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Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Part II

Department of Education

34 CFR Parts 300, 301, and 304 Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities; Preschool Grants for Children With Disabilities; and Service Obligations Under Special Education—Personnel Development ToImprove Services and Results for Children With Disabilities; Proposed Rule

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Federal Register

/Vol. 70, No. 118/Tuesday, June 21, 2005/Proposed Rules

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION34 CFR Parts 300, 301 and 304

RIN 1820–AB57

Assistance to States for the Educationof Children With Disabilities;Preschool Grants for Children WithDisabilities; and Service ObligationsUnder Special Education—PersonnelDevelopment To Improve Services andResults for Children With Disabilities

AGENCY

Office of Special Education andRehabilitative Services, Department of Education.

ACTION

Notice of proposed rulemaking(NPRM).

SUMMARY

The Secretary proposes toamend the regulations governing theAssistance to States for Education of Children with Disabilities Program, thePreschool Grants for Children WithDisabilities Program, and ServiceObligations under Special EducationPersonnel Development to ImproveServices and Results for Children withDisabilities. These amendments areneeded to implement recently enactedchanges made to the Individuals withDisabilities Education Act, as amended by the Individuals with DisabilitiesEducation Improvement Act of 2004.

DATES

To be considered, commentsmust be received at one of the addressesprovided in the

ADDRESSES

section nolater than 5 p.m. Washington, DC Timeon September 6, 2005. Commentsreceived after this time will not beconsidered.We will hold public meetings aboutthis NPRM. The dates and times of themeetings and the cities in which themeetings will take place are in

PublicMeetings

under

Invitation to Comment

elsewhere in this preamble.

ADDRESSES

Address all comments aboutthese proposed regulations to Troy R. Justesen, U.S. Department of Education,400 Maryland Avenue, SW., PotomacCenter Plaza, room 5126, Washington,DC 20202–2641. If you prefer to sendyour comments through the Internet,you may address them to us at the U.S.Government Web site:

www.regulations.gov

or you may sendyour Internet comments to us at thefollowing address:

IDEAComments@ed.gov.

You must include the term IDEA–PartB in the subject line of your electronicmessage. Please submit your commentsonly one time, in order to ensure thatwe do not receive duplicate copies.If you want to comment on theinformation collection requirements,you must send your comments to theOffice of Management and Budget at theaddress listed in the PaperworkReduction Act section of this preamble.You may also send a copy of thosecomments to the U.S. Department of Education (Department) representativenamed in this section.All first-class and Priority mail sent tothe Department is put through anirradiation process, which can result inlengthy delays in mail delivery. Pleasekeep this in mind when sending yourcomments and please consider usingcommercial delivery services or e-mailin order to ensure timely delivery of your comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT

TroyR. Justesen. Telephone: (202) 245–7468.If you use a telecommunicationsdevice for the deaf (TDD), you may callthe Federal Relay System (FRS) at 1–800–877–8339.Individuals with disabilities mayobtain this document in an alternativeformat (

e.g.

, Braille, large print,audiotape, or computer diskette) onrequest to the contact person listedunder

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

Invitation To Comment

We invite you to submit commentsregarding these proposed regulations.To ensure that your comments havemaximum effect in developing the finalregulations, we urge you to identifyclearly the specific section or sections of the proposed regulations that each of your comments addresses and to arrangeyour comments in the same order as theproposed regulations.We invite you to assist us incomplying with the specificrequirements of Executive Order 12866and its overall requirement of reducingregulatory burden that might result fromthese proposed regulations. Please let usknow of any further opportunities weshould provide to reduce the potentialcosts or increase potential benefitswhile preserving the effective andefficient administration of theseprograms.During and after the comment period,you may inspect all public commentsabout these proposed regulations inroom 5126, Potomac Center Plaza, 55012th Street, SW., Washington, DC, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4p.m., Eastern time, Monday throughFriday of each week except Federalholidays.

