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EDUCATION LEGISLATION, 1967

ANALYSIS OF S. 1125

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enter into contracts with public or private agencies, organizations, or institutions for projects for-

(1) encouraging students and professional personnel to work in various fields of education of handicapped children and youth through, among other ways, developing and distributing imaginative or innovative materials to assist in recruiting personnel for such careers, or publicizing existing forms of financial aid which might enable students to pursue such careers, or

(2) disseminating information about the programs, services, and resources for the education of handicapped children, or providing referral services, to parents, teachers, and other persons especially interested in the handicapped.

(b) To carry out the purposes of this section, there are authorized to be appropriated $1,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1968, and such sums as may be necessary for each of the four succeeding fiscal

years.

PART D-GENERAL PROVISIONS

NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON HANDICAPPED CHILDREN

SEC. [608] 610. (a) The Commissioner shall establish in the Office of Education a National Advisory Committee on Handicapped Children, consisting of the Commissioner, who shall be Chairman, and not more than twelve additional members, not less than 50 per centum of whom shall be persons affiliated with educational, training, or research programs for the handicapped, appointed by the Commissioner without regard to the civil service laws.

(b) The Advisory Committee shall review the administration and operation of this Act, title II of Public Law 874, Eighty-first Congress, and other provisions of law administered by the Commissioner, with respect to handicapped children, including their effect in improving the educational attainment of such children, and make recommendations for the improvement of such administration and operation with respect to such children. These recommendations shall take into consideration experience gained under this and other Federal programs for handicapped children and, to the extent appropriate, experience gained under other public and private programs for handicapped children. The Advisory Committee shall from time to time make such recommendations as it may deem appropriate to the Commissioner and shall make an annual report of its findings and recommendations to the Commissioner not later than January 31 of 1968 and each fiscal year thereafter. The Commissioner shall transmit each such report to the Secretary together with his comments and recommendations, and the Secretary shall transmit such report, comments, and recommendations to the Congress together with any comments or recommendations he may have with respect thereto. (c) Members of the Advisory Committee who are not regular full-time employees of the United States shall, while serving on business of the Committee, be entitled to receive compensation at rates fixed by the Commissioner, but not exceeding $100 per day, including travel time; and while so serving away from their homes or regular places of business, they may be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by section 5703 of title 5 of the United States Code for persons in Government service employed intermittently.

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ANALYSIS OF S. 1125

(B) may provide for allocating, between the State's two planning agencies, the amount of any grant or grants under this section from the State's apportionment.

(3) An application (or amendment or supplement thereto) under this section shall set forth, in such detail as the Commissioner deems necessary, the statewide program referred to in paragraph (1) (or, in the case of a separate application or amendment or supplement with respect to the field of higher education, so much of the statewide program as relates to that field), which shall include provision for

(A) setting statewide educational goals and establishing priorities among these goals;

(B) developing through analyses alternative means of achieving these goals, taking into account the resources available and the educational effectiveness of each of the alternatives (including, in the case of higher education, the resources and plans of private institutions in the State bearing upon the State's goals and plans for public higher education);

(C) planning new programs and improvements in existing programs based on the results of these analyses;

(D) developing and strengthening the capabilities of the State to conduct, on a continuous basis, objective evaluations of the effectiveness of educational programs; and

(E) developing and maintaining a permanent system for obtaining and collating significant information necessary to the assessment of progress toward the State's educational goals.

(b) Applications (including amendments and supplements thereto) for grants under this section may be approved by the Commissioner only if the application

(1) has been submitted to the chief executive of the State for review and recommendations;

(2) sets forth, if the State has elected to include the field of higher education and has designated or established a separate State higher education planning agency, such arrangements for coordination, between the State's educational planning program in that field and the remaining educational planning program submitted by the State, as will in the Commissioner's judgment be effective;

(3) contains satisfactory assurance

(A) that the assistance provided under this section, together with other available resources, will be so used for the several purposes specified in subparagraphs (A) through (E) of paragraph (3) of subsection (a) of this section as to result in the maximum possible effective progress toward the achievement of a high level of competence with respect to each of them, and

(B) that assistance under this part will, by the State planning agency involved, be used primarily in strengthening the capabilities of its own planning and evaluation staff or, to the extent that the program is to be carried out under the supervision of that agency by other agencies, the planning and evaluation staffs of such other agencies; but consistently with this objective part of the funds received under a grant under this section may be used, in appropriate circumstances, to employ consultants, or to enter into contracts for special projects with public or private agencies, institutions, or organizations having special competence in the areas of planning or evaluation;

LEGISLATION

(4) makes adequate provision (consistent with such criteria as the Commissioner may prescribe) for using funds granted to the applicant under this section, other than funds granted for planning and evaluation in the field of higher education, (A) to make program planning and evaluation services available to local educational agencies, and (B) in the case of such agencies in areas (particularly metropolitan areas) with school populations sufficiently large to warrant their own planning or evaluation staffs, to assist such agencies (financially or through technical assistance, or both) to strengthen their planning and evaluation capabilities and to promote coordinated areawide planning for such areas;

(5) provides for such methods of administration as are necessary for the proper and efficient operation of the program;

(6) provides for such fiscal control and fund accounting procedures as may be necessary to assure proper disbursement of and accounting for Federal funds paid under this part to the State (including any such funds paid by the State to agencies, institutions, or organizations referred to in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (3)); and

(7) provides for making such reports, in such form and containing such information as the Commissioner may reasonably require (copies of which shall also be sent to the chief executive of the State), and for keeping such records and for affording such access thereto as the Commissioner may find necessary to assure the correctness and verification of such reports.

