Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Department of Education.
Notice of final requirements.
The Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education announces final requirements under the Migrant Education Program Consortium Incentive Grant Program. The Assistant Secretary establishes these requirements for competitions in fiscal year (FY) 2004 and later years. The Department intends that these requirements will promote the participation of State educational agencies in high-quality consortia.
These requirements are effective April 2, 2004.
Elsa Chagolla, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., room 3E257, FOB–6, Washington, DC 20202–6135. Telephone: (202) 260–2823, or via Internet:
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The Migrant Education Program (MEP), authorized by Title I, Part C of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, is a State-operated and State-administered formula grant program. The MEP provides assistance to State educational agencies (SEAs) to support high-quality and comprehensive educational programs that provide migratory children appropriate educational and supportive services to address their special needs in a coordinated and efficient manner, and to give migratory children the opportunity to meet the same challenging State academic content and student academic achievement standards that all children are expected to meet.
Section 1308(d) of the ESEA authorizes the Secretary to “reserve not more than $3,000,000 to award grants of not more than $250,000 on a competitive basis to State educational agencies that propose a consortium arrangement with another State or other appropriate entity that the Secretary determines, pursuant to criteria that the Secretary shall establish, will improve the delivery of services to migratory children whose education is interrupted.” Through this program, the Department provides financial incentives to SEAs to participate in high-quality consortia that improve the interstate or intrastate coordination of migrant education programs by addressing key needs of migratory children who have their education interrupted.
We published a notice of proposed requirements for this program in the
In response to our invitation in the notice of proposed requirements, four parties submitted a total of eight comments on the proposed requirements. An analysis of the comments and of any changes in the requirements since the publication of the notice of proposed requirements is provided in an appendix at the end of this notice of final requirements.
This notice of final requirements contains six significant changes from the notice of proposed requirements. Specifically:
(1) The
(2) The definition of “other appropriate entity” has been revised to include specific examples of public or private entities with which an SEA may establish a consortium.
(3) The discussion regarding grantees' submission of a first-year performance report and a second-year final evaluation report has been revised to clarify that, in these reports, grantees must address their completion of activities and attainment of objectives described in the approved consortium application, rather than describe the uses of their incentive grant funds.
(4) The discussion regarding the applicability of parts 76 and 80 of the Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) has been revised to clarify that, while an SEA that receives incentive grant funds does not need to submit performance reports on its use of the incentive grant funds as otherwise required under § 76.720 and § 80.40(b), it must submit the financial reports regarding use of incentive grant funds required by § 76.720 and § 80.41 of EDGAR.
(5) The discussion regarding
(6) The discussion regarding
With these changes, and for the reasons discussed in the notice of proposed requirements (68 FR 41323) and in the
Section 1308(d) permits an SEA to enter into a consortium with another State or other appropriate entity. The Department defines the term “other appropriate entity” to mean any public or private agency or organization, such as a school district, a charter school, a nonprofit or for-profit organization, or an institution of higher education. However, under section 1308(d), only SEAs are eligible applicants to receive consortium incentive grants.
An application for an incentive grant must be submitted by an SEA that will act as the “lead SEA” for the proposed consortium. To be eligible for award, this application must include—
1. The identity of the lead SEA for the consortium, and of each other SEA or entity participating in the consortium;
2. The goals and measurable outcomes of the consortium, and the activities that each participating SEA or entity in the consortium will conduct during each project year to improve the delivery of services to migratory children whose education is interrupted;
3. A concise and cogent explanation of the need for and value of the proposed consortium to each participating SEA, and of how the proposed consortium will improve interstate or intrastate coordination of migrant education programs;
4. A description of the process each participating SEA will use for evaluating its progress in achieving the measurable outcomes of the consortium; and
5. A signed statement from the Chief State School Officer (or his or her authorized representative) of each SEA that is participating in the proposed consortium of his or her SEA's commitment to implement its activities as described in the application.
For competitions in FY 2004 and later years, the Department establishes the following seven absolute priorities that promote key national objectives of the MEP. In order for SEAs to be considered for incentive grants, a proposed consortium in which an SEA would participate must address one or more of the following absolute priorities:
1. Services designed to improve the proper and timely identification and recruitment of eligible migratory children whose education is interrupted;
2. Services designed (based on a review of scientifically based research) to improve the school readiness of pre-school-aged migratory children whose education is interrupted;
3. Services designed (based on a review of scientifically based research) to improve the reading proficiency of migratory children whose education is interrupted;
4. Services designed (based on a review of scientifically based research) to improve the mathematics proficiency of migratory children whose education is interrupted;
5. Services designed (based on a review of scientifically based research) to decrease the dropout rate of migratory students whose education is interrupted and improve their high school completion rate;
6. Services designed (based on a review of scientifically based research) to strengthen the involvement of migratory parents in the education of migratory students whose education is interrupted; and
7. Services designed (based on a review of scientifically based research) to expand access to innovative educational technologies intended to increase the academic achievement of migratory students whose education is interrupted.
