[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 106 (Tuesday, June 3, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33332-33333]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-13837]



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Part VII





Department of Education





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Office of Innovation and Improvement; Parental Information and Resource 
Centers Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal 
Year (FY) 2003; Notice

  Federal Register / Vol. 68, No. 106 / Tuesday, June 3, 2003 / 
Notices  

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No. 84.310A]


Office of Innovation and Improvement; Parental Information and 
Resource Centers Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards 
for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003

AGENCY: Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice inviting applications for new awards for fiscal year 
(FY) 2003.

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    Purposes of Program: The Parental Information and Resource Centers 
(PIRC) program provides resources that eligible applicants can use in 
pursuit of the objectives of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which 
provides resources to enable all elementary and secondary students to 
achieve to high standards and holds schools, local educational 
agencies, and States accountable for ensuring that they do so. In 
particular, this program provides an opportunity for eligible entities 
to focus on assisting the parents of children who attend schools 
identified for improvement, corrective action, or restructuring under 
Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
    The PIRC program supports school-based and school-linked parental 
information and resource centers that--
    (1) Help implement effective parental involvement policies, 
programs, and activities that will improve children's academic 
achievement;
    (2) Develop and strengthen partnerships among parents (including 
parents of children from birth through age five), teachers, principals, 
administrators, and other school personnel in meeting the educational 
needs of children;
    (3) Develop and strengthen the relationship between parents and 
their children's school;
    (4) Further the developmental progress of children assisted under 
the program;
    (5) Coordinate activities funded under the program with parental 
involvement initiatives funded under section 1118 and other provisions 
of the ESEA; and
    (6) Provide a comprehensive approach to improving student learning, 
through coordination and integration of Federal, State, and local 
services and programs.
    Eligible Applicants: Non-profit organizations, or consortia of non-
profit organizations and local educational agencies (LEAs). LEAs alone 
are not eligible to apply for funding.
    A ``non-profit organization'' is an organization whose net earnings 
do not benefit, and cannot lawfully benefit, any private shareholder or 
entity. Faith-based and community organizations are eligible to apply 
for funding provided that they are nonprofit organizations.
    For purposes of the PIRC program, the term ``non-profit 
organization'' does not include institutions of higher education, State 
educational agencies, LEAs, intermediate school districts, schools, 
government entities, or hospitals.
    Applications Available: June 3, 2003.
    Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: July 18, 2003.
    Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: September 16, 2003.
    Notification of Intent to Apply for Funding: We will be able to 
develop a more efficient process for reviewing grant applications if we 
have a better understanding of the number of entities that intend to 
apply for funding. Therefore, we strongly encourage each potential 
applicant to send, by June 18, 2003, a notification of its intent to 
apply for funding to the following address: [email protected].
    The notification of intent to apply for funding is optional and 
should not include information regarding the proposed application. 
Eligible applicants that fail to provide the notification may still 
submit an application by the application deadline.
    Estimated Available Funds: $20.5 million.
    Estimated Range of Awards: $200,000 to $700,000.
    Estimated Average Size of Awards: $500,000.
    Estimated Number of Awards: 40.

    Note: These estimates are projections for the guidance of 
potential applicants. The Department is not bound by any estimates 
in this notice.

    Project Period: Up to 36 months.
    Applicable Regulations and Statute: (a) Regulations. The Education 
Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts 
74, 75, 77, 79, 81, 82, 85, 97, 98, and 99. The regulations in 34 CFR 
Part 80 also apply to an LEA that is part of a consortium receiving 
assistance. (b) Statute. Sections 5561 to 5565 of the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act as reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act 
of 2001.

Priority

    Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(2), we have established the following two 
competitive preferences for the FY 2003 PIRC competition:
    (1) The Secretary will give up to 20 additional points to each 
applicant that proposes specific strategies to assist parents in 
understanding their State accountability system and the opportunities 
for supplemental services and public school choice afforded to their 
children under section 1116 of the ESEA. The Secretary believes that 
this competitive preference will increase the likelihood that the 
activities of the funded PIRCs will improve services to parents of 
students who are attending low-performing schools (the schools that are 
not making adequate academic progress), leading to enhancements in 
student academic achievement.
    (2) The Secretary will give 10 additional points to each ``novice 
applicant''. For the purposes of this grant competition a novice 
applicant is an applicant that (1) has never received a grant under the 
PIRC program; (2) has never been a member of group application 
(submitted in accordance with 34 CFR 75.127-75.129) that received a 
grant under the PIRC program; and (3) has not had an active 
discretionary grant from the Federal Government in the five years 
before July 18, 2003.
    These points will be in addition to any points the applicant earns 
under the selection criteria.
    Performance Measures: The Secretary has established the following 
key performance measure for assessing the effectiveness of the PIRC 
program: the number of parents who receive the information necessary 
for them to understand their State accountability system and the 
opportunities for supplemental services and public school choice 
afforded to their children under section 1116 of the ESEA. The 
Secretary has set an overall performance target that calls for the 
number of parents receiving such information from PIRC projects to 
increase by five percent annually.
    In applying the selection criteria that follow for the ``Quality of 
the project design'' and the ``Quality of the project evaluation'', the 
Secretary will take into consideration the extent to which the 
applicant demonstrates a strong capacity (1) to help achieve this 
nationwide target, and (2) to provide reliable data to the Department 
on the project's impact as measured by the number of parents 
participating in PIRC activities that are designed to provide parents 
with the information necessary for them to understand their State 
accountability system and the opportunities for supplemental services 
and public school choice afforded to their children under section 1116 
of the ESEA.
    Selection Criteria: We will use the following selection criteria 
and factors to evaluate applications under this competition.
    The maximum score for all of the selection criteria is 100 points. 
The total

