‘‘(5) in an era when educational change and re-
form must prevail, it is more important than ever to
provide programs that—
‘‘(A) result in improved educational out-
comes for disadvantaged students;
‘‘(B) promote the coordination of education
and related services that benefit children and
their families;
‘‘(C) respond flexibly to the needs of a di-
verse student population;
‘‘(D) stop the proliferation of unnecessary
Federal, State, and local regulation; and
‘‘(E) place less emphasis on reviewing pro-
cedures and more emphasis on achieving pro-
gram results.
‘‘(b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this part to es-
tablish a national demonstration program which—
‘‘(1) promotes educational reform that leads to
improved educational outcomes for disadvantaged
students;
‘‘(2) holds accountable the schools and other re-
cipients of Federal funds for achieving specific edu-
cational improvement goals in exchange for in-
creased flexibility in the use of their resources; and
‘‘(3) enables school and program administra-
tors, teachers, parents, local agencies, and commu-
nity groups to work together to develop effective
education programs that lead to improved achieve-
ment and meet the needs of disadvantaged students.
‘‘SEC. 8403. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.
‘‘(a) STATES.—
‘‘(1) WAIVERS AUTHORIZED.—Except as pro-
vided in subsection (e) and section 8409, the Sec-
retary is authorized to waive statutory or regulatory
requirements in accordance with the provisions of
this part for not more than 10 States which have
implemented comprehensive regulatory reform plans
involving not more than 20 local educational agen-
cies and 75 schools in each such State in order to
enable such States to conduct demonstration
projects to find more flexible ways to provide edu-
cation and other services to disadvantaged students.
‘‘(2) LIMITATION.—The Secretary shall only
waive statutory or regulatory requirements if the
Secretary determines that such requirements may
impede the ability of a school or other service pro-
vider to—
‘‘(A) provide education and other services
to disadvantaged students; or
‘‘(B) meet the special needs of such stu-
dents and other individuals in the most effective
manner possible.
‘‘(b) OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES.—
‘‘(1) WAIVERS.—The head of any other Federal
agency who has entered into an agreement with the
Secretary pursuant to paragraph (2) is similarly au-
thorized to waive only regulatory requirements appli-
cable to an elementary, secondary, or youth voca-
tional training program administered by such agency
if the agency head and the Secretary agree that such
a waiver would provide more flexible ways to provide
education and other services to disadvantaged stu-
dents.
‘‘(2) AGREEMENT.—For the purpose of consid-
ering requests for waivers under this part regarding
requirements related to programs administered by
other Federal agencies, the Secretary shall enter
into written agreements with the heads of such
agencies which describe the process to be used to
consider such requests.
‘‘(c) STATE AND LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY AP-
PLICATION TRANSMITTAL.—The Secretary or the head of
any other Federal agency shall only waive the statutory
or regulatory requirements in accordance with the provi-
sions of this part after receiving applications from a State
educational agency in accordance with subsections (a) and
(b) of section 8408.
‘‘(d) APPROVAL OF PROJECTS.—
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—The Secretary shall ap-
prove applications from States which have imple-
mented, or will implement prior to applying to the
Secretary under section 8408, comprehensive regu-
latory reform demonstration projects under this sec-
tion that the Secretary determines show substantial
promise of achieving the purposes of this section,
after considering—
‘‘(A) the comprehensiveness of the project,
including the types of students, schools, pro-
grams, and activities to be included;
‘‘(B) the extent to which the requirements
for which waivers are sought impede edu-
cational improvement;
‘‘(C) the State and local requirements that
will be waived for the project;
‘‘(D) the significance and feasibility of the
proposed project’s goals for each participating
school or site; and
‘‘(E) the quality of the plan for ensuring
accountability for the proposed plan’s activities
and goals.
‘‘(2) CONSULTATION.—The Secretary shall con-
sult with the heads of other appropriate Federal
agencies, if any, in determining whether to approve
a project. Each such agency head shall notify the
Secretary of any waivers granted by such agency
head as part of such project.
‘‘(3) DISTRIBUTION OF PROJECTS.—The Sec-
retary shall ensure that, to the extent feasible,
projects assisted under this section are geographi-
cally distributed, and equitably distributed among
urban, suburban, and rural areas, as well as large
and small schools.
‘‘(e) TERRITORIES.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding the defini-
tion of ‘State’ contained in section 1471(22), the
Secretary is authorized to consider an application
from each of the territories of the Virgin Islands,
American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands, and the Republic of
Palau (until such time as the Compact of Free Asso-
ciation is ratified) and to waive certain requirements
in not more than four schools for each of such terri-
tories.
‘‘(2) SPECIAL RULE.—The requirements of sub-
section (a)(1) regarding the number of States and
schools that may be approved for waivers shall not
include the entities described in paragraph (1).
‘‘SEC. 8404. FEDERAL WAIVERS OF GENERAL REQUIRE-
MENTS.
‘‘A State educational agency may request waivers of
Federal statutory or regulatory requirements relating to
the uses of funds for programs serving disadvantaged stu-
dents to allow funds to be combined to better serve dis-
advantaged students in the regular classroom.
‘‘(1) PRESCHOOL PROGRAMS.—In the case of
preschool programs serving disadvantaged students,
such programs shall include chapter 1 and may in-
clude—
‘‘(A) the Head Start Act (only for require-
ments related to age, family income, length of
day, and restrictions on reimbursement);
‘‘(B) the Even Start Act; and
‘‘(C) the Child Care Quality Improvement
Act.
‘‘(2) ELEMENTARY
SCHOOL.—In the case of
programs serving disadvantaged students at the ele-