[Federal Register: May 30, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 104)]
[Notices]
[Page 37785-37786]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr30my02-56]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
[CFDA No. 84.359]
Early Reading First Program
AGENCY: Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice revising deadline requirement for State lists of
eligible local educational agencies (LEAs) for the initial year's
(fiscal year (FY) 2002) Early Reading First grant competition.
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SUMMARY: The Secretary revises the requirement that State educational
agencies (SEAs) submit lists of eligible LEAs so that the Department
receives those lists by a certain deadline (April 30, 2002), to allow
lists to be either received by the Department by that deadline or
postmarked by that deadline. The Secretary takes this action to allow
the Department to accept lists of eligible LEAs where receipt was
delayed due to disruptions in normal mail delivery.
Eligibility: The change of deadline procedures affects you only if
you are an SEA that submitted a list of eligible LEAs for the Early
Reading First competition for FY 2002 that was not received by the
Department by April 30, 2002, but that was postmarked by that date.
DATES: State Data Submission Deadline: The Department (1) must have
received the submission by April 30, 2002; or (2) the SEA must have had
its submission postmarked by April 30, 2002, and the Department must
have received that submission by June 21, 2002.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Patricia McKee, Tracy Bethel, or
Jennifer Flood at 202-260-4555, or by e-mail at ERF@ed.gov.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may
call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339. If
you are an individual with a disability, you may obtain a copy of this
notice in an alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape,
or computer diskette) on request to the contact person listed in this
section.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
The Early Reading First Program is a direct competitive grant
program that will support early education programs and teach preschool-
age children to develop the early language and cognitive skills that
they need to enter kindergarten ready to learn to read and succeed
under State standards. Eligible entities are eligible LEAs, and public
and private organizations in communities served by those LEAs.
The statute bases LEAs eligibility for the Early Reading First
Program on the statutory criteria for LEA eligibility for Reading First
State Grants Program subgrants. On April 10, 2002, the Secretary
published a notice in the Federal Register (67 FR 17594) for the Early
Reading First Program inviting SEAs, by April 30, 2002, to identify and
provide to the Department, for the purposes of the Early Reading First
grant competition for FY 2002, a list of eligible LEAs in the State
under the Reading First statutory criteria. That notice indicated that
if the Department did not receive a State's submission of a list of
eligible LEAs by April 30, 2002, the Department would itself identify
eligible LEAs in the State for the Early Reading First grants for FY
2001. However, the Department recently has experienced disruptions to
normal mail delivery. For this reason, the Department did not receive
some submissions that States mailed in sufficient time for the
Department normally to have received them by April 30, 2002. The
Secretary therefore changes the submission procedures to allow for
those submissions of State lists of eligible LEAs that either (1) were
received by the Department by the deadline; or (2) that were postmarked
by that deadline so long as the Department receives the postmarked
submission by June 21, 2002.
Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking
It is the Secretary's practice, in accordance with the
Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553), to offer interested
parties the opportunity to comment on proposed requirements that are
not taken directly from statute. Ordinarily, this practice would have
[[Page 37786]]
applied to the requirements in this notice. Section 437(d)(1) of the
General Education Provisions Act (GEPA), however, exempts from this
requirement rules that apply to the first competition under a new or
substantially revised program authority. To ensure timely awards of
Early Reading First grants, the Secretary, in accordance with section
437(d)(1) of GEPA, has decided to forego public comment with respect to
this change in the State data submission deadline requirements.
Paperwork Reduction Act Considerations
As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Office of
Management and Budget has approved this information collection under
OMB control number 1810-0647, which expires August 31, 2002.
Electronic Access to This Document
You may view this document, as well as all of 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:
www.ed.gov/legislation/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.
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/
nara/index.html
Program Authority: Subpart 2, part B, title I of the ESEA, Pub.
L. 107-110.
Dated: May 24, 2002.
Susan B. Neuman,
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education.
[FR Doc. 02-13573 Filed 5-29-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-M