[Federal Register: August 14, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 157)]
[Notices]
[Page 48739-48741]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr14au03-115]
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Part IV
Department of Education
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National Institute on Disability and Rehabalitation Research; Office of
Special Education and Rehabilitative Services; Research--Assistive
Technology Act Technical Assistance Program; Inviting Applications for
Fiscal Year (FY) 2003; Notices
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
[RIN 1820 ZA31]
National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research
AGENCY: Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services,
Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of proposed priority.
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SUMMARY: The Assistant Secretary for Special Education and
Rehabilitative Services proposes a priority for one new award under the
Assistive Technology Act of 1998 (AT Act) Technical Assistance Program
(TA) for the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation
Research (NIDRR). The Assistant Secretary may use this priority for
competitions in fiscal year (FY) 2003 and later years. We take this
action to focus attention on an area of national need. We intend this
priority to measure and improve the outcomes of the AT State grant
program that serves individuals with disabilities.
DATES: We must receive your comments on or before September 15, 2003.
ADDRESSES: Address all comments about this proposed priority to Donna
Nangle, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., room
3412, Switzer Building, Washington, DC 20202-2645. If you prefer to
send your comments through the Internet, use the following address:
donna.nangle@ed.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Donna Nangle, Telephone: (202) 205-
5880.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may
call the TDD number at (202) 205-4475 or via the Internet:
donna.nangle@ed.gov. Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer
diskette) on request to the contact person listed under FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Invitation to Comment
We invite you to submit comments regarding this proposed priority.
We invite you to assist us in complying with the specific
requirements of Executive Order 12866 and its overall requirement of
reducing regulatory burden that might result from this proposed
priority. Please let us know of any further opportunities we should
take to 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 priority in Room 3412, Switzer Building, 330 C
Street SW., Washington, DC, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4 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 supply an appropriate aid, such as a reader or
print magnifier, to an individual with a disability who needs
assistance to review the comments or other documents in the public
rulemaking record for this proposed priority. If you want to schedule
an appointment for this type of aid, please contact the person listed
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
We will announce the final priority in a notice in the Federal
Register. We will determine the final priority after considering
responses to this notice and other information available to the
Department. This notice does not preclude us from proposing or funding
additional priorities, subject to meeting applicable rulemaking
requirements.
Note: This notice does not solicit applications. In any year in
which we choose to use this proposed priority, we invite
applications through a notice published in the Federal Register.
When inviting applications we designate each priority as absolute,
competitive preference, or invitational. The effect of each type of
priority follows:
Absolute priority: Under an absolute priority, we consider only
applications that meet the priority (34 CFR 75.105(c)(3)).
Competitive preference priority: Under a competitive preference
priority, we give competitive preference to an application by either
(1) awarding additional points, depending on how well or the extent
to which the application meets the priority (34 CFR
75.105(c)(2)(i)); or (2) selecting an application that meets the
competitive priority over an application of comparable merit that
does not meet the competitive priority (34 CFR 75.105(c)(2) (ii)).
Invitational priority: Under an invitational priority, we are
particularly interested in applications that meet the invitational
priority. However, we do not give an application that meets the
priority a competitive or absolute preference over other
applications (34 CFR 75.105(c)(1)).
Note: NIDRR supports the goals of President Bush's New Freedom
Initiative (NFI). The NFI can be accessed on the Internet at the
following site: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/freedominitiative/freedominitiative.html
.
Assistive Technology Act
The AT Act reaffirmed the Federal role of promoting access to AT
devices and services for individuals with disabilities. In 1988,
Congress passed the original Technology Related Assistance for
Individuals with Disabilities Act (Tech Act) to assist States to
identify and respond to the AT needs of individuals with disabilities.
Reauthorized in 1994, the Tech Act was premised on the assumption that
individuals with disabilities needed access to AT devices and services,
and that Federal funds could function as a catalyst and as leverage to
create permanent systemic change within State infrastructures that did,
could, or should make AT devices and services more readily available to
individuals with disabilities.
In addition to continuing the AT State grant program and TA
activities conducted under the earlier Tech Act, the 1994 Tech Act
amendments required each State grant to set aside funds for the
Protection and Advocacy (P&A) system in each State to assist
individuals with disabilities access AT devices and services. The
amendments also included standards of accountability to ensure that
States would meet the Tech Act goals within the ten-year funding
period.
The Tech Act was replaced in 1998 with the AT Act, which authorized
an additional three years of funding for the States. The AT Act was
passed in recognition of the technology challenges that remain for
individuals with disabilities. AT State grant programs have met some of
these challenges, documented continuing needs and reported the outcomes
of their efforts through the implementation of a web-based data
collection system.
