[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 123 (Thursday, June 26, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38026-38029]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-16141]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA 84.215H]


Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools--Foundations For Learning 
Grants; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year 
(FY) 2003.

    Purpose of program: This program supports projects to help eligible 
children become ready for school.
    Eligible applicants: (1) Local educational agencies (LEAs); (2) 
local councils; (3) community-based organizations (CBOs), including 
faith-based organizations, provided that they meet the applicable 
statutory and regulatory requirements; (4) other public and nonprofit 
private entities; or (5) a combination of such entities.

[[Page 38027]]

    Applications available: June 26, 2003.
    Deadline for transmittal of applications: July 30, 2003.
    Deadline for intergovernmental review: August 30, 2003.
    Estimated available funds: $993,500.
    Estimated range of awards: $200,000-$300,000.
    Estimated average size of awards: $248,000.
    Estimated number of awards: 4.

    Note: The Department is not bound by any estimates in this 
notice.

    Project period: Up to 18 months.
    Applicable regulations: (a) The Education Department General 
Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 80, 
81, 82, 85, 97, 98, and 99; and (b) the final priorities, selection 
criteria and definitions for this grant competition as published in 
this notice.
    Absolute priority: Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(3) and the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended by the No Child Left Behind 
Act of 2001 (Title V `` Section 5542), we give absolute preference to 
applications that meet the following priority: grants to local 
educational agencies, local councils, community-based organizations, 
and other public and nonprofit private entities to assist eligible 
children to become ready for school.
    To be eligible for funding, a project must propose to:
    (1) Deliver services to eligible children and their families that 
foster eligible children's emotional, behavioral, and social 
development;
    (2) Coordinate and facilitate access by eligible children and their 
families to the services available through community resources, 
including mental health, physical health, substance abuse, educational, 
domestic violence prevention, child welfare, and social services; and
    (3) Develop or enhance early childhood community partnerships and 
build toward a community system of care that brings together child-
serving agencies or organizations to provide individualized supports 
for eligible children and their families.
    Competitive Preference Priority: Within the statutory priority for 
this competition for FY 2003, we will award five additional points to 
novice applicants. These points are in addition to any points the 
application earns under the selection criteria for this program.

    Note: The total number of points an application may earn is 105.

Limitations

    (1) Grant funds may be used only to pay for services that cannot be 
paid for using other Federal, State, or local public resources or 
through private insurance.
    (2) A grantee may not use more than 3 percent of the amount of the 
grant to pay the expenses of administering the authorized activities, 
including assessment of children's eligibility for services.

Application Requirements

    Applications submitted under this program must include the 
following:
    (1) A description of the population that the applicant intends to 
serve and the types of services to be provided under the grant;
    (2) A description of the manner in which services under the grant 
will be coordinated with existing similar services provided by public 
and nonprofit private entities within the State; and
    (3) An assurance that:
    [sbull] Services under the grant shall be provided by or under the 
supervision of qualified professionals with expertise in early 
childhood development;
    [sbull] services shall be culturally competent;
    [sbull] services shall be provided in accordance with the absolute 
priority;
    [sbull] funds shall be used to supplement, and not supplant, non-
Federal funds; and
    [sbull] parents of students participating in services will be 
involved in the design and implementation of the services.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Participation of Faith-Based Organizations

    Faith-based organizations are eligible to apply for grants under 
this competition provided they meet all statutory and regulatory 
requirements.

General Information

    Contingent upon the availability of funds, we may make additional 
awards in FY 2004 from the rank-ordered list of unfunded applications 
from this competition.

