The U.S. Department of Education (ED)
plans to issue guidance inviting waivers related to the use of FY
2009 Title I, Part A funds available through the America Recovery
and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), waivers related to certain
Title I, Part A statutory and regulatory provisions related to
public school choice and supplemental educational services, and
waivers related to maintenance of effort requirements. The guidance
provides instructions for State educational agencies (SEA) on how
they may apply to ED for waivers and instructions for local
educational agencies (LEAs) on how they may implement the waivers
obtained by their SEA. The guidance includes information
collections covered under the Paperwork Reduction Act.
Approval of this
information request will enable ED to consider requests to waive
certain statutory requirements that relate to the use of Title I,
Part A ARRA funds. The information collections relate to the
information that must be submitted to ED as part of a waiver
request, as required by section 9401 of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA). OMB approval on an emergency basis
would enable ED to provide SEAs and LEAs with timely information
about waivers of certain Title I, Part A requirements--information
that will be necessary as SEAs and LEAs make crucial decisions
about how they will most effectively use Title I, Part A funds,
including those available under the ARRA, during summer 2009 and in
SY 2009-10. If emergency clearance is not granted, ED will not be
able to provide the waiver request information to SEAs and LEAs in
time for them to plan successfully. And without proper planning,
Title I, Part A services to academically at-risk students,
including those supported by the ARRA, would suffer. Similarly, now
that States have received the Secretarys letter regarding the
Title I regulations, as soon as possible they need understand the
process for how to request a waiver and what information will be
required to accompany that request. The Secretarys letter
indicates that ED will provide additional information about the
process for submitting a waiver request and this waiver guidance
keeps that commitment. The waiver process must begin at this time
in order for States and LEAs to plan for their implementation of
the public school choice notice requirement for SY 2009-10. In
addition, if a school or LEA in improvement, corrective action, or
restructuring is going to be able to be approved as an SES provider
for SY 2009-10, a waiver must be granted before a State completes
its process for approving SES providers, or with sufficient time
for the State to reopen that process, if it chooses to do so.
Likewise, the process for requesting waivers related to the
provision of SES to eligible students attending Title I schools in
the first year of improvement must begin at this time in order for
LEAs to have sufficient time to appropriately plan their
implementation of SES. In all three cases, without emergency
approval, States and LEAs will not be able to take advantage of the
flexibility the Secretary is offering regarding these provisions
for the upcoming school year because ED would not be able to
provide information regarding how to apply for a waiver until it is
too late. Concerning MOE, in accordance with EDs MOE regulations
for ESEA programs (including Title I, Part A) covered by the MOE
requirements, States will soon begin identifying those LEAs that
failed to maintain effort in SY 2008-09. Section 9521(c) of the
ESEA gives the Secretary the authority to waive the MOE
requirements if an LEA experiences an exceptional or uncontrollable
circumstance or experiences a precipitous decline in its financial
resources. Due to the state of the economy during SY 2008-09, ED
expects many more LEAs will have experienced a precipitous decline
in their financial resources or an exceptional or uncontrollable
circumstance than in prior years, causing them to miss maintaining
effort and in turn to seek an MOE waiver from ED. Given these
circumstances, the planned waiver guidance specifies the process
States may use to obtain MOE waivers from ED for their LEAs. In
order for this process to begin in a timely fashion, ED needs
emergency approval of the information collection activities in the
guidance associated with MOE waivers.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Waiver Guidance ED Response to Comments 07.14.2009 use.doc
Emergency Memo.pdf
Guidance on Title I, Part A Waivers