[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 103 (Tuesday, May 30, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28280-28282]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-13066]
[[Page 28279]]
_______________________________________________________________________
Part III
Department of Education
_______________________________________________________________________
Knowledge Dissemination and Utilization Program for Fiscal Year 1995;
Notices
Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 103 / Tuesday, May 30, 1995 / Notices
[[Page 28280]]
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research
Knowledge Dissemination and Utilization (D&U) Program; Notice of
Final Funding Priority for Fiscal Years 1995-1996 for the Knowledge
Dissemination and Utilization Program
SUMMARY: The Secretary announces a final funding priority for the
Knowledge Dissemination and Utilization (D&U) Program under the
National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR)
for fiscal years l995-1996. The Secretary takes this action to ensure
that rehabilitation knowledge generated from projects and centers
funded by NIDRR and others is utilized fully to improve the lives of
individuals with disabilities and their families.
EFFECTIVE DATE: This priority takes effect on June 29, 1995.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Esquith, U.S. Department of
Education, 600 Independence Avenue, SW., Switzer Building, room 3424,
Washington, DC 20202-2601. Telephone: (202) 205-8801. Individuals who
use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the TDD
number at (202) 205-8133.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice contains one final priority
under the D&U program, in the area of community integration for
individuals with mental retardation. Authority for the D&U program of
NIDRR is contained in sections 202 and 204(a) and 204(b)(6) of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. 760-762). This
priority supports the National Education Goal that calls for all
Americans to possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a
global economy and exercise the rights and responsibilities of
citizenship.
On March 31, 1955, the Secretary published a notice of proposed
priority in the Federal Register at 60 FR 16760. The comments received
in response to that notice, and the Secretary's responses to them, are
discussed in the following section of this notice.
Analysis of Comments and Responses
The Secretary received 13 letters of comment prior to the deadline
date for receipt of comments. All but one of these comments supported
the idea of an information center on community integration and mental
retardation, but several made suggestions for additional activities.
These comments are synopsized below, along with the Secretary's
responses and any changes to the priority.
Comment: One commenter pointed out that the Background statement
was misleading in stating that ``48 percent of all individuals with
mental retardation nationwide resided in large congregate care
settings.''
Discussion: The Secretary agrees that the statement should be
revised to clarify that the percentage refers to all persons residing
in other than their family homes.
Changes: The statement has been revised to read, ``of the 347,000
persons with mental retardation who resided in out-of-home care, 48
percent were in settings of 16 or more beds.''
Comment: A number of commenters urged NIDRR to continue research in
the area of community integration and mental retardation, and many
suggested specific research topics or areas for investigation.
Discussion: NIDRR currently maintains support for four
Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers (RRTCs) in community
integration for persons with developmental disabilities, including
mental retardation, and supports additional work in this area in
centers on families, ADA technical assistance and training projects,
and discrete research projects. NIDRR expects to initiate a number of
activities to review these programs, the state-of-the-art, and
opportunities for future research in order to establish a timely and
coherent agenda of research in community integration. However, the
Secretary has determined that there is a need for information and
technical assistance to community-based service providers, State and
local agencies, consumer advocates, and consumers and their families
about the findings of research, best practices, and integration
strategies. This priority addresses that need.
Changes: None.
Comment: One commenter urged that the Department include
information to facilitate community integration for individuals with
mental illness in the activities under this priority.
Discussion: While the Secretary does not dispute the possible value
of such an activity, he declines to add it to this priority for several
reasons. First, the knowledge base on community integration is
different for the two disability categories, as are the populations
that would be the targets of the information dissemination and
technical assistance activities. In addition, NIDRR has just announced
a priority for an RRTC on long-term mental illness that will work to
further develop and disseminate a knowledge base in the specific area
of peer support and community integration.
Changes: None.
Comment: One commenter stated that it is not clear that consumers
and their families are dissatisfied with the Intermediate Care
Facilities (ICFs) that now exist, and also noted that studies show ICFs
of four to six residents have favorable integration outcomes.
Discussion: The Secretary agrees that the dissemination Center must
provide information and assistance that addresses a range of consumer
and family goals. The background statement to the proposed priority
expressed agreement with this commenter's point in that it did endorse
the residential facility serving ``six or fewer individuals'' as a
positive model.
Changes: None.
