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Issued in Des Moines, Washington.
Joseph M. Bert,
Acting Group Manager, Operations Support
Group, Western Service Center.
[FR Doc. 2022–16393 Filed 8–1–22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–13–P

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
34 CFR Chapter II
[Docket ID ED–2022–OESE–0080]
RIN 1810–AB68

Proposed Priorities, Requirements,
and Definitions—School-Based Mental
Health Services Grant Program
Office of Elementary and
Secondary Education, Department of
Education.
ACTION: Proposed priorities,
requirements, and definitions.
AGENCY:

The Department of Education
(Department) proposes priorities,
requirements, and definitions under the
School-Based Mental Health Services
Grant (SBMH) Program, Assistance
Listing Number (ALN) 84.184H. These
proposed priorities, requirements, and
definitions are designed to direct funds
to increase the number of qualified
school-based mental health services
providers (as defined in section 4102 of
the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act of 1965, as amended
(ESEA)) in local educational agencies
(LEAs) with demonstrated need (as
defined in this document), in order to
meet student mental health needs. We
may use one or more of these priorities,
requirements, and definitions in fiscal
year (FY) 2023 and later years.
DATES: We must receive your comments
on or before September 1, 2022.
ADDRESSES: Comments must be
submitted via the Federal eRulemaking
Portal at regulations.gov. However, if
you require an accommodation or
cannot otherwise submit your
comments via regulations.gov, please
contact the program contact person
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT. The Department will not
accept comments by fax or by email, or
comments submitted after the comment
period closes. To ensure that the
Department does not receive duplicate
copies, please submit your comments
only once. Additionally, please include
the Docket ID at the top of your
comments.
The Department strongly encourages
you to submit any comments or
attachments in Microsoft Word format.
If you must submit a comment in Adobe
Portable Format (PDF), the Department

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strongly encourages you to convert the
PDF to ‘‘print-to-PDF’’ format, or to use
some other commonly used searchable
text format. Please do not submit the
PDF in a scanned format. Using a printto-PDF format allows the Department to
electronically search and copy certain
portions of your submissions to assist in
the rulemaking process.
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Please
go to www.regulations.gov to submit
your comments electronically.
Information on using Regulations.gov,
including instructions for finding a rule
on the site and submitting comments, is
available on the site under ‘‘FAQ.’’
Privacy Note: The Department’s
policy is to make all comments received
from members of the public available for
public viewing in their entirety on the
Federal eRulemaking Portal at
www.regulations.gov. Therefore,
commenters should be careful to
include in their comments only
information that they wish to make
publicly available.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Amy Banks, U.S. Department of
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW,
Room 3E257, Washington, DC 20202.
Telephone: (202) 453–6704. Email:
amy.banks@ed.gov.
If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or
have a speech disability and wish to
access telecommunications relay
services, please dial 7–1–1.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Invitation to Comment: We invite you
to submit comments regarding the
proposed priorities, requirements, and
definitions. To ensure that your
comments have maximum effect in
developing the final priorities,
requirements, and definitions, we urge
you to clearly identify the specific
section of the proposed priorities,
requirements, or definitions that each
comment addresses.
We invite you to assist us in
complying with the specific
requirements of Executive Orders 12866
and 13563 and their overall requirement
of reducing regulatory burden that
might result from these proposed
priorities, requirements, and definitions.
Please let us know of any further ways
we could reduce potential costs or
increase potential benefits while
preserving the effective and efficient
administration of the Department’s
programs and activities. Please also feel
free to offer for our consideration any
alternative approaches to the subjects
addressed by the proposed regulations.
During and after the comment period,
you may inspect all public comments
about the proposed priorities,
requirements, and definitions by

