[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 248 (Wednesday, December 28, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 76787-76790]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E5-7986]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Parental Information and Resource Centers

AGENCY: Office of Innovation and Improvement, Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice of proposed priorities and eligibility requirements.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement 
proposes priorities and eligibility requirements under the Parental 
Information and Resource Centers (PIRC) program. The Assistant Deputy 
Secretary may use one or more of the priorities for and apply these 
eligibility requirements to competitions in fiscal year (FY) 2006 and 
in later years. We intend these priorities and requirements to help 
ensure that funded projects will effectively address the purposes of 
the PIRC program.

DATES: We must receive your comments on or before January 27, 2006.

ADDRESSES: Address all comments about these proposed priorities and 
requirements to Steven L. Brockhouse, U.S. Department of Education, 400 
Maryland Avenue, SW., room 4W229, Washington, DC 20202-5970. If you 
prefer to send your comments through the Internet, use the following 
address: [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steven L. Brockhouse. Telephone: (202) 
260-2476 or via Internet: [email protected].
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may 
call the Federal Relay Service (FRS) 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 contact person listed under FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Invitation to Comment

    We invite you to submit comments regarding these proposed 
priorities and requirements. To ensure that your comments have maximum 
effect in developing the notice of final priorities and eligibility 
requirements, we urge you to identify clearly the specific proposed 
priority or requirement that each comment addresses.
    We invite you to assist us in complying with the specific 
requirements of Executive Order 12866 and its overall requirement of 
reducing regulatory burden that might result from these proposed 
priorities and requirements. Please let us know of any further 
opportunities we should take to reduce potential costs or increase 
potential benefits while preserving the effective and efficient 
administration of the program.
    During and after the comment period, you may inspect all public 
comments about these proposed priorities and requirements in room 
4W229, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Washington, DC, between the hours of 
8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through Friday of each week 
except Federal holidays.

Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities in Reviewing the Rulemaking 
Record

    On request, we will supply an appropriate aid, such as a reader or 
print magnifier, to an individual with a disability who needs 
assistance to review the comments or other documents in the public 
rulemaking record for these proposed priorities and requirements. If 
you want to schedule an appointment for this type of aid, please 
contact the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

General Information

    PIRC projects help implement successful and effective parental 
involvement policies, programs, and activities that lead to 
improvements in student academic achievement and strengthen 
partnerships among parents, teachers, principals, administrators, and 
other school personnel in meeting the education needs of children. 
Section 5563(b) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, 
as amended (ESEA), describes project requirements for the recipients of 
PIRC grants, including requirements to serve both rural and urban 
areas; to use at least one-half of the funds awarded to a project to 
serve areas with high concentrations of low-income children; and to use 
at least 30 percent of the funds awarded to a project to establish, 
expand, or operate early childhood parent education programs.
    In this notice, we are proposing four separate priorities. We are 
also proposing eligibility requirements that define the nonprofit 
organizations that may apply and clarify the types of entities that may 
serve as the applicant and fiscal agent if the application is submitted 
by a consortium that includes a nonprofit organization and one or more 
local educational agencies (LEAs).

Background on Proposed Priorities

    The first and second proposed priorities, addressing the geographic 
distribution of awards and statewide impact, respectively, would help 
ensure that, to the extent possible, PIRC project services would be 
widely available.
    Proposed Priority 1, Geographic Distribution of Awards, is designed 
to help ensure that there will be a high-quality PIRC in most or all 
States. The highest-ranking application from a State would receive 
priority for an award, provided that the application is of sufficient 
quality that the proposed project will likely succeed in meeting the 
purposes of the PIRC program, in implementing effective activities, and 
in achieving intended results. Additionally, we are proposing that to 
meet this proposed priority an applicant must provide services in a 
single State only.
    Under the ESEA, each State establishes its own policies, standards, 
and requirements in a number of areas, including standards for adequate 
yearly progress under section 1111 of Title I of the ESEA, procedures 
for parental involvement and communication under section 1118 of Title 
I of the ESEA, and requirements related to supplemental educational 
services and other educational options available to parents under 
section 1116 of that title. It is important that there is a high-
quality federally funded PIRC in most or all States to help ensure that 
PIRC services

