Archived Information

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

OFFICE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20202-2575

2007 APPLICATION KIT FOR NEW GRANTS


UNDER THE

REHABILITATION SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION SERVICEPROJECTS FOR AMERICAN INDIANS WITH DISABILITIES

CFDA NUMBER 84.250C

FORM APPROVED

OMB No. 1820-0018, EXP. DATE: 05/31/2007

SF FORM 424, 01/31/2009

DATED MATERIAL—OPEN IMMEDIATELY

CLOSING DATE: June 12, 2007

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dear Applicant Letter

Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards A

84.250C - Vocational Rehabilitation Service Projects for
American Indians with Disabilities –

Selection Review Criteria B

Special Application Requirements C

Important Things to Remember D

Application Transmittal Instructions E

Rules and Regulations: Sec. 102(b)(c)(d), 103 and 121, 34 CFR 371 F

Instructions for Application for Federal Assistance G

PART I: Federal Assistance Face Sheet (Form 424)

PART II: Budget Information for Form 524

PART III: Program Narrative

PART IV: Assurances, Certifications, and Disclosures

§  Assurances

§  Certification Regarding Lobbying; Debarment, Suspension and Other Responsibility Matters; and Drug-Free Workplace Requirements

§  Certification Regarding Debarment, Suspension, and Voluntary Exclusion - Lower Tier Covered Transaction

§  Disclosure of Lobbying Activities

§  GEPA

§  GPRA

CLOSING DATE: June 12, 2007

Dear Applicant:

The Secretary invites applications for new awards for fiscal year (FY) 2007 under the Vocational Rehabilitation Services Projects for American Indians with Disabilities (CFDA 84.250C). This program is authorized by Section 121 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (the Act), and implemented by the subsequent program regulation at 34 CFR Part 371.

The purpose of this program is to provide vocational rehabilitation services to American Indians with disabilities who reside on or near Federal or State reservations, consistent with their individual strengths, resources, priorities, concerns, abilities, capabilities, and informed choice, so that they may prepare for and engage in gainful employment, including self-employment, telecommuting and business ownership.

This application package contains information and the required forms for your use in applying and competing in the FY 2007 discretionary grant award competition for the Vocational Rehabilitation Services Projects for American Indians with Disabilities. Potential applicants are advised to read all materials carefully, especially the Federal Register Notice (section A), which is the official competition announcement. In addition, if an applicant procures the service of an outside consultant for the preparation of the application, we encourage the author to collaborate with the current Section 121 project staff to ensure proposed goals and objectives are realistic.

Please note the following:

§  Beginning with FY 2007, applications submitted for grant competitions funded by the U.S. Department of Education will use the Application for Federal Assistance SF 424 instead of the Application for Federal Education Assistance ED 424. The SF 424 is included in this application package.

§  APPLICATION SUBMISSION . Please note there are two options available for submitting an application in this competition. These options are briefly described in this letter, but complete instructions are included in the Federal Register Notice, under Application and Submission Information. (See Section A) Select only one of the two methods indicated.

§  SUBMISSION BY MAIL. Based on the precautionary procedures the U.S. Postal Service is using to process mail, we are experiencing delays in the delivery of mail to the Department. Therefore, you may want to consider sending your application by overnight courier or submitting your application electronically through Grans.gov When using the submission by mail option, in order to expedite the review process, we request an additional three copies (for a total of six – one original and five copies) be submitted to the Application Control Center in Washington, D.C.

§  GRANTS.GOV APPLICATION SUBMISSION. Applications for grants under this competition may be submitted electronically using the Grants.gov Apply site (www.Grants.gov). If you choose to submit your application electronically, you must use the Governmentwide Grants.gov Apply site at http://www.Grants.gov The document following this letter includes helpful tips about submitting electronically using the Grants.gov Apply site. Please note, this helpful tips document should be read along with the Application Procedures as described in the Federal Register Notice announcing this grant competition. Information (including dates and times) about how to submit your application electronically, or by mail or hand delivery, may also be found in Section F, Application Transmittal Instructions of this application package.