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accessing Regulations.gov. You may also
inspect the comments in person. Please
contact the person listed under FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT to make
arrangements to inspect the comments
in person.
Assistance to Individuals with
Disabilities in Reviewing the
Rulemaking Record: On request we will
provide an appropriate accommodation
or auxiliary aid to an individual with a
disability who needs assistance to
review the comments or other
documents in the public rulemaking
record for the proposed priorities,
requirements, and definitions. If you
want to schedule an appointment for
this type of accommodation or auxiliary
aid, please contact the person listed
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT.
Purpose of Program: The SBMH
Program provides competitive grants to
State educational agencies (SEAs) (as
defined in section 8101 of the ESEA),
LEAs (as defined in section 8101 of the
ESEA), and consortia of LEAs to
increase the number of qualified (i.e.,
licensed, certified, or credentialed, each
as defined in this document) mental
health services providers providing
school-based mental health services to
students in LEAs with demonstrated
need.
Program Authority: Section
4631(a)(1)(B) of the ESEA (20 U.S.C.
7281).
Proposed Priorities
This document contains four
proposed priorities.
Background:
Like good physical health, positive
mental health promotes success in life.
As defined by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), ‘‘[m]ental
health includes our emotional,
psychological, and social well-being. It
affects how we think, feel, and act. It
also helps determine how we handle
stress, relate to others, and make healthy
choices. Mental health is important at
every stage of life, from childhood and
adolescence through adulthood.’’ 1
The Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019
(COVID–19) pandemic brought on
challenges for children and youth that
impacted their overall emotional,
psychological, and social well-being and
their ability to fully engage in learning.
The disruptions in routines,
relationships, and the learning
environment have led to increased
stress and trauma, social isolation, and
anxiety. More than half of parents
express concern over their children’s
1 https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/learn/
index.htm.

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mental well-being.2 Moreover, survey
data suggests that this crisis began long
before the arrival of COVID–19. In 2019,
one in three high school students and
half of female students reported
persistent feelings of sadness or
hopelessness, an overall increase of 40
percent from 2009.3 Emergency
department visits for attempted suicide
have risen 51 percent among adolescent
girls.4 The need for mental health
services is particularly acute for our
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) students.
For example, ‘‘[the] share of [lesbian,
gay, and bisexual (LGB)] high schoolers
who said their mental health was not
good most of the time or always during
the pandemic was more than double
that of heterosexual students (64% vs.
30%) . . . [and] about three-quarters of
LGB high schoolers (76%) said they felt
sad or hopeless almost daily for at least
two weeks such that they stopped doing
some of their usual activities, compared
with 37% of heterosexual students.’’ 5
This program is designed to address
several barriers to increasing mental
health support for children and youth in
our schools. The first barrier is a
significant shortage of qualified mental
health services providers, including in
schools.6 Qualified professionals may
need training and skill sets that include
the capacity to conduct behavioral
health assessments, identify youth who
may need additional supports or pose a
serious threat to themselves or others,
and provide evidence-based
interventions, particularly related to
trauma- and grief-informed care.
Qualified providers may also need to
assist in the development of school
environments and activities that
promote behavioral wellness and foster
resilience. Second, in mental health
services provider preparation and
professional development programs,
there is a lack of pedagogical practices
that prepare providers to create
culturally and linguistically inclusive
and identity-safe environments. An
identity-safe environment is a place
where every student feels physically
2 https://www.psychiatry.org/newsroom/newsreleases/new-apa-poll-shows-sustained-anxietyamong-americans-more-than-half-of-parents-areconcerned-about-the-mental-well-being-of-theirchildren.
3 https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/dear_colleague/
2020/dcl-102320-YRBS-2009-2019-report.html.
4 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/science/
pandemic-adolescents-depression-anxiety.html.
5 https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/
04/25/in-cdc-survey-37-of-u-s-high-school-studentsreport-regular-mental-health-struggles-duringcovid-19/.
6 https://www.edweek.org/leadership/schoolcounselors-and-psychologists-remain-scarce-evenas-needs-rise/2022/03.

