[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 17 (Wednesday, January 26, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4342-4343]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-1742]



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Part V





Department of Education





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Even Start Statewide Family Literacy Initiative Grants; Notice

  Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 17 / Wednesday, January 26, 2000 / 
Notices  

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No. 84.314B]


Even Start Statewide Family Literacy Initiative Grants

AGENCY:  Department of Education.

ACTION:  Notice of deadline for third stage of applications for 
assistance under the Even Start Statewide Family Literacy Initiative 
grant authority for fiscal year 1999, and information regarding certain 
cost issues for those grants.

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SUMMARY:  The Secretary of Education announces a third stage, and 
deadline for that third stage, for States to apply for a fiscal year 
(FY) 1999 new award under the Even Start Statewide Family Literacy 
Initiative grant authority. The Secretary also provides information 
about the authorization of certain pre-award costs for grant 
recipients, and the applicability of the waiver authority under section 
14401 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to the 
requirement that only non-Federal funds be used as matching resources 
for the grant.
    Eligible Applicants: One State office or agency from each State, 
the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, provided that the applicant 
jurisdiction did not receive an award of funds in the second stage of 
this FY 1999 competition.
    Deadline for Transmittal of Applications in Third Stage of 
Competition: The deadline for State offices and agencies to submit 
their Even Start Statewide Family Literacy Initiative applications for 
the third stage of this grant competition is March 31, 2000.
    Available Funds: The Secretary estimates that there will be 
$2,039,499 available for awards in the third stage of this FY 1999 
competition.
    Matching and Use of Fund Requirements: A State receiving a grant 
for an Even Start Statewide Family Literacy Initiative must make 
available non-Federal contributions (cash or in-kind) in an amount at 
least equal to the Federal funds awarded under the grant. These non-
Federal contributions may be from State or local resources, or both. 
Grantees may not use grant funds for indirect costs, either as a direct 
charge or as part of the matching requirement.
    Estimated Number of Awards During Second and Third Stages of 
Competition: second stage--28; third stage--6-10. (No States qualified 
for awards during the first stage of this competition.)


    Note:  The Department is not bound by any estimates in this 
notice. The Secretary originally estimated a total of between 40-52 
awards, with an estimated average size for an award of $186,000 in 
Federal funds. No states qualified for awards during the first stage 
of the competition. The Secretary anticipates awarding funds to 28 
recipients during the second stage of competition. Based upon these 
awards, the Secretary revises the estimate of the number of total 
awards to 34-38 awards for FY 1999, with an estimated 6-10 awards 
during the third stage of the competition.


    Project Period: 24 months (comprised of two one-year budget 
periods).
    Application, Absolute Priority, and Selection Criteria: The 
Department will use the same application (including the absolute 
priority and selection criteria) that it used for the first two stages 
of this competition. That application, entitled ``Notice inviting State 
applications for new awards for fiscal year (FY) 1999 funds for Even 
Start Statewide Family Literacy Initiative grants,'' was published in 
the Federal Register on February 24, 1999, at 64 FR 9229. In addition, 
the Notice of Final Priority for Fiscal Year 1999, published in the 
Federal Register on February 24, 1999, at 64 FR 9228, will apply to 
this third stage. You may obtain a copy of that application and Notice 
of Final Priority for Fiscal Year 1999 from the contact person listed 
below. The application and notice of final priority also are available 
in the Department's on-line library at http://www.ed.gov/GrantApps/#84.314B.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:  To obtain further information, or a 
copy of the application and Notice of Final Priority, contact Tanielle 
Johnson, Compensatory Education Programs, Office of Elementary and 
Secondary Education, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue 
SW, Washington, DC 20202-6132; telephone (202) 205-9588; or Email 
[email protected].
    Individuals who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) 
may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-
8339. Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an 
alternate format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer 
diskette) on request to the contact person listed in the preceding 
paragraph.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:  The Department published the FY 1999 notice 
inviting applications for Even Start Statewide Family Literacy 
Initiative competitive grants in the Federal Register on February 24, 
1999 (64 FR 9229), and published a Notice of Final Priority for those 
grants at the same time (64 FR 9228). The notice inviting applications 
established two opportunities for States to submit their applications--
a first stage deadline of February 24, 1999, and a second stage 
deadline of August 20, 1999, which was extended to October 15, 1999, in 
the Federal Register on June 25, 1999 (64 FR 34225) to give States 
additional time to prepare their applications. This notice establishes 
a third opportunity for States that have not received a grant in this 
competition to submit applications. The third stage deadline is March 
31, 2000.
    The Department recognizes that it takes States a significant amount 
of time to form the required consortium of State-level programs and 
build the strong working collaborations that they need to plan a high-
quality statewide family literacy initiative that realistically 
addresses a State's unique educational needs. Some States have advised 
the Department that they have convened their consortia, are developing 
those collaborations, and have been actively planning their initiatives 
for a number of months, but that they were not able to prepare their 
applications completely by the deadline for the second round. Other 
States applied for funds in the second stage of this competition, but 
did not receive an average score of 70, which the Department 
established as the minimum score.
    The Secretary believes that States may benefit from additional 
technical assistance on developing strong proposals to strengthen and 
expand family literacy services in their States. In addition, these 
States will be able to benefit from technical assistance on meeting the 
absolute priority in the application, under which applicants must 
address the new statutory requirement in the Even Start law to develop 
performance indicators to measure adult and child outcomes. Development 
of these performance indicators is not only required by the Even Start 
law, but is an important part of a State's family literacy 
accountability system.
    Sufficient funds will remain after awards are made in the second 
stage of this competition for a small number of additional States with 
high-quality applications to receive awards. These grants can be an 
important catalyst and resource in helping States strengthen and expand 
family literacy services, and develop a coordinated system of 
performance indicators for adults and children receiving family 
literacy services. Therefore, the Department announces a third 
opportunity for States to submit their applications under this 
competition for FY 1999 funds. The Secretary encourages States that 
have