(c) A grant made pursuant to an approval of an application under this section may be used to pay all or part of the cost of activities covered by the approved application and included in such grant, but excluding so much, if any, of such cost as is paid for from grants under part A.

SPECIAL PROJECTS

SEC. 524. (a) The sums reserved pursuant to section 522(a) (1) for the purposes of this section shall be used for grants for special projects in accordance with subsection (b) of this section.

(b) The Commissioner is authorized to make grants to public or private nonprofit agencies, institutions, or organizations, or to make contracts with public or private agencies, institutions, or organizations, for special projects related to the purposes of this part, to be conducted on an interstate, regional, or metropolitan area basis, including projects for such purposes as—

(1) metropolitan planning in education in areas covering more than one State;

(2) improvement and expansion in the educational planning of large cities within a State with due regard to the complexities of adequate metropolitan planning in such places;

(3) comparative and cooperative studies agreed upon between States or metropolitan areas;

(4) conferences to promote the purposes of this part and involving different States;

(5) publications of general use to the planning of more effective and efficient educational services, and other activities for dissemination of information related to the purposes of this part.

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ANALYSIS OF S. 1125

PAYMENTS

SEC. 525. Payments under this part may be made in installments, and in advance or by way of reimbursement, with necessary adjustments on account of overpayments or underpayments, as the Commissioner may determine.

TITLE VI-EDUCATION OF HANDICAPPED CHILDREN

PART A-ASSISTANCE TO STATES FOR EDUCATION OF HANDICAPPED CHILDREN

[APPROPRIATIONS AUTHORIZED]

GRANTS TO STATES FOR EDUCATION OF HANDICAPPED CHILDREN

SEC. 601.[(a)] The Commissioner is authorized to make grants pursuant to the provisions of this [title] part during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1967, and the succeeding fiscal year, for the purpose of assisting the States in the initiation, expansion, and improvement of programs and projects (including the acquisition of equipment and where necessary the construction of school facilities) for the education of handicapped children (as defined in section 602) at the preschool, elementary and secondary school levels.

APPROPRIATIONS AUTHORIZED

[(b)] SEC. 602. For the purpose of making grants under this [title] part there is authorized to be appropriated $50,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1967, and $150,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1968.

[DEFINITION OF "HANDICAPPED CHILDREN"]

[SEC. 602. As used in this title, the term "handicapped children" includes mentally retarded, hard of hearing, deaf, speech impaired, visually handicapped, seriously emotionally disturbed, crippled, or other health impaired children who by reason thereof require special education and related services.]1

ALLOTMENT OF FUNDS

SEC. 603. (a)(1) There is hereby authorized to be appropriated for each fiscal year for the purposes of this paragraph an amount equal to not more than 3 per centum of the amount appropriated for such year for payments to States under section 601(b). [The Commissioner shall allot the amount appropriated pursuant to this paragraph among Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands according to their respective needs for assistance under this title.] The Commissioner shall allot the amount appropriated pursuant to this paragraph

among

(A) Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands according to their respective needs, and

1 Section 602 is deleted at this point and transferred to end of title, redesignated as section 613.

ANALYSIS OF S. 1125

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(B) for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1968, (i) the Secretary of the Interior according to the need for such assistance for the education of handicapped children in elementary and secondary schools operated for Indian children by the Department of the Interior, and (ii) the Secretary of Defense according to the need for such assistance for the education of handicapped children in the overseas dependents schools of the Department of Defense. The terms upon which payments for such purpose shall be made to the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Defense shall be determined pursuant to such criteria as the Commissioner determines will best carry out the purposes of this part.

(2) From the total amount appropriated pursuant to section 601(b) for any fiscal year the Commissioner shall allot to each State an amount which bears the same ratio to such amount as the number of children aged three to twenty-one, inclusive, in the State bears to the number of such children in all the States. For purposes of this subsection, the term "State" shall not include the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, or the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

(b) The number of children aged three to twenty-one, inclusive, in any State and in all the States shall be determined, for purposes of this section, by the Commissioner on the basis of the most recent satisfactory data available to him.

(c) The amount of any State's allotment under subsection (a) for any fiscal year which the Commissioner determines will not be required for that year shall be available for reallotment, from time to time and on such dates during such year as the Commissioner may fix, to other States in proportion to the original allotments to such States under subsection (a) for that year, but with such proportionate amount for any of such other States being reduced to the extent it exceeds the sum the Commissioner estimates such State needs and will be able to use for such year; and the total of such reductions shall be similarly realloted among the States whose proportionate amounts were not so reduced. Any amount reallotted to a State under this subsection during a year shall be deemed part of its allotment under subsection (a) for that year.

STATE PLANS

SEC. 604. Any State which desires to receive grants under this [title] part shall submit to the Commissioner through its State educational agency a State plan in such detail as the Commissioner deems necessary. The Commissioner shall not approve a State plan or a modification of a State plan under this [title] part unless the plan meets the following requirements:

(a) The plan must provide satisfactory assurance that funds paid to the State under this [title] part will be expended, either directly or through local educational agencies, solely to initiate, expand, or improve programs and projects, including preschool programs and projects, (A) which are designed to meet the special educational and related needs of handicapped children throughout the State, (B) which are of sufficient size, scope, and quality (taking into consideration the special educational needs of such children) as to give reasonable promise of substantial progress toward meeting those needs, and (C) which may include the acquisition of equipment and

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