Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 100 Part 5.djvu/856

 100 STAT. 4330

CONCURRENT RESOLUTIONS—FEB. 7, 1986

educational and culturally related academic needs of Indian students"; Whereas this program was specifically structured to assure services for Indian students who are not eligible for other Federal services provided to Indians; Whereas these Indian students are predominantly urban, or affiliated with terminated, State-recognized, or nonfederally recognized tribal groups; Whereas on November 25, 1985, the Department of Education sent to the superintendents of public school districts having Indian Education Act programs a letter setting forth a requirement that only specific forms of information could be used to verify eligibility for Indian Education Act programs; Whereas this Departmental letter rescinds the current policy of "good-faith" compliance with eligibility and proof requirements; Whereas the initial evidence is that, for many school districts, immediate implementation of this "proof requirement for all students will be extremely difficult, because of difficulties in communicating requirements to parents, gaps in information, distance from home reservations and Federal officials or tribal entities who are in a position to verify information, problems involved in obtaining responses from these groups, and other factors; Whereas the promulgation of these standards was done by administrative letter, not by regulation, with no prior notice or opportunity for comment; Whereas this letter was sent only 11 weeks prior to the date upon which applications for fiscal year 1986 grants for these programs must be submitted, creating an unreasonable burden on a number of districts; Whereas there is evidence that requiring absolute compliance with the November 25, 1986, letter for all students for the fiscal year 1986 grants will lead to a substantial (up to two-thirds) reduction in the eligible student count in a substantial number of districts, mainly among the students whom this program was specifically designed to assist; Whereas the Department informed congressional offices and school districts until recently that while immediate implementation of the November 25, 1986, letter must be begun, the Department would not require absolute compliance for all students until the application for the fiscal year 1987 grants; and Whereas there now seems to be a problem in securing the necessary evidence of this implementation policy from the Department: Now, therefore, be it

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Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That— (1) the proofs of eligibility set forth in the Department of Education letter dated November 25, 1985, will not be applied for all students for the Indian Education Act grants distributed for fiscal year 1986, (2) school districts may count students for whom they are still seeking to obtain information for the fiscal year 1986 grant period (academic year 1986-1987), upon identification in their application of the number of such students and the efforts being made to achieve full compliance, and such students shall not be subsequently ruled ineligible for the fiscal year 1986 grant period if the efforts to obtain proof prove unsuccessful, and

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