Assistance to Individuals WithDisabilities in Reviewing theRulemaking Record

On request, we will supply anappropriate aid, such as a reader, orprint magnifier, to an individual with adisability who needs assistance toreview the comments or otherdocuments in the public rulemakingrecord for these proposed regulations. If you want to schedule an appointmentfor this type of aid, please contact theperson listed under

FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT

Public Meetings

The dates and cities where themeetings about this NPRM will takeplace are listed below. Each meetingwill take place from 1 to 4 p.m. andfrom 5 to 7 p.m.Friday, June 17, 2005 in Nashville,TN;Wednesday, June 22, 2005 inSacramento, CA;Friday, June 24, 2005 in Las Vegas,NV;Monday, June 27, 2005 in New York,NY;Wednesday, June 29, 2005 in Chicago,IL;Thursday, July 7, 2005 in SanAntonio, TX; andTuesday, July 12, 2005 inWashington, DC.We provided more specificinformation on meeting locations in anotice published in the

Federal Register

(70 FR 30917).

Assistance to Individuals WithDisabilities at the Public Meetings

The meeting sites are accessible toindividuals with disabilities, and signlanguage interpreters will be available.If you need an auxiliary aid or serviceother than a sign language interpreter(

e.g.

, interpreting service such as oral,cued speech, or tactile interpreter,assisted listening device, or materials inan alternative format), notify the contactperson listed in this NPRM at least twoweeks before the scheduled meetingdate. Although we will attempt to meeta request we receive after this date, wemay not be able to make available therequested auxiliary aid or service because of insufficient time to arrangeit.

Background

On December 3, 2004, the Individualswith Disabilities EducationImprovement Act of 2004 was enactedinto law as Pub L. 108–446. The statute,as passed by Congress and signed by thePresident, reauthorizes and makessignificant changes to the Individualswith Disabilities Education Act.The Individuals with DisabilitiesEducation Act, as amended by theIndividuals with Disabilities EducationImprovement Act of 2004 (Act or IDEA),is intended to help children with

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/Vol. 70, No. 118/Tuesday, June 21, 2005/Proposed Rules

disabilities achieve to high standards

—

by promoting accountability for results,enhancing parental involvement, andusing proven practices and materials;and, also, by providing more flexibilityand reducing paperwork burdens forteachers, States, and local schooldistricts. Enactment of the new lawprovides an opportunity to considerimprovements in the current regulationsthat would strengthen the Federal effortto ensure every child with a disabilityhas available a free appropriate publiceducation that

—

(1) is of high quality,and (2) is designed to achieve the highstandards reflected in the Elementaryand Secondary Education Act of 1965,as amended by the No Child Left BehindAct of 2001 (NCLB) and itsimplementing regulations.Changes to the current Part Bregulations (34 CFR parts 300 and 301)and Part D regulations (34 CFR part 304)are necessary in order for theDepartment to appropriately andeffectively address the provisions of thenew law and to assist State and localeducational agencies in implementingtheir responsibilities under the new law.Changes to the current Part Cregulations (part 303) also are necessaryin order for the Department toappropriately and effectively addressthe provisions in Part C of the Act andto assist States in completing theirresponsibilities under the new law. TheNPRM for the Part C regulations will bepublished soon.On December 29, 2004, the Secretarypublished a notice in the

FederalRegister

requesting advice andrecommendations from the public onregulatory issues under the Act, andannouncing a series of seven publicmeetings during January and Februaryof 2005 to seek further input andsuggestions from the public fordeveloping regulations based on thenew statute.Over 6000 public comments werereceived in response to the

FederalRegister

notice and at the seven publicmeetings, including letters from parentsand public agency personnel, andparent-advocate and professionalorganizations. The comments addressedeach major provision of the new law(such as discipline procedures,provisions on personnel qualificationsand highly qualified teachers,provisions related to evaluation of children and individualized educationprograms, participation of privateschool children with disabilities, andprovisions on early interveningservices). These comments werereviewed and considered in developingthis NPRM. The Secretary appreciatesthe interest and thoughtful attention of the commenters responding to theDecember 29, 2004 notice andparticipating in the seven publicmeetings.

