Proposed Waiver and Extension of the Project Periods for the Equity Assistance Centers Grant Program
| Citation | 86 FR 15829 |
| Record Number | 2021-06117 |
| Published date | 25 March 2021 |
| Section | Proposed rules |
| Court | Education Department |
Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 56 (Thursday, March 25, 2021)
[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 56 (Thursday, March 25, 2021)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 15829-15830]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-06117]
[[Page 15829]]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
34 CFR Chapter II
[DOCKET ID ED-2021-OESE-0037]
Proposed Waiver and Extension of the Project Periods for the
Equity Assistance Centers Grant Program
AGENCY: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), Department
of Education.
ACTION: Proposed waiver and extension of project periods.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 four projects under
Assistance Listing Number (ALN) 84.004D to receive funding for an
additional period, not to exceed September 30, 2022.
DATES: We must receive your comments on or before April 26, 2021.
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 ``FAQ.''
Postal Mail, Commercial Delivery, or Hand Delivery: If you
mail or deliver your comments, address them to Ed Vitelli, U.S.
Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Room 3E106,
Washington, DC 20202.
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: Ed Vitelli, U.S. Department of
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Room 3E106, Washington, DC 20202.
Telephone: 202-453-6203. 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 and 13563 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. Due to the current COVID-19 public health
emergency, the Department buildings are not open to the public.
However, upon reopening, you may also inspect the comments in person at
400 Maryland Avenue SW, Room 3E106, 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 July 18, 2016, the Department of Education (Department)
published in the Federal Register (81 FR 46820) a notice inviting
applications for four projects for fiscal year (FY) 2016 under the
Equity Assistance Centers (EAC) program, authorized under title IV of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000c-2000c-2, 2000c-5.
The purpose of the EAC projects is to provide technical assistance
(including training) at the request of school boards and other
responsible governmental agencies in the preparation, adoption, and
implementation of plans for the desegregation of public schools, and in
the development of effective methods of coping with special educational
problems occasioned by desegregation. Desegregation assistance, per 34
CFR 270.4, may include, among other activities: (1) Dissemination of
information regarding effective methods of coping with special
educational problems occasioned by desegregation; (2) assistance and
advice in coping with these problems; and (3) training designed to
improve the ability of teachers, supervisors, counselors, parents,
community members, community organizations, and other elementary or
secondary school personnel to deal effectively with special educational
problems occasioned by desegregation. All four projects provide
technical assistance (including training) in all four of the
desegregation assistance areas: race, sex, national origin, and
religion. A table listing the FY 2016 EAC projects follows.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FY 2016 awards under ALN
84.004D Project information
------------------------------------------------------------------------
S004D160012.................. Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Bethesda,
MD.
Project: Center for Education Equity.
S004D160005.................. Intercultural Development Research
Association, San Antonio, TX.
Project: IDRA Equity Assistance Center
South.
S004D160011.................. Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN.
Project: Midwest and Plains Equity
Assistance Center.
S004D160004.................. Metropolitan State University of Denver,
Denver, CO.
Project: Western Educational Equity
Assistance Center (WEEAC).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[Page 15830]]
The EACs' project periods started on October 1, 2016, and will end
on September 30, 2021.
Waivers and Extensions
The Department proposes to extend the four EAC projects to ensure
the continuity of services provided by the projects to vulnerable
populations, schools, and school districts across the country as the
effects of the COVID-19 pandemic unfold, and as learning recovery and
school reentry efforts intensify over the course of the current and
subsequent school years.
The Department also proposes to extend the four EAC projects to
ensure that the next EAC grant competition is, to the extent
statutorily permitted, aligned with the Biden Administration's policy
directives, including, for example, the Executive orders and memorandum
included in the table below.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date signed by
Title of policy directive President Biden
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Executive Order 13985: Advancing Racial Equity January 20, 2021.
and Support for Underserved Communities Through
the Federal Government.
Executive Order 13988: Preventing and Combating January 20, 2021.
Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity
or Sexual Orientation.
Memorandum: Condemning and Combating Racism, January 26, 2021.
Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian
Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United
States.
Executive Order 14012: Restoring Faith in Our February 2, 2021.
Legal Immigration Systems and Strengthening
Integration and Inclusion Efforts for New
Americans.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
These policy directives instruct the Federal Government to pursue a
comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all, to prevent and
combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual
orientation, to ensure that laws and policies encourage full
participation by immigrants, including refugees, in our civic life, to
ensure that the Federal Government eliminates sources of fear and other
barriers that prevent immigrants from accessing government services
available to them, and to combat xenophobia and intolerance against
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
For these reasons, the Department believes it is in the best
interest of the public to extend the current EAC project periods for
one year. Correspondingly, 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 permit the extension of a project period only if the extension
does not involve the obligation of additional Federal funds. The waiver
will permit the Department to issue a FY 2021 continuation award to
each of the four currently funded EAC projects.
Any activities carried out under these continuation awards must be
consistent with the scope and objectives of the grantees' applications
as approved in the FY 2016 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
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. This document provides early notification of our
specific plans and actions for this program.
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.
Ruth Ryder,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Programs, Office of
Elementary and Secondary Education.
[FR Doc. 2021-06117 Filed 3-24-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