Comment: The same commenter noted that there are different concerns
among different segments of the consumer and family populations,
contending that some parent groups value health and safety while others
focus on inclusion and integration, and stating that it would be
important to address the range of concerns.
Discussion: The Secretary agrees that the range of concerns of self
advocates and family advocates should be taken into consideration, but
the primary focus of this Center is on community integration because
that is one of NIDRR's statutorily-mandated objectives. The Secretary
believes that maintenance of healthy and safe environments is a
component of successful community integration.
Changes: None.
Comment: One commenter stated that NIDRR grantees should establish
training and technical assistance resources with sophisticated
knowledge of local conditions in each State and that are easily
accessed by local providers.
Discussion: The Secretary believes this is one strategy grantees
could use to disseminate information, but prefers to let the applicants
present those approaches to dissemination that they believe will be
most effective.
Changes: None.
Comment: One commenter suggested that the new Center be required to
inform all State and local government agencies dealing with mental
retardation of its existence and the type of services it offers.
Discussion: The Secretary agrees that it is important that the
Center address the information needs of State and local government
agencies, but believes that the phrase ``all state and local government
agencies dealing with mental retardation'' is too vague and could pose
a potential burden on the grantee to identify all agencies
[[Page 28281]] regardless of their role. Therefore, the Secretary has
revised the statement of priority to require that the Center advise all
State Developmental Disabilities Councils and all State Protection and
Advocacy Systems of its existence and proposed services.
Changes: The phrase, ``The Center must advise every State
Developmental Disabilities Council and every State Protection and
Advocacy System of its existence and proposed services'', has been
added at the end of the bullet requiring broad coordination.
Comment: One commenter stated that it is inappropriate for NIDRR to
limit the work of this Center to community integration for individuals
with mental retardation since Congress has stated that ``supported
employment'' is for people with various types of disabilities, and
people with mental retardation have resources for extended on-going
support services that people with other disabilities do not have.
Discussion: The Secretary points out that the dissemination Center
will not focus primarily on supported employment and will not provide
resources for extended support services. NIDRR supports ongoing
research and demonstrations on supported employment, and on community
integration and independent living, for persons with physical, sensory,
and emotional disabilities. The purpose of the Center to be established
under this priority is to compile and disseminate what has been learned
in previous research and demonstration projects about community
integration strategies for a population that has often been
institutionalized. Research to promote community integration is a
statutorily-authorized objective of NIDRR.
Changes: None.
Comment: One commenter recommended that the priority specifically
detail responsibilities related to lifelong learning and literacy
education.
Discussion: The Secretary agrees that literacy and opportunities
for lifelong learning often are important components of community
integration. However, the Secretary intentionally elected not to
require that any specific components be addressed, but to encourage
applicants to address those components that they believe are most
critical and in which there is a substantial knowledge base for
dissemination. The peer review panel will assess the appropriateness of
the scope presented by the applicants.
Changes: None.
Comment: One commenter stated that the priority should require the
grantee to address bankers, lenders, and financial policymakers in the
private and public sectors to promote mortgage availability for
individuals with mental retardation.
Discussion: The Secretary elects to allow applicants to address
those components of community integration which it believes are most
critical and likely to have the greatest impact on community
integration.
Changes: None.
Note: This notice does not solicit applications. A notice
inviting applications under this competition is published in the
this issue of the Federal Register.
Priority
Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(3) the Secretary gives an absolute
preference to applications that meet the following priority. The
Secretary will fund under this program only applications that meet this
absolute priority:
Facilitating Community Integration for Individuals with Mental
Retardation
Background
NIDRR has supported Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers in
the area of mental retardation and developmental disabilities since
1965. In addition, NIDRR has supported a number of research projects
targeted on this population in areas such as transition from school to
work, public policy and expenditures for developmental disabilities in
the U.S., and successful transitions from nursing homes into the
community. As a result of such research and training efforts over many
years, a large body of knowledge now exists relative to enabling
individuals with mental retardation to live in their communities.
The population in public institutions for persons with mental
retardation has decreased from 195,000 in 1967 to 81,200 persons in
1991, (Lakin, 1993) as a result of public policy decisions and vigorous
efforts of public leadership groups to effect deinstitutionalization.
However, successful integration into communities that includes
residential, employment, and full participation components is not
easily achieved.