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and emotionally safe. Perceptions of
safety may differ across subgroups of
students, and each intervention and
support measure should be designed to
ensure the safety and belonging of all
students. Third, the public
stigmatization associated with mental
health care, which often inhibits
children and adolescents from taking
advantage of care even when it is
available, is compounded for
underserved groups.7 Fourth, and
related to the second barrier, is the need
for more mental health services
providers from diverse backgrounds,
from the communities they serve, and
who can provide services in languages
other than English.8
In response to these barriers, the
Department will make awards in FY
2023 under two competitive grants
programs that are designed to increase
the number of qualified school-based
mental health services providers—the
SBMH Program (described in this
document) and the Mental Health
Service Professional Demonstration
Grant Program. The Mental Health
Service Professional Demonstration
Grant Program provides competitive
grants to support and provide examples
of effective innovative partnerships to
train school-based mental health
services providers for employment in
schools and LEAs. For more information
about the Mental Health Service
Professional Demonstration Grant
program competition, visit the
Department’s website at: https://
oese.ed.gov/offices/office-of-formulagrants/safe-supportive-schools/mentalhealth-service-professionaldemonstration-grant-program/. Together
these two programs are intended to
provide timely and necessary support to
LEAs by increasing the number of
qualified school-based mental health
services providers. We are proposing
priorities, requirements, and definitions
for the Mental Health Service
Professional Demonstration Grant
Program in a separate document
published in the Federal Register.
The priorities we propose in this
document for the SBMH Program are
intended to address personnel shortages
by (1) increasing recruitment and
retention-related incentives and (2)
promoting the respecialization and
certification of existing mental health
services providers to qualify them for
work in LEAs with demonstrated need.
Additionally, the Department proposes
a priority that seeks to increase the
7 https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-

general-youth-mental-health-advisory.pdf.
8 https://www.apa.org/workforce/data-tools/
demographics.

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diversity, and cultural and linguistic
competency, of school-based mental
health services providers, including
competency in providing identity-safe
services, which the Department believes
is essential to addressing the mental
health needs of all students.
The Department also is interested in
applicants’ demonstrated capacity to
increase access to and sustain schoolbased mental health services beyond the
period of Federal funding and support
expanded access to care by promoting
the integration of mental health services
and supports into schools’ in-person
and telehealth services options. The use
of telehealth to address mental health
and substance use needs rose
dramatically during the height of the
pandemic and has remained above prepandemic levels even where COVID–19
has waned. These telehealth services
have proven both safe and effective,
while reducing barriers to care.9
Telehealth services options also help to
address provider shortages in rural
communities, in part by improving
access to mental health services
providers in such communities.
Additionally, the Department
encourages applicants to plan for ways
they will leverage available Federal,
State, and local resources to achieve
project goals and objectives.
Proposed Priorities
The Department proposes the
following four priorities for this
program. Priorities 1 and 3 are only
applicable to SEAs. Priority 2 is only
applicable to LEAs or consortia of LEAs.
Priority 4 is applicable to all eligible
applicants. We may apply one or more
of these priorities in any year in which
this program is in effect.
Proposed Priority 1—SEAs Proposing
to Increase the Number of Qualified
School-Based Mental Health Services
Providers in LEAs with Demonstrated
Need.
To meet this priority, an SEA must
propose to increase the number of
qualified school-based mental health
services providers by implementing
plans that address recruitment (defined
in this document) and retention
(defined in this document) of services
providers in LEAs with demonstrated
need. Applicants must propose plans
that include both of the following:
(a) Recruitment. An applicant must
propose a plan to increase the number
of qualified services providers serving
9 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/
statements-releases/2022/03/01/fact-sheetpresident-biden-to-announce-strategy-to-addressour-national-mental-health-crisis-as-part-of-unityagenda-in-his-first-state-of-the-union/.