An SEA that participates in a high-quality consortium, as the Department will select by use of the program's selection criteria, shall receive only one incentive grant award regardless of the number of high-quality consortia in which it participates.
In determining the amount of incentive grant awards, the Department will not use a cost analysis as described in § 75.232 of EDGAR. Rather, the Department will determine the amounts of the incentive grant awards on the basis of the following two-tiered funding formula:
The first tier consists of those SEAs participating in high-quality consortia whose MEP Basic State Formula grant allocations are $1 million or more. Each of these SEAs will, subject to the following exceptions, receive an incentive grant award of the same base amount.
The second tier consists of those SEAs participating in high-quality consortia whose MEP Basic State Formula grant allocations are $1 million or less. Each of these SEAs will, subject to the following exceptions, receive an incentive grant award that is twice the base amount.
Within each tier, awards will be of equal size, except that the amount of any SEA's incentive grant award in either tier may not exceed $250,000 (which is the statutory maximum) or the amount of its MEP Basic State Formula grant, whichever is less.
The base amount will be calculated by dividing the total amount reserved for incentive grants by the sum of the total number of SEAs participating in high-quality consortia whose MEP Basic State Formula grant allocations are greater than $1 million and two times the total number of SEAs participating in high-quality consortia whose MEP Basic State Formula grant allocations are $1 million or less.
It must be noted that, because an SEA cannot receive an incentive award that exceeds its MEP Basic State Formula grant allocation or $250,000, whichever is less, it is possible that some SEAs with MEP Basic State Formula allocations of $1 million or less will not receive an incentive grant amount that is actually twice the amount of the awards provided to SEAs whose MEP Basic State Formula allocations are greater than $1 million.
For FY 2004, the Department plans to reserve $2.5 million for consortium incentive awards. The amount reserved for awards in future years will vary and will be announced prior to any future competition. With a $2.5 million reservation of funds, the range of annual awards to SEAs participating in consortia will be between $35,738 (if all 52 SEAs receive grants under this competition) to $250,000 (the statutory maximum). Assuming the number of SEAs that receive consortium incentive grants for FY 2004 is the same as the number of SEAs that received them in FY 2002 (39), the size of an annual award will be $45,997 for SEAs whose MEP allocations are greater than $1 million, and $91,995 for SEAs whose MEP allocations are $1 million or less (and greater than $91,995). The actual size of an SEA's award will depend on the number of SEAs that participate in high-quality consortia and the size of those SEAs' MEP formula grant allocations.
Consortium incentive grants will be awarded for up to two years. (The Department will not conduct a new incentive grant competition in FY 2005; rather, it will make second-year funding available to those SEAs that receive a FY 2004 incentive award.)
In this regard, pursuant to § 75.118 and § 75.590 of EDGAR, each SEA that receives a consortium incentive grant award must submit a performance report (through the consortium's lead State) toward the end of the first project year, and a final evaluation report at the end of the second year. These reports must address the SEA's completion of activities and attainment of objectives of the approved consortium, rather than the activities supported with incentive grant funds. Eligibility of each SEA for second-year awards will depend on the information provided in the first-year performance report regarding the SEA's substantial completion of first-year consortium activities and attainment of the outcomes identified in the approved consortium application.
The Department has established selection criteria from the general criteria for competitive grants contained in § 75.210 of EDGAR to evaluate applications for the incentive grants competition. The selection criteria may be found in the application package for the FY 2004 competition. The Department will review and rank applications on the basis of how well the information provided responds to these selection criteria. However, to be funded, an application must also address one or more of the absolute priorities, and the elements described in the
An SEA may use incentive grant funds to implement the consortium or to carry out any other activities authorized under the MEP. Because the incentive grants may be used for any activities authorized under the MEP, the
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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 is intended to provide early notification of our specific plans and actions for this program.
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We group major issues according to subject. Generally, we do not address technical and other minor changes, and suggested changes the law does not authorize us to make under applicable statutory authority.
In addition, the Department agrees with the commenter that a system that facilitates the timely access to and transfer of student records can be an effective means of reducing the effects of educational disruption on migrant students. Pursuant to section 1308(b)(2), the Department is currently in the process of developing and implementing a migrant student records system for the purpose of electronically exchanging health and educational information regarding migrant children among States. Because this is a separate national initiative, the Department is not addressing it through this grant program.
(1) The first-year performance report and the final second-year evaluation report required under § 75.118 and § 75.590 of EDGAR concern the completion of activities of the approved consortium, rather than the use of the awarded incentive grant funds, and
(2) SEAs do not need to submit a performance report on the use of the incentive grant funds. Instead, because an SEA may use incentive grant funds for any activity authorized under the MEP, the effectiveness of the incentive grants will be measured through those performance reports required by the Department for the MEP Basic State Formula grant. However, an SEA receiving an incentive grant must submit the financial reports relating to incentive grant funds required under § 76.720 and § 80.41 of EDGAR.