[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 190 (Tuesday, October 3, 2023)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 67955-67957]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-21852]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

34 CFR Chapter III

[ED-2023-OSERS-0177]


Proposed Waiver and Extension of the Project Period With Funding 
for Innovative Rehabilitation Training Grants

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

ACTION: Proposed waiver and extension of project period with funding.

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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 seven projects under 
Assistance Listing Number (ALN) 84.263C to receive funding for an 
additional period, not to exceed September 30, 2025.

DATES: We must receive your comments on or before November 2, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Comments must be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking 
Portal at www.regulations.gov. However, if you require an accommodation 
or cannot otherwise submit your comments via www.regulations.gov, 
please contact the program contact person listed under FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT. The Department will not accept comments 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 
``FAQ.''
    Privacy Note: OSERS's policy is generally to make 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 include in their comments only information 
about themselves that they wish to make publicly available.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kristen Rhinehart-Fernandez, U.S. 
Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Room 4A111, 
Washington, DC 20202-5076. Telephone: (202) 245-6103. Email: 
[email protected].
    If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and 
wish to access telecommunications relay services, please dial 7-1-1.

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 notice of 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 14094 and their

[[Page 67956]]

overall requirement of reducing regulatory burden that might result 
from the proposed waiver and extension. 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 public 
comments about the proposed priority and definition by accessing 
Regulations.gov.
    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 the proposed waiver and extension. If you 
want to schedule an appointment for this type of accommodation or 
auxiliary aid, please contact the person listed under FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT.

Background

    On July 5, 2019, the Department of Education (Department) published 
in the Federal Register (84 FR 32135) a notice inviting applications 
for the Innovative Rehabilitation Training Program under ALN 84.263C to 
develop (a) new types of training programs for rehabilitation personnel 
and to demonstrate the effectiveness of these new types of training 
programs for rehabilitation personnel in providing rehabilitation 
services to individuals with disabilities; (b) new and improved methods 
of training rehabilitation personnel so that there may be a more 
effective delivery of rehabilitation services to individuals with 
disabilities by designated State rehabilitation agencies and designated 
State rehabilitation units or other public or non-profit rehabilitation 
service agencies or organizations; and (c) new innovative training 
programs for vocational rehabilitation (VR) professionals and 
paraprofessionals to have a 21st-century understanding of the evolving 
labor force and the needs of individuals with disabilities so they can 
more effectively provide VR services to individuals with disabilities.
    The Innovative Rehabilitation Training Program funded in 2019 
included six topic areas: (1) VR counseling, (2) VR services to 
individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders, (3) VR services to 
individuals with intellectual disabilities, (4) career assessment for 
VR service recipients, (5) employer engagement in the VR process, and 
(6) a field-initiated project in an area related to VR. The project 
periods started on October 1, 2019, and will conclude on September 30, 
2024. A table listing the FY 2019 projects and topic areas follows.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
   FY 2019 awards under ALN
           84.263C                  Grantee project name/topic area
------------------------------------------------------------------------
H263C190004..................  Emporia State University: Enhancing VR
                                Professionals' Services to Consumers on
                                the Spectrum/VR Services to Individuals
                                with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
H263C190006..................  South Carolina State University:
                                Innovative Career and Assessment Project
                                (ICAP)/Career Assessment for VR Service
                                Recipients.
H263C190007..................  The George Washington University Center
                                for Rehabilitation Counseling Research
                                and Education: Center for Innovative
                                Training in Vocational Rehabilitation
                                (CIT-VR)/VR Counseling.
H263C190011..................  Institute for Community Inclusion,
                                University of Massachusetts Boston: It's
                                Employment/VR Services to Individuals
                                with Intellectual Disabilities.
H263C190012..................  Institute for Community Inclusion,
                                University of Massachusetts Boston:
                                Program on Innovative Rehabilitation
                                Training on Employer Engagement (PIRTEE)/
                                Employer Engagement.
H263C190013..................  West Virginia University Research
                                Corporation: AIR4VR/Field-Initiated.
H263C190015..................  University of Memphis Institute on
                                Disability: Finding Innovative
                                Rehabilitation Services Training (FIRST)/
                                VR Services to Individuals with
                                Intellectual Disabilities.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In FY 2020, the Department funded two projects under the Innovative 
Rehabilitation Training program (ALN 84.263E and 84.263F) to develop a 
new or substantially improved and, to the extent possible, evidence-
based training program, including stand-alone modules and instructional 
materials to be incorporated into an existing academic degree program 
for educating VR counselors or other VR professionals and VR 
paraprofessionals or into short-term training for VR professionals, or 
both. Topics addressed by these projects are assisting and supporting 
individuals with disabilities pursuing self-employment, business 
ownership, and telecommuting and forensic rehabilitation and vocational 
evaluation. The project periods started on October 1, 2020, and will 
conclude on September 30, 2025.

Waivers and Extensions

    The Department proposes to extend the project end dates of the 
seven currently 84.263C Innovative Rehabilitation Training projects by 
one year to align those dates with that of the awards funded under ALN 
84.263E and 84.263F, which will each receive their final year of 
funding in FY 2024, and end on September 30, 2025. Due to the 
overlapping goals of these three programs, the Department does not 
believe that it would be in the public interest to run a competition 
for ALN 84.263C in FY 2024. Rather, aligning the projects' periods of 
performance end dates for ALN 84.263C, 84.263E, and 84.263F would 
reduce financial and administrative burden by allowing the Department 
to conduct a single competition for all 84.263C, 84.263E, and 84.263F 
grants in FY 2025, with a five-year performance period that would run 
from October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2030.
    As a result, for these projects, 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 one-year FY 
2024 continuation award to the seven currently funded 84.263C projects 
up to the amount awarded to the projects in FY 2023 and subject to the 
ability of the projects to use the funds.
    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 2019 competition. The requirements for continuation awards are set 
forth in 34 CFR 75.253.

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

[[Page 67957]]

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.

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 seven current ALN 84.263C 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.
    Accessible Format: On request to the program contact person listed 
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, individuals with disabilities 
can obtain this document in an accessible format. The Department will 
provide the requestor with an accessible format that may include Rich 
Text Format (RTF) or text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3 file, 
braille, large print, audiotape, or compact disc, or other accessible 
format.
    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.

Glenna Wright-Gallo,
Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.
[FR Doc. 2023-21852 Filed 9-29-23; 11:15 am]
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