Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year 1998

Federal RegisterJun 3, 1998

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[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 3, 1998)]

[Notices]

[Pages 30296-30299]

From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[FR Doc No: 98-14629]

[[Page 30295]]

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Part II

Department of Education

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Individual With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): Special Education--

Technology and Media Services for Individuals With Disabilities; New

Awards Applications Invitation (FY 1998); Notice

Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 106 / Wednesday, June 3, 1998 /

Notices

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year 1998

AGENCY: Department of Education.

SUMMARY: On June 4, 1997, the President signed into law Public Law 105-

17, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997,

amending the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

This notice provides closing dates and other information regarding

the transmittal of applications for fiscal year 1998 competitions under

Special Education--Technology and Media Services for Individuals with

Disabilities program authorized by IDEA, as amended.

This notice supports the National Education Goals by helping to

improve results for children with disabilities.

Waiver of Rulemaking

It is generally the practice of the Secretary to offer interested

parties the opportunity to comment on proposed priorities. However,

section 661(e)(2) of IDEA makes the Administrative Procedure Act (5

U.S.C. 553) inapplicable to the priorities in this notice. In order to

make awards on a timely basis, the Secretary has decided to publish

these priorities in final under the authority of section 661(e)(2).

General Requirements

(a) Projects funded under this notice must make positive efforts to

employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with

disabilities in project activities (see Section 606 of IDEA);

(b) Applicants and grant recipients funded under this notice must

involve individuals with disabilities or parents of individuals with

disabilities in planning, implementing, and evaluating the projects

(see Section 661(f)(1)(A) of IDEA);

day Project Directors' meeting in Washington, D.C. during each year of

the project; and

(d) In a single application, an applicant is required to address

only one absolute priority in this notice.

Note: The Department of Education is not bound by any estimates

in this notice.

Special Education--Technology and Media Services for Individuals With

Disabilities [CFDA No. 84.327]

Purpose of Program: The purpose of this program is to promote the

development, demonstration, and utilization of technology and to

support educational media activities designed to be of educational

value to children with disabilities. This program also provides support

for some captioning, video description, and cultural activities.

Eligible Applicants: State and local educational agencies;

institutions of higher education; other public agencies; private

nonprofit organizations; outlying areas; freely associated States; and

Indian tribes or tribal organizations.

Applicable Regulations: (a) The Education Department General

Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 80,

81, 82, 85, and 86; and (b) The selection criteria included in

regulations for these programs in 34 CFR 332.32 for the Closed

Captioned Educational Programming priority; and in 34 CFR 333.21 for

the Using Research to Help Children Learn to Read, and the Accessible

Formats for Educational Materials priorities.

Note: The regulations in 34 CFR part 86 apply to institutions of

higher education only.

Priority: Under section 687 of IDEA and 34 CFR 75.105(c)(3), the

Secretary gives an absolute preference to applications that meet any

one of the following priorities. The Secretary funds under these

competitions only those applications that meet these absolute

priorities:

Absolute Priority 1--Using Research to Help Children Learn to Read

(CFDA 84.327B)

The purpose of this priority is to demonstrate the use of existing

publicly funded telecommunication systems to provide the public,

families, and teachers with research-based information and on early

diagnosis of, intervention for, and effective strategies for teaching

reading to young children with disabilities who demonstrate

difficulties learning to read. For the purposes of this priority, the

term ``young'' children refers to children through grade four.

Priority: The Secretary establishes an absolute priority to enhance

and expand the capabilities of an existing entity to disseminate

research findings on early diagnosis, intervention, and effective

strategies for teaching reading to young children with disabilities who

demonstrate difficulties learning to read. To receive a grant under

this priority applicants must demonstrate a proven track record for

dissemination of information on effective research to practice efforts

through electronic formats.

Activities conducted by this project should:

(1) Create awareness in parents and teachers about the teaching and

learning problems of young children that have been addressed through

research;

(2) Create awareness in parents and teachers about how to design an

effective teaching strategy to improve reading results of children with

disabilities such as developmental disabilities, learning disabilities,

and sensory disabilities;

(3) Create awareness in the general public about the

accomplishments and contributions made by persons who demonstrate

difficulties learning to read despite the significant challenges that

these individuals faced as young children in schools; and

(4) Include dissemination of research-based solutions that can be

used to address these challenges.