Definitions

    (1) The term ``eligible child'' means a child who has not attained 
the age of 7 years, and to whom two or more of the following 
characteristics apply:
    [sbull] The child has been abused, maltreated, or neglected.
    [sbull] The child has been exposed to violence.
    [sbull] The child has been homeless.
    [sbull] The child has been removed from child care, Head Start, or 
preschool for behavioral reasons or is at risk of being so removed.
    [sbull] The child has been exposed to parental depression or other 
mental illness.
    [sbull] The family income with respect to the child is below 200 
percent of the poverty line.
    [sbull] The child has been exposed to parental substance abuse.
    [sbull] The child has had early behavioral and peer relationship 
problems.
    [sbull] The child had a low birth weight.
    [sbull] The child has a cognitive deficit or developmental 
disability.
    (2) The term ``parent'' includes a legal guardian or other person 
standing in loco parentis (such as a grandparent or stepparent with 
whom the child lives, or a person who is legally responsible for the 
child's welfare).
    (3) The term ``local council'' means a council that is established 
or designated by a local government entity, Indian tribe, regional 
corporation, or native Hawaiian entity, as appropriate, which is 
composed of representatives of local agencies directly affected by 
early learning programs, parents, key community leaders, and other 
individuals concerned with early learning issues in the locality, such 
as elementary education, child care resource and referral services, 
early learning opportunities, child care, and health services.
    (4) The term ``local educational agency'' (LEA) means:
    [sbull] A public board of education or other public authority 
legally constituted within a State for either administrative control or 
direction of, or to perform a service function for, public elementary 
or secondary schools in a city, county, township, school district, or 
other political subdivision of a State, or for such a combination of 
school districts or counties that is recognized in a State as an 
administrative agency for its public elementary or secondary schools.
    [sbull] The term includes any other public institution or agency 
having administrative control and direction of a public elementary or 
secondary school.
    [sbull] The term includes an elementary or secondary school funded 
by the Bureau of Indian Affairs but only to the extent that including 
the school makes the school eligible for programs for which specific 
eligibility is not provided to such school in another provision of law 
and the school does not have a student population that is smaller than 
the student population of the local educational agency receiving 
assistance under this act with the smallest student population, except 
that the school shall

[[Page 38028]]

not be subject to the jurisdiction of any State educational agency 
other than the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
    [sbull] The term includes educational service agencies and 
consortia of those agencies.
    [sbull] The term includes the State educational agency in a State 
in which the State is the sole educational agency for all public 
schools.
    (6) The term ``non-profit'' refers to an agency, organization, or 
institution, that is owned and operated by one or more corporations or 
associations whose net earnings do not benefit, and cannot lawfully 
benefit, any private shareholder or entity.
    (7) The term ``community-based organization'' means a public or 
private nonprofit organization of demonstrated effectiveness that is 
representative of a community or significant segments of a community 
and provides educational or related services to individuals in the 
community.
    (8) The term ``novice applicant'' means any applicant for a grant 
for the U.S. Department of Education that:
    [sbull] Has never received a grant or sub-grant under the 
Foundations For Learning Program;
    [sbull] Has never been a member of a group application, submitted 
in accordance with 34 CFR 75.127-75.129, that received a grant under 
the Foundations For Learning Program; and
    [sbull] Has not had an active discretionary grant from the Federal 
government in the five years before the deadline date for applications 
under this program (Foundations for Learning Grants). For the purposes 
of this requirement, a grant is active until the end of the grant's 
project or funding period, including any extensions of those periods 
that extend the grantee's authority to obligate funds.
    In case of a group application submitted in accordance with 34 CFR 
75.127-75.129, to qualify as a novice applicant a group includes only 
parties that meet the requirements listed above.
    Performance measures: The Secretary has established the following 
key performance measures for assessing the effectiveness of the 
Foundations for Learning Grants Program: (1) The percentage of eligible 
children served by the grant attaining measurable gains in emotional, 
behavioral, and social development will increase; and (2) The 
percentage of eligible children and their families served by the grant 
receiving individualized support from child-serving agencies or 
organizations will increase.
    In applying the selection criteria that follow for ``Quality of 
project services'' and ``Quality of the project evaluation'', the 
Secretary will take into consideration the extent to which the 
applicant demonstrates a strong capacity to provide reliable data on 
these indicators.
    Selection criteria: We will use the following selection criteria to 
evaluate applications under this competition. The maximum score for all 
of these criteria is 100 points. The maximum score for each criterion 
is indicated in parentheses.
    (1) Significance (15 points)
    In determining the significance of the proposed project, the 
following factor is considered:
    (a) The extent to which the proposed project is likely to build 
local capacity to provide, improve, or expand services that address the 
needs of the target population. (15 points)