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students in LEAs with demonstrated
need.
(b) Retention. An applicant must also
propose a plan to increase the
likelihood that qualified services
providers providing services in LEAs
with demonstrated need remain in such
LEAs over time.
Proposed Priority 2—LEAs or
Consortia of LEAs with Demonstrated
Need Proposing to Increase the Number
of Qualified School-Based Mental
Health Services Providers.
To meet this priority, an LEA or
consortium of LEAs with demonstrated
need must propose measures to increase
the number of qualified school-based
mental health services providers,
including plans to address the
recruitment and retention of qualified
services providers in the LEA(s).
Applicants must propose plans that
include both of the following:
(a) Recruitment. An applicant must
propose a plan to increase the number
of qualified services providers serving
students in the LEA(s) with
demonstrated need.
(b) Retention. An applicant must also
propose a plan to improve the
likelihood that qualified services
providers providing services in the
LEA(s) with demonstrated need remain
in such LEAs over time.
Proposed Priority 3—SEAs Proposing
Respecialization or Additional
Certification of Existing Mental Health
Services Providers to Qualify Them for
Work in LEAs with Demonstrated Need.
To meet this priority, an applicant
must propose a respecialization (defined
in this document) or other certification
plan that promotes the readiness of
services providers who already have
training as social workers, counselors,
or psychologists, or in other related
fields, by supporting incremental
training needed to work in an
elementary school (as defined in section
8101 of the ESEA) or secondary school
(as defined in section 8101 of the ESEA)
and that is designed to increase the
number of services providers qualified
to serve in LEAs with demonstrated
need.
Proposed Priority 4—Increasing the
Number of Qualified School-Based
Mental Health Services Providers in
LEAs with Demonstrated Need Who Are
from Diverse Backgrounds or from
Communities Served by the LEAs with
Demonstrated Need.
To meet this priority, applicants must
propose a plan to increase the number
of qualified school-based mental health
services providers in LEAs with
demonstrated need who are from
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communities served by the LEAs with
demonstrated need.10
Applicants must describe how their
proposal to increase the number of
school-based mental health services
providers who are from diverse
backgrounds or who are from the
communities served by the LEA with
demonstrated need will help increase
access to mental health services for
students within the LEA with
demonstrated need and best meet the
mental health needs of the diverse
populations of students to be served.
Types of Priorities:
When inviting applications for a
competition using one or more
priorities, the Department of Education
designates the type of each priority as
absolute, competitive preference, or
invitational through a notice in the
Federal Register. The nature of each
type of priority is as follows:
Absolute priority: Under an absolute
priority, we consider only applications
that meet the priority (34 CFR
75.105(c)(3)).
Competitive preference priority:
Under a competitive preference priority,
we give competitive preference to an
application by (1) awarding additional
points, depending on the extent to
which the application meets the priority
(34 CFR 75.105(c)(2)(i)); or (2) selecting
an application that meets the priority
over an application of comparable merit
that does not meet the priority (34 CFR
75.105(c)(2)(ii)).
Invitational priority: Under an
invitational priority we are particularly
interested in applications that meet the
priority. However, we do not give an
application that meets the priority a
preference over other applications (34
CFR 75.105(c)(1)).
Proposed Requirements
The Department proposes the
following requirements for this program.
Proposed application requirement (a)
would apply to SEAs only; and
proposed application requirement (b)
would apply to LEAs only. All of the
remaining proposed requirements
would apply to all eligible applicants.
We may apply one or more of these
requirements in any year in which the
program is in effect.
Eligible Applicants: One or both of
SEAs, as defined in 20 U.S.C. 7801(49),
or LEAs, as defined in 20 U.S.C.
7801(30), including consortia of LEAs.
Proposed Program Requirements:
(a) Applicants that receive an award
under this program must ensure that
10 All strategies to increase the diversity of
providers must comply with applicable Federal
civil rights laws, including Title VI of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964.

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any school-based mental health services
provider hired under this grant,
including any services provider that
offers telehealth services, is qualified by
the State to work in an elementary
school or secondary school.
(b) Applicants that receive an award
under this program must ensure that
any school-based mental health services
provider offering services (including
telehealth services) does so in an
equitable manner and consistent with
the Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act (FERPA), the Protection of
Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), the
Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans
with Disabilities Act, as well as all other
applicable Federal, State, and local laws
and profession-specific ethical
obligations.
Proposed Application Requirements:
(a) Describe the LEAs with
demonstrated need designated by the
SEA to be served by the proposed
project.
SEA applicants must describe the
LEAs with demonstrated need
designated to benefit from the SBMH
program.
(b) Describe how the LEA, or each LEA
in the proposed consortium (if
applicable), meets the definition of an
LEA with demonstrated need.
To meet this requirement, an LEA
applicant or the lead LEA submitting an
application on behalf of a consortium
must describe how the LEA or each LEA
in the consortium meets the definition
of an LEA with demonstrated need.
(c) Describe the importance and
magnitude of the problem.
Applicants must describe the lack of
school-based mental health services
providers and its effect on students in
the LEA(s) to be served by the grant.
This must include a description of the
nature of the problem for the LEA(s),
based on information including, but not
limited to, the most recent available
ratios of school-based mental health
services providers to students enrolled
in the LEA(s), or for SEA applicants, the
LEAs designated by the SEA to benefit
from the SBMH Program. These data
must be provided in the aggregate and
disaggregated by profession (e.g., school
social workers, school psychologists,
school counselors) as compared to local,
State, or national data. The description
may also include LEA-level or schoollevel demographic data (including rates
of poverty, rates of chronic absenteeism,
percentage of students involved in the
juvenile justice system, experiencing
homelessness, or in foster care, and
discipline data), school climate surveys,
school violence/crime data, data related