General Proposed Regulatory Plan andStructure

In developing this NPRM, we haveelected to construct one comprehensive,freestanding document that incorporatesvirtually all requirements from the newlaw along with the applicableregulations, rather than publishing aregulation that does not includestatutory provisions. The rationale fordoing this is to create a single referencedocument for parents, State personnel,school personnel, and others to use,rather than being forced to shift betweenone document for regulations and aseparate document for the statute. Thisapproach was used in developing thecurrent regulations. Although thisapproach will result in a largerdocument, it is our impression thatvarious groups strongly supportcontinuing this practice.In addition, we have reorganized theregulations by following the generalorder and structure of provisions in thestatute, rather than using thearrangement of the current regulations.We believe this change in organizationwill be helpful to parents, State andlocal educational agency personnel, andthe public both in reading theregulations, and in finding the directlink between a given statutoryrequirement and the regulation relatedto that requirement. Thus, in general,the requirements related to a givenstatutory section (e.g.,

State eligibility

insection 612 of the Act) will be includedin one location (subpart B) and in thesame general order as in the statute,rather than being spread throughoutfour or more subparts, as the statutorysections are in the current regulations.As restructured in this NPRM, theproposed regulations are divided intoeight major subparts, each of which isdirectly linked to, and comports with,the general order of provisions in aspecific section of the Act. For example,we have revised subpart G of theregulations to include all provisionsregarding the allotment and use of fundsfrom section 611 of the Act, rather thanhaving those provisions dispersedamong several different subparts, asthey are in the current regulations.In addition, we have removed part301 (Preschool Grants for Children withDisabilities) from title 34 and placed thePreschool Grants provisions fromsection 619 of the Act into a newsubpart H under part 300. Thisrestructuring and consolidation of thefinancial requirements from both thestatute and regulations into a specificlocation in the regulations should beuseful to State and local administratorsand others in finding the relevantstatutory and regulatory provisionsregarding both the Assistance to Statesand Preschool Grants programs.In reviewing the current regulations,we considered their continued necessityand relevance in light of a number of factors: Whether statutory changesrequired changes to existing regulations;whether changes in other laws, or thepassage of time and changed conditionsrendered the regulations obsolete orunnecessary; whether less burdensomealternatives or greater flexibility wasappropriate; and whether the regulationcould be changed in light of section607(b) of the Act (section 607(b) of theAct provides that the Secretary may notpublish final regulations that wouldprocedurally or substantively lessen theprotections provided to children withdisabilities in the regulations that werein effect on July 20, 1983, except to theextent that such regulation reflects theclear and unequivocal intent of theCongress in legislation). In the followingdiscussion of proposed regulatorychanges, we identify the changes thatwould be made to existing regulationsafter consideration of these factors.

Proposed Regulatory Changes

Subpart A—General

Purposes and ApplicabilityProposed

300.1 would be revisedonly to add, consistent with a change tosection 601(d)(1)(A) of the Act, thewords

‘‘

further education

’’

in paragraph(a).Except for the section heading,proposed

300.2 would be unchangedfrom the existing provision.Section 300.3 of the currentregulations would be removed asunnecessary, because the regulationslisted in this section already apply, bytheir own terms, to States and localagencies under Part B of the Act.

Definitions Used in This Part

As in the current regulations,proposed

300.4 (Act) would refer tothe Individuals with DisabilitiesEducation Act, as amended.Proposed

300.5 (

Assistivetechnology device

) would retain thecurrent definition, and include the newlanguage from section 602(1) of the Actthat the term does not include a medicaldevice that is surgically implanted, orthe replacement of that device.Proposed

300.6 (

Assistivetechnology service

) would be consistentwith the current regulatory definition of that term.