[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 138 (Wednesday, July 18, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37460-37461]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-17914]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No: 84.349A]


Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program Grants

AGENCY: Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice of special final competition procedures for fiscal year 
(FY) 2001 Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program 
grants.

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SUMMARY: On April 24, 2001, the Secretary published in the Federal 
Register (66 FR 20640-20644) a notice inviting applications for new 
awards and final procedures and requirements for a FY 2001 competition 
for Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program grants. 
The application deadline under that notice was June 25, 2001, which was 
extended to July 2, 2001 for applicants in certain areas of Louisiana, 
Texas, and Florida that the President declared as disaster areas due to 
Tropical Storm Allison (June 26, 2001; 66 FR 33953-33954).
    The notice inviting applications contained an absolute priority, 
competitive and invitational preferences, and selection criteria that 
apply to this competition. In addition, the notice indicated that 34 
CFR part 75 of the Education Department General Administrative 
Regulations (EDGAR) applies to these grants, which includes

[[Page 37461]]

provisions in Sec. 75.217 governing the Secretary's selection of 
applications for new awards.
    Due to the unexpected receipt of over two hundred grant 
applications, the limited estimated number (10) of possible grant 
awards, and the importance of identifying the highest-quality early 
childhood educator professional development programs for replication 
from this large applicant pool, the Secretary announces special final 
competition procedures that will govern this competition and FY 2001 
awards of these grants.
    Competition Procedures. Except as stated below, the Secretary will 
follow the procedures in part 75 for selecting applications for new 
grants, including the procedures in Sec. 75.217.
    As indicated in Sec. 75.217(a), the Secretary will select 
applications for new grants on the basis of the authorizing statute, 
the absolute priority, and the competitive preferences and selection 
criteria previously published in the Federal Register in the notice 
inviting applications. In selecting applications, the Secretary will 
use a two-tier process of review by experts who include persons who are 
not employees of the Federal Government.
    In the first tier of review, panels of experts will evaluate 
eligible applications against the selection criteria published in the 
notice inviting applications. Depending upon the quality of the 
applications and their relative merit, the Secretary plans to select 
between approximately 30-50 of the highest-quality eligible 
applications that meet the absolute priority, based upon the points 
awarded under the selection criteria and competitive preferences during 
the first-tier review. Those applications then will qualify for a 
second-tier review.
    In the second tier of review, a smaller number of panels comprised 
of experts who have specialized research-based knowledge about early 
childhood education, early literacy, and language development will 
review the applications that qualify for this tier of review. These 
specialized expert panels will evaluate the applications against the 
selection criteria published in the notice inviting applications. This 
second-tier review will be independent of the first-tier review. The 
Secretary will prepare a rank order of the applications in the second-
tier review, based solely on the evaluation of their quality according 
to the selection criteria and their qualification for additional points 
under each of the competitive preferences.
    The Secretary then will use the criteria in Sec. 75.217(d) to 
determine the order in which the second group of applications will be 
selected for grants.
    Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking: It is the Secretary's general 
practice, in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) (5 
U.S.C. 553), to offer interested parties the opportunity to comment on 
proposed rules. Section 437(d)(1) of the General Education Provisions 
Act (GEPA), however, exempts from this requirement rules that apply to 
the first competition under a new program such as this one. In 
addition, section 553(b)(A) of the APA provides that procedural rules, 
such as those in this notice, are not subject to rulemaking. Because of 
the unanticipated need for special competition procedures and to ensure 
timely awards of these grant funds, the Secretary has decided to forego 
public comment with respect to these procedures in accordance with 
section 437(d)(1) of GEPA and section 553(b)(A) of the APA. These 
procedures will be applicable only to the FY 2001 competition.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Doris F. Sligh, Compensatory Education 
Programs, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, 400 Maryland 
Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20202-6132. Telephone: (202) 260-0999, or via 
Internet: [email protected].
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may 
call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339. If 
you are an individual with a disability, you may obtain a copy of this 
notice in an alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, 
or computer diskette) on request to the contact person listed in the 
preceding paragraph.

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: 
www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister.
    To use PDF, you must have 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.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html.


    Program Authority:  20 U.S.C. 6622 and Public Law No. 106-554.

    Dated: July 12, 2001.
Thomas M. Corwin,
Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary 
Education.
[FR Doc. 01-17914 Filed 7-17-01; 8:45 am]
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