The project funded under this priority must--

(a) Establish a panel of expert research advisors: from the

Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP);

from other Federal agencies such as the Department of Health and Human

Services' National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

(NICHD) and National Institute on Mental Health; and from foundations

such as the National Academy of Science (NAS) and the National Science

Foundation (NSF). The panel also shall include practitioners, family

members of students who demonstrate difficulties learning to read, and

individuals who experience difficulties learning to read in their

youth. The panel will advise the work of the project and assist the

project in identifying effective, research-based practices to improve

reading results of young children with disabilities who demonstrate

difficulties learning to read. The final membership of the panel shall

be discussed with, and approved by, OSEP.

(b) Use innovative strategies to interest parents and practitioners

in the research-based findings in a way that promotes the use of this

information in their homes and classrooms. To accomplish this, the

program must--

(1) Develop strategies for information exchange and dissemination

to match identified parent and practitioner needs with existing

research-based solutions. The vehicles for this information exchange

could include, but are not limited to: web sites, chat rooms,

listservers, and bulletin boards.

(2) Provide information to families and practitioners that

describes effective strategies for diagnosing, teaching, and working

with young children with disabilities who demonstrate difficulties

learning to read. The topics of such products could include, but are

not limited to: early interventions; class-

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wide peer tutoring; learning, study and organization strategies; using

technology to improve content learning; facilitating language

development in young children with disabilities; and vocabulary and

comprehension interventions for children with disabilities who

demonstrate difficulties learning to read.

(1) Disseminates its products through publicly funded

telecommunications systems;

(2) Highlights the accomplishments and contributions of persons who

demonstrate difficulties learning to read who have benefitted from

early diagnosis, interventions, and effective teaching strategies, and

move the general public from a basic understanding of disabilities

related to difficulties learning to read to an understanding of the

significant contributions that persons who demonstrate difficulties

learning to read make to our society;

(3) Features research-based solutions to the challenges that young

children with disabilities who demonstrate difficulties learning to

read encounter in schools and information on how these disabilities

affect other areas of learning, such as mathematics and language

acquisition.

(d) Provide an independent evaluation to determine if the project

is reaching its intended audiences.

(e) Create partnerships within the existing OSEP technical

assistance infrastructure, such as the National Information Center for

Children and Youth with Disabilities (NICHCY) and the Technical

Assistance Alliance for Parent Centers (the Alliance), to avoid

duplication of efforts.

(f) Implement an external review process in which experts review

products for technical accuracy and clarity. The expert review process

shall be discussed with, and approved by, OSEP.

Project Period: 36 months.

Maximum Award: The Secretary rejects and does not consider an

application that proposes a budget exceeding $500,000 for any single

budget period of 12 months. The Secretary may change the maximum amount

through a notice published in the Federal Register.

Page Limits: Part III of the application, the application

narrative, is where an applicant addresses the selection criteria that

are used by reviewers in evaluating the application. An applicant must

limit Part III to the equivalent of no more than 60 double-spaced

pages, using the following standards: (1) A ``page'' is 8\1/2\'' x 11''

(on one side only) with one-inch margins (top, bottom, and sides). (2)

All text in the application narrative, including titles, headings,

footnotes, quotations, references, and captions, as well as all text in

charts, tables, figures, and graphs, must be double-spaced (no more

than 3 lines per vertical inch). If using a proportional computer font,

use no smaller than a 12-point font, and an average character density

no greater than 18 characters per inch. If using a nonproportional font

or a typewriter, do not use more than 12 characters to the inch.

The page limit does not apply to Part I--the cover sheet; Part II--

the budget section (including the narrative budget justification); Part

IV--the assurances and certifications; or the one-page abstract,

resumes, bibliography, and letters of support. However, all of the

application narrative must be included in Part III. If an application

narrative uses a smaller print size, spacing, or margin that would make

the narrative exceed the equivalent of the page limit, the application

will not be considered for funding.

Absolute Priority 2--Closed Captioned Educational Programming (CFDA

84.327E)

Background: The Congress has expressed concern that hundreds of

hours of non-commercial educational programming are being produced for

classroom use, but that the programming is not fully accessible through

closed captions. This priority supports cooperative agreements to

continue and expand the closed captioning of widely available

educational and instructional programming that is shown on national

broadcast, DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite), or basic cable television

networks, and that is suitable for use in the classroom. Captioning

provides a visual representation of the audio portion of the

programming and enables students who are deaf or hard of hearing to

participate in this educational experience with their non-disabled

peers.

