kerri L. Briggs, 

Assistant Secretary, Office of Elementary and 

Secondary Education. 

Date this Compliance Agreement becomes 

effective: Oct 8, 2008. 

Expiration Date of this Agreement: Oct 8, 

2011. 

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[FR Doc. E9–1537 Filed 1–23–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–C 


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