    Note: Under this criterion we will look at the quality and 
feasibility of the applicant's plan to develop or enhance early 
childhood community partnerships in order to build a community 
system of care.

    (2) Quality of the project design. (35 points)
    In determining the quality of the design of the proposed project, 
the following factors are considered:
    (a) The extent to which the design of the proposed project reflects 
up-to-date knowledge from research and effective practice; (10 points)
    (b) The extent to which the proposed project encourages parental 
involvement; (10 points)
    (c) The extent to which the proposed project is designed to build 
capacity and yield results that will extend beyond the period of 
Federal financial assistance; (15 points)

    Note: Under this criterion we will look at the quality of the 
applicant's plan to comprehensively address the emotional, 
behavioral, and social development of eligible children.

    (3) Quality of the Project Services. (30 points)
    In determining the quality of project services, the following 
factors are considered:
    (a) In determining the quality of the services to be provided by 
the proposed project, the quality and sufficiency of strategies for 
ensuring equal access and treatment for eligible project participants 
who are members of groups that have traditionally been underrepresented 
based on race, color, national origin, gender age, or disability; (5 
points)
    (b) The likely impact of the services to be provided by the 
proposed project on the intended recipients of those services; (10 
points)
    (c) The extent to which the services to be provided by the proposed 
project involve the collaboration of appropriate partners for 
maximizing the effectiveness of project services. (15 points)

    Note: Under this criterion we will look for evidence that the 
applicant is likely to achieve success with respect to performance 
measures for this program.

    (4) Quality of the Management Plan. (5 points)
    In determining the quality of the management plan, the following 
factor is considered:
    (a) How the applicant will ensure that a diversity of perspectives 
are brought to bear in the operation of the proposed project, including 
those of parents, teachers, the business community, a variety of 
disciplinary and professional fields, recipients or beneficiaries of 
services, or others, as appropriate. (5 points)

    Note: Under this criterion we will look at the applicant's 
ability to coordinate existing similar services.

    (5) Quality of the project evaluation. (15 points)
    In determining the quality of the evaluation, the following factors 
are considered:
    (a) The extent to which the methods of evaluation are thorough, 
feasible, and appropriate to the goals, objectives, and outcomes of the 
proposed project; (5 points)
    (b) 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.(10 points)

    Note: Under this criterion we will look at the quality of the 
applicant's plan to provide (a) reliable data that accurately 
measures changes in emotional, behavioral, and social development, 
and (b) individualized services.

    Waiver of proposed rulemaking: Under the Administrative Procedure 
Act (5 U.S.C. 553), the Secretary generally offers interested parties 
the opportunity to comment on proposed rules. Section 437(d)(1) of the 
General Education Provisions Act, however, exempts from this 
requirement rules that apply to the first competition under a new or 
substantially revised program authority. This is the first competition 
under the Foundations for Learning Grants Program. These rules will 
apply to this FY 2003 competition only.
    For applications and other information contact: Copies of the 
application package for this competition are available from EDPubs at 
1-877-4EDPubs, and on the Internet at--http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSDFS. 
For all

[[Page 38029]]

other questions, please contact LaRaba Sligh, U.S. Department of 
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Room 3E240, Washington, DC 20202-
6123. Email address: [email protected].
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may 
call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-888-877-8339.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document, or an 
application package in an alternative format (e.g., Braille, large 
print, audiotape, or computer diskette) on request to the contact 
person listed at the beginning of this section. However, the Department 
is not able to reproduce in an alternative format the standard forms 
included in the application package.