§  ELIGIBLE APPLICANT. Applications may be made only by the governing bodies of Indian Tribes (or consortia of those governing bodies) located on Federal or state reservations. (Please see Eligible Applicant attachment in Section A.)

§  MAXIMUM AWARD. The Federal Register announcement indicates the following standard will apply for the maximum award topic. Applicants that are current grantees under the Vocational Rehabilitation Services Projects for American Indians With Disabilities program (they received funding in FY 2006), the maximum award amount for the first project year is the greater of (a) $375,000 or (b) an amount equal to 103.4 percent of the applicant’s approved budget for their FY 2006 grant (an increase of 3.4 percent). For applicants that are not current grantees under the Vocational Rehabilitation Service Projects for American Indians with Disabilities program, the maximum award amount for the first project year is $360,000.

In addition, the Secretary may limit any proposed increases in funding for project

years two through five to the annual estimated percentage change in the consumer price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPIU). The current estimated percentage increase in the CPIU over the prior year for project year two (FY 2008) is 1.3 percent and for project years three through five (FY 2009-2FY 2011) is approximately 2.5 percent. (See Section A)

§  ABSTRACT. Each proposal MUST include a one page abstract. The abstract is a critical component of the proposal and it MUST highlight the purpose of the project, the proposed number of individuals who will receive services under an Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE) for each budget period, the proposed number of individuals who will obtain employment outcomes for each of the budget periods of the project, planned goals and objectives, innovative strategies utilized, and project outcomes.

§  SELECTION CRITERIA. The program narrative MUST address the selection criteria shown following this letter (Section B). To facilitate the peer review process, the narrative should address the selection criteria in the order that the criteria are listed. An explanation of the review criteria has been provided to further describe the type of information you may use to present a response to the selection criteria. Your application should respond to each identified criterion since failure to do so will put your application at a significant disadvantage. Please be certain to carefully review this material and call for technical assistance if needed.

§  SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS. In addition to the selection criteria, applicants MUST address the special application requirements at 34 CFR 371.21 in a separate section of the application titled “Special Application Requirements.” If these special requirements are not addressed, the application is incomplete and WILL NOT be reviewed for funding. An explanation of the special requirements also follows this letter (Section C). Please be certain to carefully review this material and call for technical assistance if needed.

§  PERFORMANCE MEASURES. Under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), the Department has established two performance measures for this program. The measures are the percentage of individuals who leave the program with an employment outcome and the cost per employment outcome. Each grantee will report this information annually through the American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation Services Annual Performance Reporting Database. You may view the report document at the following site: http://rsadev.net

§  MATCH. The Federal share may not be more than 90 percent of the total cost of the project, Section A of the Budget Summary (ED Form 524). The non-Federal share is 10 percent of the costs of the project and may be provided in cash or in-kind. Please document the local match on Section B of the Budget Summary (ED Form 524) and provide a budget narrative to describe the local match. **Please remember that the 10 percent match is on the total cost of the project, and the total cost is equal to the Federal and non-Federal (match) share. The simplest way to compute the required match is to divide the requested Federal funds by 9. The result is the minimum required match.

§  BUDGET FORMS. As a result of changes in the Department of Education’s grants management process, all applicants for multi-year projects are required to provide detailed budget information for the total grant period requested (up to 60 months). The ED Form 524, Section G requires a Budget Narrative for the entire 60 months of the budget request. At the time of the initial award, the Department will address the funding levels for each year of the grant award.

§  BONUS POINTS. Previously funded tribal programs are entitled to receive 10 bonus points. To receive the points, the applicant MUST indicate that the governing body of the Tribe or the consortia of governing bodies had previously received an award under this program and MUST provide the date of the previous project period. Please clearly indicate this information in your application and list it in the Table of Contents so it is easily located.