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not yet received a grant in this competition to apply for these 
collaboration funds to strengthen and expand family literacy services 
in their States.

Technical assistance

    The Department provided a variety of technical assistance 
opportunities to all States following the first stage of this 
competition. That technical assistance, in which many States 
participated, included: application preparation workshops, distribution 
of detailed written application preparation guidance, on-site 
assistance, individual telephone consultations with contractors, and 
review and comment by contractors on draft applications. The Department 
offered these types of technical assistance to all States, and informed 
those States that the provision of this assistance did not ensure the 
applicant of funding nor bind the Department to funding any draft 
proposal. The Department advised applicants that the actual funding of 
their proposals would be based upon the evaluation of those proposals 
by a panel of experts based on the selection criteria and procedures 
published in the original notice inviting grant applications. The 
Department intends to provide technical assistance opportunities to all 
States that wish to apply in the third stage of this competition.

Cost issues

    On June 25, 1999, the Department published a notice in the Federal 
Register, 64 FR 34225, that included the following information about 
cost issues for these grants.

Pre-award costs

    The Department's regulations already authorize grant recipients to 
incur allowable pre-award costs up to 90 calendar days before the grant 
award (34 CFR 75.263 and 74.25(e)(1)). In addition, for this 
competition, the Secretary will authorize grant recipients to use grant 
funds to pay certain pre-award costs incurred more than 90 days before 
the date of the grant award but no earlier than the date of the initial 
notice inviting grant applications (February 24, 1999). Those 
authorized pre-award costs are the necessary and reasonable costs to 
establish, convene, and facilitate the required consortium's work in 
creating the plan for the proposed statewide family literacy 
initiative. States incur all pre-award costs at their own risk, in that 
the Secretary is under no obligation to reimburse these costs if for 
any reason the State does not receive an award or receives an award 
that is less than anticipated and inadequate to cover these costs.

Waiver applicability

    A State that receives a grant for an Even Start Statewide Family 
Literacy Initiative must contribute an amount from non-Federal sources, 
in cash or in kind, at least equal to the Federal funds awarded under 
the grant. Drawing on non-Federal contributions is important to 
building successful collaborative statewide efforts to strengthen and 
expand family literacy services. However, identifying sufficient 
resources to meet this requirement may be difficult in some instances. 
In those cases, if the State educational agency (SEA) is the applicant 
State office or agency, the SEA may request from the Secretary a waiver 
under section 14401 of the ESEA of the requirement that only non-
Federal funds may be used to match the Federal award. Such a waiver, if 
approved, would allow that State to use Federal resources (such as Head 
Start, Title I, Adult Education Act, Individuals with Disabilities 
Education Act, and State grants under the Reading Excellence Act), in 
addition to non-Federal resources, to meet the matching requirement.
    Any waiver request must meet the required criteria in section 14401 
by, among other things, identifying how the waiver would contribute to 
improvements in teaching and learning. Applicants seeking a waiver of 
the requirement for non-Federal matching resources should include their 
waiver request with their application. To receive assistance concerning 
a waiver request, potential waiver applicants may call the Department's 
Waiver Assistance Line at (202) 401-7801 or 1-800-USA-LEARN, or the 
program contact above. Waiver guidance, including information about 
preparing a request, is also available in the Department's on-line 
library at http://www.ed.gov/flexibility.

Electronic Access to this Document

    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 Code of Federal Regulations is available on 
GPO Access at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html.
    Anyone may view this document, as well as all other Department of 
Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or 
portable document format (pdf) on the World Wide Web at either of the 
following sites: http://ocfo.ed.gov/fedreg.htm or http://www.ed.gov/news.html To use the pdf, you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader 
Program, which is available free at either of the previous sites. If 
you have questions about using the pdf, call the U.S. Government 
Printing Office toll free at 1-888-293-6498.


    Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 6362(c).


    Dated: January 20, 2000.
Michael Cohen,
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education.
[FR Doc. 00-1742 Filed 1-25-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-U