[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 64 (Thursday, April 2, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 18508-18509]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-06752]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

34 CFR Chapter III

[ED-2020-OSERS-0034]


Proposed Waiver and Extension of the Project Periods for 
Television Access Grants

AGENCY: Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services 
(OSERS), Department of Education.

ACTION: Proposed waiver and extension of project periods.

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SUMMARY: The Secretary proposes to waive the requirements in the 
Education Department General Administrative Regulations that generally 
prohibit project periods exceeding five years and project period 
extensions involving the obligation of additional Federal funds. The 
proposed waiver and extension would enable five projects under Catalog 
of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number 84.327C to receive funding 
for an additional period, not to exceed September 30, 2021.

DATES: We must receive your comments on or before May 4, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments through the Federal eRulemaking Portal 
or via postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. We will not 
accept comments submitted by fax or by email or those submitted after 
the comment period. To ensure that we do not receive duplicate copies, 
please submit your comments only once. In addition, please include the 
Docket ID at the top of your comments.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to www.regulations.gov to 
submit your comments electronically. Information on using 
Regulations.gov, including instructions for accessing agency documents, 
submitting comments, and viewing the docket, is available on the site 
under ``How to use Regulations.gov'' in the Help section.
     Postal Mail, Commercial Delivery, or Hand Delivery: If you 
mail or deliver your comments about the proposed waiver and extension, 
address them to Glinda Hill, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland 
Avenue SW, Room 5173, Potomac Center Plaza, Washington, DC 20202-5076.
    Privacy Note: The Department's policy is to make all comments 
received from members of the public available for public viewing in 
their entirety on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
www.regulations.gov. Therefore, commenters should be careful to include 
in their comments only information that they wish to make publicly 
available.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Glinda Hill, U.S. Department of 
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Room 5173, Potomac Center Plaza, 
Washington, DC 20202-5076. Telephone: 202-245-7376. Email: 
[email protected].
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) or a text 
telephone (TTY), call the Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 1-
800-877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Invitation to Comment: We invite you to submit comments regarding 
this proposed waiver and extension. To ensure that your comments have 
maximum effect in developing the final waiver and extension, we urge 
you to identify clearly the specific grantee or grantees (listed in the 
table under the Background section) that each comment addresses.
    We invite you to assist us in complying with the specific 
requirements of Executive Orders 12866, 13563, and 13771 and their 
overall requirement of reducing regulatory burden that might result 
from these proposed waivers and extensions. Please let us know of any 
further ways we could 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 this proposed waiver and extension of the project period 
by accessing Regulations.gov. You may also inspect all public comments 
about this proposal in Room 5173, 550 12th Street SW, Washington, DC, 
between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 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 provide an appropriate 
accommodation or auxiliary aid to an individual with a disability who 
needs assistance to review the comments or other documents in the 
public rulemaking record for this proposed waiver and extension. If you 
want to schedule an appointment for this type of aid, please contact 
the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

Background

    On January 14, 2015, the Department of Education (Department) 
published in the Federal Register (80 FR 1900) a notice inviting 
applications for five video description and captioning projects for 
fiscal year (FY) 2015 under the Educational Technology, Media, and 
Materials program, authorized under sections 674 and 681(d) of the 
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
    The purpose of the video description and captioning projects is to 
improve the learning opportunities for children with disabilities by 
providing access to television programming through high-quality video 
description and captioning. These projects support access to widely 
available television programs that are appropriate for use in the 
classroom setting and are not otherwise required to be captioned or 
described by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). A table 
listing the FY 2015 video description and captioning projects follows.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
  FY 2015 Awards under CFDA
           84.327C                        Grantee project name
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H327C150001..................  Companion Enterprise, Inc., Tulsa, OK.
                               Project: Narrative Television Network.
H327C150007..................  Bridge Multimedia, Inc., New York, NY.
                               Project: Video Description for the Next
                                Generation.
H327C150008..................  Bridge Multimedia, Inc., New York, NY.
                               Project: Standards Aligned Video
                                Description.
H327C150009..................  Closed Caption Latina, Corp., Winter
                                Springs, FL.
                               Project: Captions and Video Description:
                                Educational Tools for Hispanic Children
                                with Disabilities.

