Annual Report to Congress on the &quot;Assistive Technology Act of 1998&quot; for Fiscal Years 2004 and 2005
Author: Rehabilitation Services Administration (ED)
Date: 2006-08-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Assistive Technology,Federal Legislation,Educational Legislation,Disabilities,Grants,State Programs,State Aid,Financial Support,Agency Cooperation,Coordination,Technical Assistance,Outreach Programs,Demonstration Programs,Program Implementation,Students with Disabilities,Residential Programs

In 1988, Congress passed the &quot;Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act&quot; (P.L. 100-407) (&quot;Tech Act&quot;) to assist states with identifying and responding to the assistive technology (AT) needs of individuals with disabilities. Grants awarded under the &quot;Tech Act&quot; were used by states to create systemic change that improved the availability of assistive technology devices and services. States were provided with flexibility in the design of their programs, and this flexibility continued when the &quot;Tech Act&quot; was reauthorized in 1994 (P.L. 103-218). The &quot;Tech Act&quot; was reauthorized again in 1998 as the &quot;Assistive Technology Act of 1998&quot; (P.L. 105-394) (&quot;AT Act of 1998&quot;). For FY 2004, this document reports on the activities of two programs authorized under the &quot;AT Act of 1998&quot;: (1) State Grants for AT, which provided grants for state programs designed to address the AT needs of individuals with disabilities through systems change; and (2) the Alternative Financing Program (AFP), which provided grants to support the federal share of establishing, expanding or maintaining loan programs that help individuals with disabilities purchase AT devices and services. The programs in (1) and (2) were significantly revised for FY 2005 and subsequent years when the &quot;Assistive Technology Act of 1998&quot; was amended in 2004. The next section of this report contains a description of the &quot;Assistive Technology Act of 1998,&quot; as amended by Public Law 108-364, and, for FY 2005, this document reports on activities of the State Grants for AT Program and the AFP as authorized under that act. Both the &quot;AT Act of 1998&quot; and AT Act, as amended by Public Law 108-364 require that the secretary of education submit to Congress a report on the activities funded under those respective acts. This document satisfies this requirement for FY 2004 and FY 2005. This report is organized as follows: (1) Part I reports on the FY 2004 performance of State Grants for AT programs as authorized under the &quot;AT Act of 1998.&quot; These reports are based on annual reports provided by the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the outlying areas to the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA). Part I also describes states' planned activities under the &quot;AT Act,&quot; as amended in 2004, as outlined in State Plans for AT submitted to RSA in August 2005; (2) Part II describes the performance of Alternative Financing Programs during FY 2004 and FY 2005; (3) Appendix A includes the requirements for the State Plan for AT that states submitted in order to receive a State Grant for AT in FY 2005; (4) Appendix B includes a summary of each State Plan, highlighting states' activities; (5) Appendix C lists the State Grants for AT programs (referred to as Statewide AT Programs as of FY 2005); and (6) Appendix D is a listing of AFPs funded under Title III of the &quot;AT Act of 1998.&quot; [For &quot;Assistive Technology Act of 1998, Title I: State Grant Program. Annual Report to Congress: Fiscal Years 2001, 2002, and 2003,&quot; see ED610921.]