During the past eight years there have been major developments in
the understanding of community integration needs and strategies,
including: funding models that allow for individualized options;
systems for assessing support needs for an individual and in a
community; models for both formal and informal support systems, and for
integrating the two approaches; and model strategies for systems change
within States. (Horner, 1994). Yet in nearly every State, policy and
practice do not reflect these advances in knowledge and understanding,
and do not take advantage of the best practices models and
implementation strategies that have evolved through research and
practice.
As a result, innovative supports for living in their own home or
community are available to very few of those who potentially could
benefit from them. Many thousands of people with developmental
disabilities continue to live in private and public institutions and
``mini-institutions'' in the community. In many cases,
``deinstitutionalization has resulted in trans-institutionalization''
(Taylor, 1994). There are approximately 64,800 persons with mental
retardation and related conditions who are not receiving any form of
residential services and who are now on waiting lists for community
residential services (Lakin et al., 1993). And, of the 347,000 persons
with mental retardation who resided in out-of-home care, 48 percent
were in settings of 16 or more beds. However, in 1992, there were 8
States that provided services to more than 60 percent of consumers in
family-scale settings serving six or fewer individuals, while
conversely, six States served fewer than 10 percent of their clients in
such small settings (Braddock, 1994).
Thus, there is a demand for community integration assistance,
coupled with a tremendous variation in State ability to meet those
demands. This variation in services indicates that there is a critical
need for information about innovative, state-of the-art practices and
for training and technical assistance on how to improve policies and
practices on community integration at the State and community levels.
NIDRR received substantial public comment on its 1995 proposed
priorities, contending that there is a national need for information on
best practices for community integration and a demand for training of
service providers and consumers to help communities overcome the
challenges of fully including all of their citizens and their families,
and to make community integration a reality. State and local policy
makers, regulators, and service agencies, as well as community service
providers require training and technical assistance to enable them to
address the issues that will emerge as States and localities move
toward a system of individualized supports. States and communities
require information and training on policies and strategies that could
assist them in shifting from a provider-driven to a consumer-driven
service delivery system. The quality of community
[[Page 28282]] services delivered to persons with disabilities and
their families will also depend on the ability of educational,
employment and residential service agencies to effectively address the
training needs of their approximately 250,000 direct service personnel
(Wallace, T. & Johnson, D., 1992 and Braddock, 1994).
The Secretary believes that there is a critical need for
dissemination of information on model programs, integrated statewide
systems of service delivery, exemplary practices, and systems change
strategies. In addition, there is a need to develop more effective
mechanisms for training community-level service providers to ensure the
implementation of best practices, and to provide training and technical
assistance to consumer-directed self-advocacy organizations and parent
organizations.
Priority
Under this priority, the Secretary supports a dissemination and
technical assistance Center that--(1) Identifies and disseminates
exemplary practices in community integration for individuals with
mental retardation; and (2) provides training and technical assistance
to State and local agencies, community-based service providers, and
consumer-controlled advocacy organizations to facilitate the adoption
of exemplary practices in community integration for individuals with
mental retardation. In addition to activities proposed by the applicant
to carry out these purposes, the Center must conduct the following
activities:
Design and implement a national information resource on
community integration to serve policymakers and administrators,
community-based service providers, consumer-controlled advocacy
organizations, and individuals with mental retardation and their
families, ensuring that information is available in accessible formats
appropriate to individuals with a range of sensory, cognitive, and
other disabilities;
Prepare materials on important topical issues, which might
include for example: strategies to address social and cultural barriers
to full inclusion; strategies for cross-agency collaboration in the
development of individualized services or case management practices;
and reasonable accommodations to facilitate community inclusion, and
use them in information dissemination, training, and technical
assistance activities as appropriate; and
Coordinate with existing NIDRR-funded projects and
centers, and build upon the products of past NIDRR projects and similar
efforts funded by other Federal agencies, to ensure that the best and
most current information on needs and best practices is incorporated
into the information dissemination, training, and technical assistance
of this Center. The Center must advise every State Developmental
Disabilities Council and every State Protection and Advocacy System of
its existence and proposed services.
Applicable Program Regulations
34 CFR parts 350 and 355.
Program Authority: 29 U.S.C. 760-762.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 84.133D, Knowledge
Dissemination and Utilization Program)
Dated: May 23, 1995.
Howard R. Moses,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative
Services.
[FR Doc. 95-13066 Filed 5-26-95; 8:45 am]
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