[[Page 18509]]

 
H327C170002 (Transferred from  Captionmax LLC, Minneapolis, MN.
 H327C150003).                 Project: Television Access for Preschool
                                and Elementary School Children.
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    The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) also funds one 
project under CFDA 84.327N, Educational Technology, Media, and 
Materials for Individuals with Disabilities--Captioned and Described 
Educational Media, the Center for the Described and Captioned Media 
Program (DCMP; 84.327N). The purpose of the DCMP is to establish and 
operate an Accessible Learning Center that would oversee the selection, 
acquisition, captioning, video description, and distribution of 
educational media through a free loan service for eligible users. The 
video description and captioning projects are required to use the 
DCMP's portal as a repository so that eligible users can easily access 
the video described and captioned media. The DCMP's project period 
started on October 1, 2016, and will end on September 30, 2021.

Waivers and Extensions

    OSEP proposes to extend the five video description and captioning 
projects to align the projects' end dates with that of the DCMP, which 
will receive its final year of funding in FY 2020 and end on September 
30, 2021. OSEP does not believe that it would be in the public interest 
to run a competition for CFDA 84.327C in FY 2020. Aligning the ends of 
these project periods would allow the Department to better coordinate 
the Description and Captioning program. Aligning the video description 
and captioning projects' periods with the DCMP's project period also 
would improve coordination across projects, allow for more efficient 
use of the funding available to support these activities, and ensure 
easier access to a wider range and increasing numbers of captioned and 
described educational media and programming.
    For these reasons, the Secretary proposes to waive the requirements 
in 34 CFR 75.250, which prohibit project periods exceeding five years, 
as well as the requirements in 34 CFR 75.261(a) and (c)(2), which allow 
the extension of a project period only if the extension does not 
involve the obligation of additional Federal funds. The waiver would 
allow the Department to issue a one-time FY 2020 continuation award to 
each of the five currently funded 84.327C projects.
    Any activities carried out during the year of this continuation 
award must be consistent with, or a logical extension of, the scope, 
goals, and objectives of the grantees' applications as approved in the 
FY 2015 competition. The requirements for continuation awards are set 
forth in 34 CFR 75.253.

Regulatory Flexibility Act Certification

    The Secretary certifies that the proposed waiver and extension of 
the project period would not have a significant economic impact on a 
substantial number of small entities. The only entities that would be 
affected by the proposed waiver and extension of the project period are 
the current grantees.
    The Secretary certifies that the proposed waiver and extension 
would not have a significant economic impact on these entities, because 
the extension of an existing project period imposes minimal compliance 
costs, and the activities required to support the additional year of 
funding would not impose additional regulatory burdens or require 
unnecessary Federal supervision.

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995

    This notice of proposed waiver and extension of the project period 
does not contain any information collection requirements.

Intergovernmental Review

    These programs are 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. This document provides early notification of our 
specific plans and actions for this program.
    Accessible Format: Individuals with disabilities can obtain this 
document in an accessible format (e.g., Braille, large print, 
audiotape, or compact disc) on request to the contact person listed 
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
    Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this 
document is the document published in the Federal Register. You may 
access the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of 
Federal Regulations at www.govinfo.gov. At this site you can view this 
document, as well as all other documents of this Department published 
in the Federal Register, in text or Portable Document Format (PDF). To 
use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at 
the site.
    You may also access documents of the Department published in the 
Federal Register by using the article search feature at 
www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, through the advanced search 
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published 
by the Department.

Mark Schultz,
Commissioner, Rehabilitation Services Administration. Delegated the 
authority to perform the functions and duties of the Assistant 
Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative 
Services.
[FR Doc. 2020-06752 Filed 4-1-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4000-01-P