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to suicide rates, and descriptions of
barriers to hiring and retaining qualified
school-based mental health services
providers in the LEA.
(d) Detailed project budget, including
matching funds.
To promote the sustainability of the
school-based mental health services, all
applicants must include non-Federal
matching funds in one of the following
amounts, as determined by the Secretary
in the notice inviting applications:
(1) At least 10 percent of their
budgets.
(2) At least 15 percent of their
budgets.
(3) At least 20 percent of their
budgets.
(4) At least 25 percent of their
budgets.
Budgets must describe how the
applicant will meet the matching
requirement for each budget period
awarded under this grant and must
indicate the source of the funds, such as
State, local, or private resources. The
Secretary may consider decreasing or
waiving the matching requirement post
award, on a case-by-case basis, if an
applicant demonstrates a significant
financial hardship.
Budgets must also specify the portion
of funds that will be used for
respecialization, if applicable.
Administrative costs for SEA
applicants may not exceed 10 percent of
the annual grant award. This includes
funding for State-level or LEA-level
administrative costs that promote
respecialization, if applicable.
Administrative costs for LEAs and
consortia of LEAs may not exceed 5
percent of the annual grant award.
(e) Number of providers.
Applicants must include the most
recent available data on the number of
school-based mental health services
providers in the identified LEA(s),
disaggregated by profession (e.g., school
social workers, school psychologists,
school counselors), and the projected
number of school-based mental health
services providers that will be placed
into employment in the identified
LEA(s) for each year of the plan using
funds from this grant or matching funds,
including the unduplicated number of
school-based mental health services
providers offering telehealth services, as
appropriate.
(f) A plan for collaboration and
coordination with related Federal, State,
and local organizations and initiatives.
Applicants must propose a plan
describing how they will (1) collaborate
with at least one State, regional, or local
organization, such as school social
worker associations, school psychologist
associations, school counselor

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associations, or colleges or universities,
and (2) coordinate with regional or local
mental health, public health, child
welfare, and other community agencies,
which may include school-based health
centers, to achieve plan goals and
objectives of increasing the number of
school-based mental health services
providers in LEAs with demonstrated
need. Applicants may also describe
proposed coordination with existing
federally funded efforts related to
elementary and secondary school
counseling and mental health
promotion, including Medicaid, if
applicable. If such coordination will
occur, applicants must identify which
Federal program(s) they are
coordinating with and how such
coordination will promote program
success across multiple programs.
(g) Use of grant funds to supplement,
and not supplant, existing school-based
mental health services funds and to
expand, not duplicate, efforts to
increase the number of providers.
Applicants must describe how project
funds will supplement, and not
supplant, non-Federal funds that would
otherwise be available for activities
funded under this program.
Applicants must describe how they
will use the SBMH Program funds to
expand, rather than duplicate, existing
or new efforts to increase the number of
qualified school-based mental health
services providers in LEAs with
demonstrated need and how they will
integrate existing funding streams and
efforts to support the plan.
(h) Plan for immediate services to
students.
For SEA applicants, applicants must
describe their plan to ensure services
are provided to students immediately,
including via subgrants to LEAs, as
appropriate. For LEA applicants and
consortia of LEAs, applicants must
describe their plan to ensure students
are provided services immediately.
Proposed Definitions
The Department proposes to establish
definitions of ‘‘certified,’’
‘‘certification,’’ ‘‘credentialed,’’ ‘‘LEA
with demonstrated need,’’ ‘‘licensed,’’
‘‘recruitment,’’ ‘‘respecialization,’’
‘‘retention,’’ and ‘‘telehealth’’ for use in
this program. We may apply these in
any year in which this program is in
effect.
Certified means an individual has
documented verification of education,
expertise, or training in school
psychology, school counseling, or
school social work by a State or other
recognized entity.
Certification means a level of
achievement awarded by a State or other