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 (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.

    Pilot project for electronic submission of applications:

    Note: Some of the procedures in these instructions for 
transmitting applications differ from those in the Education 
Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) (34 CFR 
75.102). Under the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553) the 
Department generally offers interested parties the opportunity to 
comment on proposed regulations. However, these amendments make 
procedural changes only and do not establish new substantive policy. 
Therefore, under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(A), the Secretary has determined 
that proposed rulemaking is not required.

    In FY 2003, the U.S. Department of Education is continuing to 
expand its pilot project for electronic submission of applications to 
include additional formula grant programs and additional discretionary 
grant competitions. Foundations for Learning Grants--CFDA 
215H--is one of the programs included in the pilot project. If 
you are an applicant under Foundations for Learning Grants, you may 
submit your application to us in either electronic or paper format.
    The pilot project involves the use of the Electronic Grant 
Application System (e-Application) portion of the Grant Administration 
and Payment System (GAPS). Users of e-Application will be entering data 
on-line while completing their applications. You may not e-mail a soft 
copy of a grant application to us. If you participate in this voluntary 
pilot project by submitting an application electronically, the data you 
enter on-line will be saved into a database. We request your 
participation in e-Application. We shall continue to evaluate its 
success and solicit suggestions for improvement.
    If you participate in e-Application, please note the following:
    [sbull] Your participation is voluntary.
    [sbull] You will not receive any additional point value because you 
submit a grant application in electronic format, nor will we penalize 
you if you submit an application in paper format. When you enter the e-
Application system, you will find information about its hours of 
operation.
    [sbull] You may submit all documents electronically, including the 
Application for Federal Assistance (ED 424), Budget Information--Non-
Construction Programs (ED 524), and all necessary assurances and 
certifications.
    [sbull] After you electronically submit your application, you will 
receive an automatic acknowledgement, which will include a PR/Award 
number (an identifying number unique to your application).
    [sbull] Within three working days after submitting your electronic 
application, fax a signed copy of the Application for Federal 
Assistance (ED 424) to the Application Control Center after following 
these steps:
    (1) Print ED 424 from the e-Application system.
    (2) The institution's Authorizing Representative must sign this 
form.
    (3) Place the PR/Award number in the upper right hand corner of the 
hard copy signature page of the ED 424.
    (4) Fax the signed ED 424 to the Application Control Center at 
(202) 260-1349.
    [sbull] We may request that you give us original signatures on all 
other forms at a later date.
    [sbull] Closing Date Extension in Case of System Unavailability:
    If you elect to participate in the e-Application pilot for the 
Foundations for Learning Grants Program and you are prevented from 
submitting your application on the closing date because the e-
Application system is unavailable, we will grant you an extension of 
one business day in order to transmit your application electronically, 
by mail, or by hand delivery. For us to grant this extension--
    (1) You must be a registered user of e-Application, and have 
initiated an e-Application for this competition; and
    (2)(a) The e-Application system must be unavailable for 60 minutes 
or more between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., Washington, DC 
time, on the deadline date; or
    (b) The e-Application system must be unavailable for any period of 
time during the last hour of operation (that is, for any period of time 
between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m., Washington, DC time) on the deadline date. 
The Department must acknowledge and confirm these periods of 
unavailability before granting you an extension. To request this 
extension you must contact either (1) LaRaba Sligh under FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT or (2) the e-GRANTS help desk at 1-888-336-8930.
    You may access the electronic grant application for the Foundations 
for Learning Grants at: http://e-grants.ed.gov.
    We have included additional information about the e-Application 
pilot project (see Parity Guidelines between Paper and Electronic 
Applications) in the application package.

    Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 7269a.

    Dated: June 20, 2003.
Judge Eric Andell,
Deputy Under Secretary for Safe and Drug-Free Schools.
[FR Doc. 03-16141 Filed 6-25-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P