Priority: To be considered for funding under this competition, a

project must--

(1) Include criteria that takes into account the preference of

educators, students, and parents for particular educational programs,

the diversity of this type of programming available, and the

contribution of programs to the general educational experiences of

students who are deaf or hard of hearing;

(2) Identify the extent to which the commercial-free programming to

be captioned under this project may be taped for later classroom use;

(3) Identify the extent to which the programming is widely

available;

(4) Identify the total number of hours captioned and the cost per

hour for each of the programs captioned;

(5) Identify for each program to be captioned the source of private

or other public support and the projected dollar amount of that

support, if any;

(6) Identify the method of captioning to be used for each program

and identify the cost per hour for each method used;

(7) Demonstrate the willingness of program providers or owners of

programs to permit captioning of their programs;

(8) Provide assurances from program providers or owners of programs

stating the extent to which programs captioned under this project will

air, and will continue to air, without re-captioning;

(9) Implement procedures for monitoring the extent to which the

project provides full and accurate captioning and uses this information

to make refinements in captioning operations; and

(10) Make captions available at no cost to providers or owners of

programming, who may use, reformat, or otherwise adapt these captions

for future airings or other distributions.

Project Period: Up to 36 months.

Maximum Award: The Secretary rejects and does not consider an

application that proposes a budget exceeding $125,000 for any single

budget period of 12 months. The Secretary may change the maximum amount

through a notice published in the Federal Register.

Page Limits: Part III of the application, the application

narrative, is where an applicant addresses the selection criteria that

are used by reviewers in evaluating the application. An applicant must

limit Part III to the equivalent of no more than 40 double-spaced

pages, using the following standards: (1) A ``page'' is 8\1/2\'' x

11'' (on one side only) with one-inch margins (top, bottom, and sides).

(2) All text in the application narrative, including titles, headings,

footnotes, quotations, references, and captions, as well as all text in

charts, tables, figures, and graphs, must be double-spaced (no more

than 3 lines per vertical inch). If using a proportional computer font,

use no smaller than a 12-point font, and an average character density

no greater than 18 characters per inch. If using a nonproportional font

or a typewriter, do not use more than 12 characters to the inch.

The page limit does not apply to Part I--the cover sheet; Part II--

the budget section (including the narrative budget

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justification); Part IV--the assurances and certifications; or the one-

page abstract, resumes, bibliography, and letters of support. However,

all of the application narrative must be included in Part III. If an

application narrative uses a smaller print size, spacing, or margin

that would make the narrative exceed the equivalent of the page limit,

the application will not be considered for funding.

Absolute Priority 3--Accessible Formats for Educational Materials (CFDA

84.327R)

Background: The purpose of this priority is to provide textbooks

and other educational materials in accessible formats for students at

all educational levels who are visually or print disabled. These

materials will help provide equal educational opportunities to these

students and lessen some of the barriers they face in the classroom.

Priorty: To be considered for funding under this priority, the

projects must--

(1) Handle all requests for educational materials from students who

are visually or print disabled at all educational levels at no cost;

(2) Obtain statements of eligibility by disability for each

requestor;

(3) If access to materials is provided through section 121 of the

master tapes or disks and rights to market the cassettes or disks as

they see fit;

(4) Apply new technology for producing and distributing educational

materials in accessible formats for individuals who are blind or

otherwise print disabled, such as electronic text or digital audio

sychronization;

(5) Distribute the materials that are produced through means such

as audio tapes, diskettes, CD-ROMs, or the Internet;

(6) Handle associated administrative and circulation functions such

as any returned cassettes, disks, CD-ROMs, or preservative re-

recording;

(7) To the extent that funds are not sufficient to meet the demand

for free materials, place a priority on providing materials, such as

supplemental reading textbooks and workbooks, that are not otherwise

required to be provided by educational agencies or institutions; and

(8) Coordinate and collaborate with publishers, software

developers, other manufacturers of accessible materials for individuals

who are visually impaired or otherwise print disabled, disability and

educational organizations, and government agencies to ensure effective

coordination and nonduplication of effort.

Project Period: Up to 36 months.

Maximum Award: The Secretary rejects and does not consider an

application that proposes a budget exceeding $1,500,000 for any single