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recognized entity that attests to an
individual’s education, expertise, or
training to serve as a school-based
mental health services provider.
Credentialed means an individual
who possesses credentialing as a school
psychologist, school counselor, or a
school social worker from a State-level
or other recognized entity.
LEA with demonstrated need means
an LEA that has a significant need for
additional school-based mental health
services providers based on—
(1) High student to mental health
services provider ratios as compared to
other LEAs statewide or nationally;
(2) High rates of community violence
(including hate crimes), poverty,
substance use (including opioid use),
suicide, or trafficking; or
(3) A significant number of students
who are migratory, experiencing
homelessness, have a family member
deployed in the military or with a
military-service connected disability
(including veterans), have experienced a
natural or manmade disaster or a
traumatic event, or have other adverse
childhood experiences.
Licensed means an individual has a
license that represents a State’s legal
authority for that individual to serve as
a school-based mental health services
provider.
Recruitment means strategies that
help attract and hire professionals into
positions that are otherwise hard to fill
or where demand exceeds supply,
including by doing at least one of the
following:
(a) Providing an annual salary or
stipend for school-based mental health
services providers who maintain an
active national certification.
(b) Providing payment toward the
school loans accrued by the schoolbased mental health services provider.
(c) Creating pathways to grant crossState credentialing reciprocity for
school-based mental health services
providers.
(d) Providing incentives and supports
to help mitigate shortages. These may
include, for example, increasing pay;
offering monetary incentives for
relocation to high-need areas; providing
services via telehealth; creating hybrid
roles that allow for leadership,
academic, or research opportunities;
developing induction programs;
developing paid internship programs;
and offering service scholarship
programs such as those that provide
grants in exchange for a commitment to
serve in the LEA for a minimum number
of years.
Respecialization means strategies that
promote the readiness of mental health
services providers who already have

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training as social workers, counselors,
or psychologists, or in other related
fields, to serve in elementary or
secondary schools, including by doing
one or more of the following:
(a) Revising, updating, or streamlining
requirements for such individuals so
that additional training or other
requirements focus only on incremental
training needed for working in an
elementary school or secondary school.
(b) Providing a stipend or making a
payment to support the incremental
training needed for working in an
elementary school or secondary school.
(c) Offering flexible options for
completing training that leads such
professionals to meet State
requirements.
(d) Establishing new State-level
programs that provide alternate means
of certification, licensure, or
credentialing for such professionals,
including through practical or on-thejob training.
(e) Offering other meaningful
activities that result in existing mental
health services providers obtaining the
training they need to work in an
elementary school or secondary school.
Retention means strategies to help
ensure that qualified individuals stay in
their position to avoid gaps in service
and unfilled positions, including by—
(a) Providing opportunities for
advancement or leadership, such as
career pathways programs, recognition
and award programs, and mentorship
programs; and
(b) Offering incentives and supports
to help mitigate shortages. These may
include, for example, increasing pay,
making payments toward student loans,
offering monetary incentives for
relocation to high-need areas, providing
services via telehealth, offering service
scholarship programs such as those that
provide grants in exchange for a
commitment to serve in the LEA for a
minimum number of years, and
developing paid internship programs.
Telehealth means the use of electronic
information and telecommunication
technologies to support and promote
long-distance clinical health care,
patient and professional health-related
education, public health, and health
administration. Technologies include
videoconferencing, the internet, storeand-forward imaging, streaming media,
and landline and wireless
communications.
Final Priorities, Requirements, and
Definitions:
We will announce the final priorities,
requirements and definitions in a
document published in the Federal
Register. We will determine the final
priorities, requirements, and definitions

