[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 104 (Thursday, May 30, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37785-37786]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-13573]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No. 84.359]


Early Reading First Program

AGENCY: Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice revising deadline requirement for State lists of 
eligible local educational agencies (LEAs) for the initial year's 
(fiscal year (FY) 2002) Early Reading First grant competition.

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SUMMARY: The Secretary revises the requirement that State educational 
agencies (SEAs) submit lists of eligible LEAs so that the Department 
receives those lists by a certain deadline (April 30, 2002), to allow 
lists to be either received by the Department by that deadline or 
postmarked by that deadline. The Secretary takes this action to allow 
the Department to accept lists of eligible LEAs where receipt was 
delayed due to disruptions in normal mail delivery.
    Eligibility: The change of deadline procedures affects you only if 
you are an SEA that submitted a list of eligible LEAs for the Early 
Reading First competition for FY 2002 that was not received by the 
Department by April 30, 2002, but that was postmarked by that date.

DATES: State Data Submission Deadline: The Department (1) must have 
received the submission by April 30, 2002; or (2) the SEA must have had 
its submission postmarked by April 30, 2002, and the Department must 
have received that submission by June 21, 2002.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Patricia McKee, Tracy Bethel, or 
Jennifer Flood at 202-260-4555, or by e-mail at [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 this 
section.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    The Early Reading First Program is a direct competitive grant 
program that will support early education programs and teach preschool-
age children to develop the early language and cognitive skills that 
they need to enter kindergarten ready to learn to read and succeed 
under State standards. Eligible entities are eligible LEAs, and public 
and private organizations in communities served by those LEAs.
    The statute bases LEAs eligibility for the Early Reading First 
Program on the statutory criteria for LEA eligibility for Reading First 
State Grants Program subgrants. On April 10, 2002, the Secretary 
published a notice in the Federal Register (67 FR 17594) for the Early 
Reading First Program inviting SEAs, by April 30, 2002, to identify and 
provide to the Department, for the purposes of the Early Reading First 
grant competition for FY 2002, a list of eligible LEAs in the State 
under the Reading First statutory criteria. That notice indicated that 
if the Department did not receive a State's submission of a list of 
eligible LEAs by April 30, 2002, the Department would itself identify 
eligible LEAs in the State for the Early Reading First grants for FY 
2001. However, the Department recently has experienced disruptions to 
normal mail delivery. For this reason, the Department did not receive 
some submissions that States mailed in sufficient time for the 
Department normally to have received them by April 30, 2002. The 
Secretary therefore changes the submission procedures to allow for 
those submissions of State lists of eligible LEAs that either (1) were 
received by the Department by the deadline; or (2) that were postmarked 
by that deadline so long as the Department receives the postmarked 
submission by June 21, 2002.

Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking

    It is the Secretary's practice, in accordance with the 
Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553), to offer interested 
parties the opportunity to comment on proposed requirements that are 
not taken directly from statute. Ordinarily, this practice would have

[[Page 37786]]

applied to the requirements in this notice. 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 or 
substantially revised program authority. To ensure timely awards of 
Early Reading First grants, the Secretary, in accordance with section 
437(d)(1) of GEPA, has decided to forego public comment with respect to 
this change in the State data submission deadline requirements.

Paperwork Reduction Act Considerations

    As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Office of 
Management and Budget has approved this information collection under 
OMB control number 1810-0647, which expires August 31, 2002.

Electronic Access to This Document

    You may view this document, as well as all of 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/nara/index.html


    Program Authority: Subpart 2, part B, title I of the ESEA, Pub. 
L. 107-110.

    Dated: May 24, 2002.
Susan B. Neuman,
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education.
[FR Doc. 02-13573 Filed 5-29-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-M