[[Page 76788]]

addressing these subject areas are tailored to the particular 
standards, policies, and requirements of the State in which the PIRC 
project operates.
    Furthermore, the proposed priority would help ensure that PIRC 
grants would be distributed in all geographic regions of the United 
States, consistent with section 5562(b) of the ESEA.
    Use of this priority would permit the Department to fund additional 
applications of exceptional quality from any State, even though only 
the highest-ranking application from a State could qualify for this 
priority.
    Proposed Priority 2, Statewide Impact of PIRC Services, encourages 
projects that propose broad statewide services. Currently, some PIRCs 
operate on a statewide basis while others focus activities and services 
only on specific local communities. The Department believes that it is 
important that each PIRC provide statewide services.
    This priority would help to ensure that parents from across a 
State, whether in urban or rural areas, would have access to 
information and essential services. A grantee could provide statewide 
services through a variety of approaches, including the Internet.
    We believe that having PIRC projects with identifiable statewide 
responsibilities would help to facilitate the development of more 
effective relationships between PIRC projects and State educational 
agency officials, especially those responsible for the implementation 
of Title I of the ESEA.
    Proposed Priority 2 would not restrict a project to providing 
services exclusively on a statewide basis. PIRC projects would continue 
to have the flexibility to include other activities that are tailored 
to meet the needs of particular communities, geographic regions, or 
LEAs in their State. Finally, the priority would not require that a 
project provide all services to all communities in the State, because 
such an approach would be impractical based on the resources that are 
likely to be available for PIRC grants.
    Proposed Priority 3, Understanding State and Local Report Cards and 
Opportunities for Public School Choice and Supplemental Educational 
Services, builds on our experience in using a similar priority for the 
most recent PIRC program competition held in FY 2003. Through this 
priority, we would focus specifically on helping parents (particularly 
parents of children attending schools identified for school 
improvement, corrective action, or restructuring under Title I of the 
ESEA) to understand the information contained in State and local report 
cards so that they can make informed decisions about the public school 
choice and supplemental educational services options that may be 
available to them to help their children achieve academically.
    State and local school report cards are critical tools for 
promoting accountability for LEAs and schools and for helping parents 
see where schools and districts are succeeding and where there is still 
work to do. The more parents know about the academic achievement of 
their children and their schools, the more likely they are to be 
involved in their local schools and the public school system. Further, 
when parents are equipped with information on academic results, they 
can also make better decisions regarding the options for public school 
choice and supplemental educational services that are available to 
them.
    (Guidance on report cards under Title I of the ESEA is available 
at: http://www.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/reportcardsguidance.doc; 
guidance on supplemental educational services is available at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/suppsvcsguid.doc; and guidance on public 
school choice is available at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/schoolchoiceguid.doc.)
    Proposed Priority 4, Technical Assistance in the Implementation of 
LEA and School Parental Involvement Policy under section 1118 of the 
ESEA helps to focus attention on the needs of school districts and 
schools that continue to face challenges in implementing effective 
policies and activities for parental involvement-especially for those 
activities that afford parents substantial and meaningful opportunities 
to participate in the education of their children and to contribute to 
their children's academic growth and improvement.
    Research on effective parental involvement provides substantial 
evidence that families have a major influence on their children's 
achievement in school and through life. When schools, families, and 
community groups work together to support learning, children tend to do 
better in school, stay in school longer, and like school more.
    Title I of the ESEA requires that parents be afforded substantial 
and meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their 
children. Specifically, section 1118 of the ESEA provides the framework 
for parental involvement policies, plans, and activities at the local 
level. For example, section 1118 requires that every school district 
and every school receiving Title I funds have a written parental 
involvement policy; that LEAs and schools develop the written parental 
involvement policy jointly with parents of children participating in 
Title I programs; and that LEAs work in cooperation with their Title I 
schools to build the capacity of parents and school staff for strong 
parental involvement, which in turn should improve academic 
achievement.