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maximum score of an application is 130 points (100 points under the 
selection criteria and an additional 30 points under the competitive 
preferences).
    The Secretary will use the following selection criteria to evaluate 
applications for PIRC projects under this competition:
    (a) Need for project (15 points).
    In determining the need for the proposed project, the Secretary 
considers the following factors:
    (1) The extent to which the proposed project will focus on serving 
or otherwise addressing the needs of disadvantaged individuals; and
    (2) The extent to which specific gaps or weaknesses in services, 
infrastructure, or opportunities have been identified and will be 
addressed by the proposed project, including the nature and magnitude 
of those gaps or weaknesses.
    (b) Quality of the project design (25 points).
    In determining the quality of the design of the proposed project, 
the Secretary considers the following factors:
    (1) The extent to which the goals, objectives, and outcomes to be 
achieved by the proposed project are clearly specified and measurable;
    (2) The extent to which the design of the proposed project is 
appropriate to, and will successfully address, the needs of the target 
population or other identified needs;
    (3) The extent to which the design of the proposed project reflects 
up-to-date knowledge from research and effective practice;
    (4) The extent to which the proposed project represents an 
exceptional approach to meeting statutory purposes and requirements; 
and
    (5) The extent to which the proposed project will be coordinated 
with similar or related efforts, and with other appropriate community, 
State, and Federal resources.
    (c) Quality of project services (15 points).
    In determining the quality of the services to be provided by the 
project, the Secretary considers the following factors:
    (1) The likely impact of the services to be provided by the 
proposed project on the intended recipients of those services; and
    (2) The likelihood that the services to be provided by the proposed 
project will lead to improvements in the achievement of students as 
measured against rigorous academic standards.
    (d) Quality of project personnel (10 points).
    In determining the quality of project personnel, the Secretary 
considers the following factors:
    (1) The qualifications, including relevant training and experience, 
of key personnel (including the project director); and
    (2) The qualifications, including relevant training and experience, 
of project consultants or subcontractors.
    (e) Adequacy of resources (5 points).
    In determining the adequacy of resources for the proposed project, 
the Secretary considers the following factors:
    (1) The adequacy of support, including facilities, equipment, 
supplies, and other resources, from the applicant organization or the 
lead applicant organization; and
    (2) The extent to which the costs are reasonable in relation to the 
number of persons to be served and to the anticipated results and 
benefits.
    (f) Quality of management plan (10 points).
    In determining the quality of the management plan for the proposed 
project, the Secretary considers the following factors:
    (1) The adequacy of the management plan to achieve the objectives 
of the proposed project on time and within budget, including clearly 
defined responsibilities, timelines, and milestones for accomplishing 
project tasks; and
    (2) The adequacy of mechanisms for ensuring high-quality products 
and services from the proposed project.
    (g) Quality of the project evaluation (20 points).
    In determining the quality of the evaluation, the Secretary 
considers the following factors:
    (1) The extent to which the methods of evaluation include the use 
of objective performance measures that are clearly related to the 
intended outcomes of the project and will produce quantitative and 
qualitative data to the extent possible; and
    (2) The extent to which the methods of evaluation will provide for 
performance feedback and permit periodic assessment of progress toward 
achieving intended outcomes. 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 rules that are not taken directly from statute. 
Ordinarily, this practice would have applied to the competitive 
priority and selection criteria in this notice. Section 437(d)(2) of 
the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA), however, exempts from this 
rulemaking requirement those rules where the Secretary determines it 
would cause extreme hardship to the intended beneficiaries of the 
program that would be affected by those rules. The Secretary, in 
accordance with section 437(d)(2) of GEPA, has decided to forgo public 
comment with respect to the competitive priority in this grant 
competition in order to ensure timely and high-quality awards. These 
rules will apply only to the FY 2003 grant competition.

For Applications and Further Information Contact: Patricia Kilby-Robb, 
U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., room 3E209, 
FOB-6, Washington, DC 20202-6254. Telephone: (202) 260-2225 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.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an 
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer 
diskette) on request to the program contact person listed under FOR 
APPLICATIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain a copy of the application 
package in an alternative format by contacting that person. However, 
the Department is not able to reproduce in an alternative format the 
standard forms included in the notice.

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: 
http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister.
    To use PDF, you must have the 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. 7273 et seq.

    Dated: May 29, 2003.
Nina S. Rees,
Deputy Under Secretary for Innovation and Improvement.
[FR Doc. 03-13837 Filed 6-2-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P