Memo to Nicole -- Emergency Clearance Details

DATE :

TO : Nicole Cafarella

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

Office of Management and Budget

THROUGH: Thomas Dawson

Chief of Staff

Office of Postsecondary Education

James L. Laws, Jr.

Director

Institutional Development and Undergraduate

Education Service

FROM : Josephine A. Hamilton

Team Leader

Title V, Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions

SUBJECT: Request for Emergency Clearance of the Program Profile Form Under the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (CFDA # 84.031S)

This memorandum requests your review and approval to the Hispanic-Serving Institutions program profile form.

The application guide was approved on November 6, 2006 prior to the notification of the new language in the Higher Education Extension Act of 2006. The profile form changes MERELY eliminate all data elements related to the Low Income requirement of the old law. Specifically the legal change is that instead of mandating that 50% of an institution's students are low income, the figure is now 25%, which was desired by many institutions and motivated the legal change. In that sense the changes to the form are cosmetic, and mirror the change to the law.

We are seeking an emergency clearance approval for a change in our data collection requirements based on the passage of the Higher Education Extension Act of 2006 (Pub.L.109-292), effective September 30, 2006. The emergency clearance is essential if we are to meet the mandated legislative requirement for new awards.

We have held numerous technical assistance workshops during the months of November 2006 through January 2007 to explain modifications to the law and the resultant change in data requirements. The law mandates that we make Title V awards by the end of June. Neither emergency nor regular clearance will enable us to meet that date. To assist ED in meeting the Secretary's requirement for 5O percent of new awards by June 3O, it is imperative that we make every effort as possible to make these awards by that date. Education understands that we are not going to meet the June 30 deadline now, but we need to move this program to the public as soon as possible. The public continues to inquire what is holding up this schedule.

Page 2 – Nicole Cafarella

The HSI closing date notice has been placed into the Department’s clearance and is awaiting approval to the application guide before it's sent to the Federal Register for publication.

We would greatly appreciate any assistance you and your office could provide to approve the application guide.

We are always appreciative of the counsel and support your office to continues to provide. Your office efforts, over time, to help us out have made for a great partnership to better serve our constituents.