Background on Proposed Eligibility Requirements

    We are also proposing to clarify the PIRC eligibility requirements. 
The history of the PIRC program has focused on the involvement of 
nonprofit organizations as applicants for awards under the PIRC 
program. Section 5563(b)(1) of the ESEA generally provides that any 
nonprofit organization that submits an application for a PIRC project 
must focus on parents in its governance or organizational interest. The 
references to the inclusion of parents and representation of the 
interests of parents in section 5563(b)(1) of the ESEA do not further 
define the types of parents to be included or represented. Other 
provisions in section 5563, as well as sections 5561, 5562 and 5564 of 
the ESEA, clarify that the parents whose interests are of concern to 
the PIRC program are parents of pre-school and school-aged children, 
including those parents who are educationally or economically 
disadvantaged.
    The proposed eligibility requirements would define the term 
``nonprofit organization'' for purposes of the PIRC program to clarify 
that in order to be an eligible applicant for a PIRC project, a 
nonprofit organization must, at a minimum, be one that either 
represents the interests of parents of pre-school and school-aged 
children, including parents who are educationally or economically 
disadvantaged or includes parents of pre-school and school-aged 
children, including parents who are educationally or economically 
disadvantaged, on the organization's board of directors.
    Faith-based and community organizations that meet the standards in 
the proposed definition would continue to be eligible applicants for 
the PIRC program.
    Additionally, section 5563(a) of the ESEA permits the submission of 
an application from a consortium that includes a nonprofit organization 
and one or more LEAs. In the case of an application from a consortium, 
we propose to require that a nonprofit organization serve as the 
applicant and fiscal agent. Under the proposed clarification, State and 
local governments, including LEAs,

[[Page 76789]]

intermediate school districts, and schools, therefore, would not be 
eligible to submit an application on behalf of a consortium or serve as 
the fiscal agent of a PIRC grant.
    We will announce the final priorities and eligibility requirements 
in a notice in the Federal Register. We will determine the final 
priorities and eligibility requirements after considering responses to 
this notice and other information available to the Department. This 
notice does not preclude us from proposing or funding additional 
priorities or establishing additional requirements, subject to meeting 
applicable rulemaking requirements.


    Note: This notice does not solicit applications. In any year in 
which we choose to use one or more of these priorities, we invite 
applications through a notice in the Federal Register. When inviting 
applications we designate each priority as absolute, competitive 
preference, or invitational. The effect of each type of priority 
follows:
    Absolute priority: Under an absolute priority we consider only 
applications that meet the priority (34 CFR 75.105(c)(3)).
    Competitive preference priority: Under a competitive preference 
priority we give competitive preference to an application by either 
(1) awarding additional points, depending on how well or the extent 
to which the application meets the competitive priority (34 CFR 
75.105(c)(2)(i)); or (2) selecting an application that meets the 
competitive priority over an application of comparable merit that 
does not meet the priority (34 CFR 75.105(c)(2)(ii)).
    Invitational priority: Under an invitational priority we are 
particularly interested in applications that meet the invitational 
priority. However, we do not give an application that meets the 
invitational priority a competitive or absolute preference over 
other applications (34 CFR 75.105(c)(1)).

Priorities

Proposed Priority 1--Geographic Distribution of Awards

    This proposed priority supports an application that meets the 
following three conditions:
    (1) The application is the highest-ranking application proposing to 
implement a PIRC project in a State, based on the selection criteria 
and competitive preference priorities used for this competition.
    (2) The application's PIRC project proposes to provide services 
only in that State.
    (3) The application is of sufficient quality to show that the 
proposed project is likely to succeed in meeting the purposes of the 
PIRC program, in implementing effective activities, and in achieving 
intended results.
    For the purpose of selecting applications under this priority, we 
use the definition of the term ``State'' in 34 CFR 77.1(c).