Priority
Background
The purpose of the AT Act Data Collection Project is to regularly
collect data from the 56 AT State grant program grantees and 56 P&A
systems that will provide information about access to and provision of
AT devices and service. The analyses of this data can be used to
identify outcomes, infer trends and impacts, identify effective and
replicable strategies, and support the formulation of new policies and
practices.
In 1999, the Secretary established a Data Collection Project for a
48-month period for the purpose of collecting annual data from the AT
State grant program grantees that would provide evidence-based,
measurable results for individuals with disabilities and
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generate policy-relevant information for Federal, State and local
decision-makers about the availability, use and purchase of AT devices
and services as well as identify exemplary practices for improving
access to AT services and devices.
On-going analyses of data will provide for program development and
inform planning activities. The AT Act received funding in the FY 2003
budget to support operation through FY 2004. This Data Collection
Project will be funded for 12 months to capture the grantees'
activities during that period.
Goals
The short-term goal of this proposed priority is to maintain and
support the existing Web-based data collection instrument for AT Act
State grantees and to develop and implement a new web-based data
collection instrument for the AT Act P&A grantees. The long-term goal
of this proposed priority is to evaluate the performance of the AT Act
grantees' and to measure the outcomes and impacts of their activities.
Performance indicators will be used to measure outcomes including the
extent to which grantees achieve the following short-term and long-term
goals: (1) Increase access to and dissemination of information about
AT; (2) increase outreach to underserved groups; (3) increase technical
assistance and training for consumers and service providers; (4)
increase interagency coordination; and (5) the impact of activities on
individuals with disabilities including improved access to and capacity
to live independently in the community, participate in educational
environments, and obtain and maintain employment.
Proposed Priority
The Assistant Secretary proposes a Data Collection Technical
Assistance Project. The purpose of the project is to maintain and
support the existing Web-based data collection instrument for the AT
Act State grantees and to develop, implement, test, support and
maintain a Web-based data collection instrument for the AT Act P&A
grantees. The Data Collection Technical Assistance Project must:
(a) Maintain and support the existing Web-based data collection
instrument for the AT Act State grantees and develop, implement, test,
support and maintain a Web-based data collection and analysis system,
including a data collection instrument for the AT Act P&A grantees to
assess performance, outcomes;
(b) Train entities funded under the AT Act in the use of the data
collection systems including specific training on the data collection
instruments;
(c) Generate analytical reports based on the data collected from
the grantees and prepare an annual report on grantees' performance and
outcomes, including interpretations of findings;
(d) Identify and evaluate successful strategies that can be linked
to increased access to and provision of AT based on the data collected
from the grantees, including analyses of use of AT by individuals with
disabilities and national trends related to AT use by individuals with
disabilities;
(e) Coordinate information dissemination activities and distribute
information about access to and provision of AT for individuals with
disabilities of all ages to the AT Act State grantees, AT Act P&A
grantees, grantees providing TA to the AT Act State grantees and P&A
grantees, and the National AT Internet Site; and
(f) Prepare and submit an annual report of findings about program
outcomes, and separately prepare a report on assessment of the
reliability of the data collection measures and validity of data
collected from the AT Act grantees and P&A grantees, and the extent to
which the data addresses the intended purposes of the data collection
activities.
Executive Order 12866
This notice of proposed priority has been reviewed in accordance
with Executive order 12866. Under the terms of the order, we have
assessed the potential costs and benefits of this regulatory action.
The potential costs associated with the notice of proposed priority
are those resulting from statutory requirements and those we have
determined as necessary for administering this program effectively and
efficiently.
In assessing the potential costs and benefits--both quantitative
and qualitative--of this notice of proposed priority, we have
determined that the benefits of the proposed priority justify the
costs.
Summary of Potential Costs and Benefits
The potential cost associated with this proposed priority is
minimal while the benefits are significant. Grantees may anticipate
costs associated with completing the application process in terms of
staff time, copying, and mailing or delivery. The use of e-Application
technology reduces mailing and copying costs significantly.
The benefits of the Data Collection Project have been well
established over the years in that similar projects have been
completed. This proposed priority will generate new knowledge through a
dissemination, utilization, training, and technical assistance project.
The benefit of this proposed priority and proposed applications and
project requirements will be the establishment of a new Data Collection
Technical Assistance Project that generates, disseminates, and promotes
the use of new information that will improve access to AT and expand
opportunities for employment, education and community life.
Electronic Access to This Document
You may view this document, as well as all 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 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.gov/nara/index.html
.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 84.224B, Assistive
Technology Act Technical Assistance Program)
Program Authority: 29 U.S.C. 3014
Dated: August 11, 2003.
Loretta Petty Chittum,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative
Services.
[FR Doc. 03-20793 Filed 8-13-03; 8:45 am]
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