A bill to make certain technical amendments to improve implementation of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981.

(Measure passed House, amended)

Amends the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 (ECIA) to revise Chapter 1 (Financial Assistance to Meet Special Educational Needs of Disadvantaged Children) provisions.

Revises State program design provision to include preschool migratory children as eligible participants in State programs for migratory, handicapped, and neglected and deliquent children.

Revises provisions relating to local educational agency ("LEA') application assurances. Exempts any LEA with a total enrollment of less than 1,000 children from specified "targeting" requirements for the use of funds to assist low-income educationally disadvantaged children.

Grants LEAs discretion to make certain educational decisions which are consistent with achieving the purposes of Chapter 1.

Allows LEAs to designate any school attendance area in which at least 25 percent of the children are from low-income families, as an eligible school attendance area for any fiscal year if the amount of State and local funds for eligible areas does not decline.

Allows LEAs to designate as eligible, and to serve, school attendance areas with substantially higher numbers or percentages of educationally deprived children before designating and serving areas with higher concentrations of children from low-income families, upon approval by State educational agencies (SEAs) and after a finding that the delivery of compensatory education service to low-income students will not be impaired.

Permits use of Chapter 1 funds for educationally deprived children in a school not located in an eligible school attendance area when the proportion of children from low-income families in average daily attendance in such school is substantially equal to the proportion of such children in an eligible school attendance area of the LEA.

Permits continued designation, for an additional fiscal year, of any eligible school attendance area or eligible school which has been so designated in either of the two preceding years, even if the area or school does not otherwise qualify.

Permits, with the approval of the SEA, skipping of eligible areas or schools receiving similar services from non-Federal sources, with specified exceptions for purposes of determining services to private school children.

Allows children who, in any previous year, were identified as being in greatest need of assistance, and who continue to be educationally deprived, but who are no longer identified as being in the greatest need of assistance, to participate in a program or project assisted under the Omnibus Education Reconciliation Act of 1981 for the current fiscal year.

Permits continued participation in a Chapter 1 program by educationally deprived children who are transferred out of an eligible area or school during the same school year.

Directs the Secretary of Education to issue regulations permitting LEAs to skip educationally deprived children in greatest need of assistance when providing services under ECIA if such children are receiving non-Federal services of the same nature and scope.

Permits use of Chapter 1 funds for projects designed to upgrade the entire educational program in that school, if at least 75 percent of the children attending are from low-income families.

Permits assignment of school personnel who are paid entirely by Chapter 1 funds to limited, rotating, supervisory duties which are assigned to similarly situated personnel who are not paid with such funds.

Requires that services for educationally deprived private school children comply with requirements that programs be conducted in LEA attendance areas with high concentrations of low-income children.

Requires SEAs to use Chapter 1 funds only as a supplement to the non-Federal funds for the education of students participating in programs assisted under Chapter 1.

Provides that exclusions of special State and local program funds from specified non-supplanting and comparability requirements include compensatory education for educationally deprived children which meets specified requirements under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). Provides that such exclusions from comparability requirements include: (1) bilingual education for children of limited English proficiency; (2) special education for handicapped children or children with specific learning disabilities; and (3) certain State phase-in programs described under ESEA.

Provides that ECIA provisions relating to aid to LEAs which overlap county boundaries supersede specified ESEA provisions.

Revises Chapter 2 (Consolidation of Federal Programs for Elementary and Secondary Education) provisions of ECIA.

Permits the use of specified carry-over funds to cover expenses for program phaseout and transition (from ESEA to Chapter 2 of ECIA).

Sets, at one percent of sums appropriated for Chapter 2 in any one fiscal year, the amount which the Secretary of Education must reserve for payments to specified U.S. territories and possessions.

Permits audits of LEAs receiving less than an average $5,000 each year under Chapter 2 to take place at five-year intervals.

Permits an LEA to receive its allocation of Chapter 2 funds for any year for which its application to the SEA has been certified. Requires the SEA to certify any such application which meets the requirements of the Act.

Provides that specified school level planning requirements apply only to programs under Subchapter A (Basic Skills Development) of Chapter 2.

Revises Chapter 3 (General Provisions) of ECIA. Provides that nothing in the Act shall be deemed to authorize or prohibit an SEA from adopting requirements applicable to programs assisted under this Act which do not conflict with this Act or other applicable Federal law. Requires that State rules, policies, or data collection forms relating to programs funded under the Act be identified as State imposed requirements.

Deletes a requirement that specified hearings relating to withholding of payments be "on the record", but requires that transcripts or recordings of such hearings be made and be available for inspection by any person.

Provides, for purposes of judicial review, that an LEA shall be presumed to have complied with ECIA, unless the Secretary's findings of fact, supported by the weight of evidence, overcome such presumption.

Provides that the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA) shall apply to the programs authorized by ECIA, but that specified GEPA provisions shall be superseded by specified provisions of ECIA.

Amends the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA) to provide that any Department of Education proposed regulation published as a final regulation shall be considered as a recommendation to the Congress and shall have no force or effect until after the conclusion of specified congressional review periods. Revises GEPA provisions for the computation of such review periods. Repeals GEPA provisions relating to the responsibility of States to furnish information.

Amends title I (Financial Assistance to Meet the Special Educational Needs of Children) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to make technical and conforming amendments. Declares that specified payments to meet the special educational needs of educationally deprived Indian children on reservations serviced by elementary and secondary schools operated by the Department of the Interior are provided as a fulfillment of a continuing trust responsibility of the Federal Government as it relates to education for Indian students. Revises specified references in ESEA to conform with amendments made by ECIA. Makes such amendments applicable only to funds made available under ECIA.

Makes a conforming amendment to ECIA relating to references to private schools.

Amends the Omnibus Education Reconciliation Act of 1981 to make a technical correction.

Allows recipients of funds under ECIA, during the period of July 1, 1982, through June 30, 1983, to expend such funds in accordance with ECIA as in effect either prior to or after the enactment of this Act.