Proposed Priority 2--Statewide Impact of PIRC Services

    This proposed priority supports applications that would implement 
broad statewide strategies to provide parents from across the State, 
particularly parents who are educationally or economically 
disadvantaged, with services that enhance their ability to participate 
effectively in their child's education, including their ability to 
communicate effectively with public school personnel in the school that 
their child attends.

Proposed Priority 3--Understanding State and Local Report Cards and 
Opportunities for Public School Choice and Supplemental Educational 
Services

    This priority supports applications that would implement activities 
that effectively assist parents in understanding State and local report 
cards under Title I of the ESEA and, in cases where their child attends 
a school identified as in need of improvement, corrective action, or 
restructuring under Title I, in understanding their options for public 
school choice or supplemental educational services.

Proposed Priority 4--Technical Assistance in the Implementation of 
Local Educational Agency and School Parental Involvement Policy Under 
Section 1118 of the ESEA

    This priority supports applications that would provide technical 
assistance in the implementation of LEA and school parental involvement 
policies under Title I of the ESEA in order to improve student academic 
achievement and school performance.

Requirements

Proposed Eligibility Requirements

    We propose to define the term ``nonprofit organization'' for 
purposes of the PIRC program as an organization that:
    (1) 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, as set forth in 34 CFR part 
77; and
    (2) Is an organization that:
    (a) Represents the interests of parents of pre-school and school-
age children (including parents who are educationally or economically 
disadvantaged); or
    (b) Is governed by a board of directors whose membership includes 
such parents.
    We also propose that for an application submitted by a consortium 
that includes a nonprofit organization and one or more LEAs, that the 
nonprofit organization must serve as the applicant and fiscal agent for 
the consortium. State and local governments, including LEAs, 
intermediate school districts, and schools, would not be eligible to 
submit an application on behalf of a consortium or serve as the fiscal 
agent of a PIRC grant.

Executive Order 12866

    This notice of proposed priorities and eligibility requirements has 
been reviewed in accordance with Executive Order 12866. Under the terms 
of the order, we have assessed the potential costs and benefits of this 
regulatory action.
    The potential costs associated with the notice of proposed 
priorities and eligibility requirements are those resulting from 
statutory requirements and those we have determined as necessary for 
administering this program effectively and efficiently.
    In assessing the potential costs and benefits--both quantitative 
and qualitative--of this notice of proposed priorities and eligibility 
requirements, we have determined that the benefits of the proposed 
priorities and requirements justify the costs.
    We have also determined that this regulatory action does not unduly 
interfere with State, local, and tribal governments in the exercise of 
their governmental functions.
    Summary of potential costs and benefits: The potential cost 
associated with these proposed priorities and eligibility requirements 
is minimal while the benefits are significant. Applicants may 
anticipate costs with completing the application process in terms of 
staff and partner time, copying, and mailing or delivery. The use of E-
Application technology would reduce mailing and copying costs 
significantly.
    The benefit of the proposed priorities and requirements is that 
they will help applicants prepare higher-quality proposals that are 
better focused on critical information needs for parents.

Intergovernmental Review

    This program is subject to Executive Order 12372 and the 
regulations in 34 CFR part 79. One of the objectives of the Executive 
order is to foster an intergovernmental partnership and a strengthened 
federalism. The Executive order relies on processes developed by State 
and local governments for coordination and review of proposed Federal 
financial assistance.

[[Page 76790]]

    This document provides early notification of our specific plans and 
actions for this program.

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/news/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.
    You may also view this document in text at the following site: 
http://www.ed.gov/programs/pirc/applicant.html.


    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.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html.

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 84.310A)

    Program Authority:  20 U.S.C. 7273 et seq.

    Dated: December 22, 2005.
Nina Shokraii Rees,
Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement.
[FR Doc. E5-7986 Filed 12-27-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P