Emergency Justification

Justification for emergency approval of information collections for the Tribal Education Department Grant Program

Why following the normal clearance process would lead to public harm. We seek emergency approval for the information collections for this program because following the normal Paperwork Reduction Act clearance procedures would make program implementation impossible and would result in public harm for the following reasons:

• BIE will not be able to provide the grants for the upcoming school year, which will eliminate BIE-funded schools the opportunity to address issues at their schools for a school year.

• Losing this opportunity to improve education for Indian students would result in serious public harm because lower-performing schools will lead to less successful outcomes and increased future social and economic costs.

The need for expeditious approval is the result of an unanticipated event. Congress appropriated $2 million to BIE, which became available in December 2014, for Tribal Education Department Grants (see “Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015”). These grants are “forward funded” and available for a limited time. To effectively implement the grant program by the next school year, BIE must select and distribute the grants by July 1, 2015.

This information collection is essential to the Bureau of Indian Education’s mission. The Tribal Education Department program is essential to the mission of the Department of the Interior and more appropriately the Bureau of Indian Education’s mission. As stated in 25 CFR 32.3, our mission is to provide quality education opportunities from early childhood through life in accordance with a tribe’s needs for cultural and economic well-being, in keeping with the wide diversity of Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages as distinct cultural and governmental entities. This grant will allow tribes to facilitate tribal control in all matters related to education of Indian children, provide coordinated educational programs on the reservation, and develop and enforce tribal educational codes.

We’ve already consulted with the affected parties. We ask OMB to waive the Federal Register notice requirements because we consulted with the Tribal Education Department National Assembly (TEDNA) and held consultation sessions. We ask for approval of this emergency collection for a maximum of 180 days. During this time, we will request approval for this information collection under the normal clearance procedures. We will also be able to improve the information collection during this period by considering public feedback from grant recipients after we implement the emergency collection.