§  Applicants are reminded that the 1998 Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act require that all new applicants must describe how the needs of individuals with disabilities from minority backgrounds will be addressed. Applicants must also provide assurance that individuals provided services must be advised of the availability and purposes of the State’s Client Assistance Program, including information on means of seeking assistance from that program.

§  APPENDIX SECTION. You may include an appendix section to your application, that may include but is not limited too, the following types of documents: assurances/certifications, one-page resumes, position descriptions, letters of support, etc. If applicable, in the narrative proposal selection criteria please provide a reference for the location of these documents.

PROGRAM RULES AND REGULATIONS

The Federal regulations that apply to this competition can be found in 34 CFR Part 371. These grants are subject to the requirements of the Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR), 34 CFR 75, 77, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85 and 97, which set forth general rules affecting the submittal, review, grant awarding, and post-award administration for Department of Education grant programs.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

If you have any questions about the information in this application kit, please contact the RSA Competition Manager for Vocational Rehabilitation Service Projects for American Indians with Disabilities, Alfreda Reeves at (202) 245-7485. Individuals who use a telecommunications device (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Services (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8330 between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm, Eastern time, Monday through Friday.

Thank you for your interest in this program.

Sincerely,

/s/

Thomas E. Finch, Ph.D.

Service Projects Unit Chief


IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ FIRST

U.S. Department of Education

Grants.gov Submission Procedures and Tips for Applicants

To facilitate your use of Grants.gov, this document includes important submission procedures you need to be aware of to ensure your application is received in a timely manner and accepted by the Department of Education.

1)  REGISTER EARLY – Grants.gov registration may take five or more business days to complete. You may begin working on your application while completing the registration process, but you cannot submit an application until all of the Registration steps are complete. For detailed information on the Registration Steps, please go to: http://www.grants.gov/applicants/get_registered.jsp. [Note: Your organization will need to update its Central Contractor Registry (CCR) registration annually.]

2)  SUBMIT EARLY – We strongly recommend that you do not wait until the last day to submit your application. Grants.gov will put a date/time stamp on your application and then process it after it is fully uploaded. The time it takes to upload an application will vary depending on a number of factors including the size of the application and the speed of your Internet connection, and the time it takes Grants.gov to process the application will vary as well. If Grants.gov rejects your application (see step three below), you will need to resubmit successfully before 4:30 pm on the deadline date.

Note: To submit successfully, you must provide the DUNS number on your application that was used when your organization registered with the CCR (Central Contractor Registry).

3)  VERIFY SUBMISSION IS OK – You will want to verify that Grants.gov and the Department of Education receive your Grants.gov submission timely and that it was validated successfully. To see the date/time your application was received, login to Grants.gov and click on the Track My Application link. For a successful submission, the date/time received should be earlier than 4:30 p.m. on the deadline date, AND the application status should be: Validated, Received by Agency, or Agency Tracking Number Assigned.

If the date/time received is later than 4:30 p.m. Washington, D.C. time, on the closing date, your application is late. If your application has a status of “Received” it is still awaiting validation by Grants.gov. Once validation is complete, the status will either change to “Validated” or “Rejected with Errors.” If the status is “Rejected with Errors,” your application has not been received successfully. Some of the reasons Grants.gov may reject an application can be found on the Grants.gov site: http://www.grants.gov/help/submit_application_faqs.jsp#10. For more detailed information on why an application may be rejected, you can review Application Error Tips http://www.grants.gov/section910/ApplicationErrorTips.pdf. If you discover your application is late or has been rejected, please see the instructions below. Note: You will receive a series of confirmations both online and via e-mail about the status of your application. Please do not rely solely on e-mail to confirm whether your application has been received timely and validated successfully.

Submission Problems – What should you do?

If you have problems submitting to Grants.gov before the closing date, please contact Grants.gov Customer Support at 1-800-518-4726 or use the customer support available on the Web site: http://www.grants.gov/applicants/applicant_help.jsp.