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after considering responses to the
proposed priorities, requirements, and
definitions and other information
available to the Department. This
document does not preclude us from
proposing additional priorities,
requirements, definitions, or selection
criteria, subject to meeting applicable
rulemaking requirements.
Note: This document does not solicit
applications. In any year in which we
choose to use the priorities,
requirements, and definitions we invite
applications through a notice inviting
applications in the Federal Register.
Executive Orders 12866 and 13563
Regulatory Impact Analysis
Under Executive Order 12866, it must
be determined whether this regulatory
action is ‘‘significant’’ and, therefore,
subject to the requirements of the
Executive order and subject to review by
the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB). Section 3(f) of Executive Order
12866 defines a ‘‘significant regulatory
action’’ as an action likely to result in
a rule that may—
(1) Have an annual effect on the
economy of $100 million or more, or
adversely affect a sector of the economy,
productivity, competition, jobs, the
environment, public health or safety, or
State, local, or Tribal governments or
communities in a material way (also
referred to as an ‘‘economically
significant’’ rule);
(2) Create serious inconsistency or
otherwise interfere with an action taken
or planned by another agency;
(3) Materially alter the budgetary
impacts of entitlement grants, user fees,
or loan programs or the rights and
obligations of recipients thereof; or
(4) Raise novel legal or policy issues
arising out of legal mandates, the
President’s priorities, or the principles
stated in the Executive order.
This proposed regulatory action is a
significant regulatory action subject to
review by OMB under section 3(f) of
Executive Order 12866 because it has an
annual effect on the economy of more
than $100 million. Approximately $145
million are available under this program
from fiscal year 2022 appropriations
actions, and $100 million are available
each year from fiscal year 2023 to fiscal
year 2026.
We have also reviewed this proposed
regulatory action under Executive Order
13563, which supplements and
explicitly reaffirms the principles,
structures, and definitions governing
regulatory review established in
Executive Order 12866. To the extent
permitted by law, Executive Order
13563 requires that an agency—

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(1) Propose or adopt regulations only
on a reasoned determination that their
benefits justify their costs (recognizing
that some benefits and costs are difficult
to quantify);
(2) Tailor its regulations to impose the
least burden on society, consistent with
obtaining regulatory objectives and
taking into account—among other things
and to the extent practicable—the costs
of cumulative regulations;
(3) In choosing among alternative
regulatory approaches, select those
approaches that maximize net benefits
(including potential economic,
environmental, public health and safety,
and other advantages; distributive
impacts; and equity);
(4) To the extent feasible, specify
performance objectives, rather than the
behavior or manner of compliance a
regulated entity must adopt; and
(5) Identify and assess available
alternatives to direct regulation,
including economic incentives—such as
user fees or marketable permits—to
encourage the desired behavior, or
provide information that enables the
public to make choices.
Executive Order 13563 also requires
an agency ‘‘to use the best available
techniques to quantify anticipated
present and future benefits and costs as
accurately as possible.’’ The Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs of
OMB has emphasized that these
techniques may include ‘‘identifying
changing future compliance costs that
might result from technological
innovation or anticipated behavioral
changes.’’
We are issuing the proposed
priorities, requirements, and definitions
only on a reasoned determination that
their benefits would justify their costs.
In choosing among alternative
regulatory approaches, we selected
those approaches that would maximize
net benefits. Based on an analysis of
anticipated costs and benefits, we
believe that the proposed priorities,
requirements, and definitions are
consistent with the principles in
Executive Order 13563.
We also have determined that this
regulatory action does not unduly
interfere with State, local, and Tribal
governments in the exercise of their
governmental functions.
In accordance with the Executive
orders, the Department has assessed the
potential costs and benefits, both
quantitative and qualitative, of this
regulatory action. The potential costs
are those resulting from statutory
requirements and those we have
determined as necessary for
administering the Department’s
programs and activities.

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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 147 / Tuesday, August 2, 2022 / Proposed Rules
Potential Costs and Benefits
The proposed priorities,
requirements, and definitions are
necessary for the implementation of the
SBMH program consistent with the
requirements established by Congress in
the Department of Education
Appropriations Act, 2022, and the
Explanatory Statement accompanying
that Act. It is important to note that
implementation of the SBMH program
would almost exclusively confer
benefits on the recipients of Federal
funds subject to the proposed priorities,
requirements, and definitions, whose
voluntary participation in the SBMH
program would entail minimal costs
except for those paid with Federal funds
and the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)
section of this document discusses the
burden estimates for preparing an
application. This program was
established under a statute with broad
authority and only non-binding report
language establishing program purpose,
eligibility, or requirements;
consequently, this rulemaking action is
necessary to ensure program funds are
used for their intended purpose. More
specifically, the proposed priorities,
requirements, and definitions would
ensure that the Department may collect
from applicants for SBMH funding the
information necessary for competitive
review of applications by peer
reviewers, and to fund high-quality
applications that will lead to the
implementation of projects consistent
with Congressional intent. Absent this
rulemaking action, there is no
alternative means of meeting these
objectives.
The specific benefits of establishing a
menu of proposed priorities include
ensuring that funds are used consistent
with Congressional intent and providing
flexibility to the Department for
supporting multiple strategies designed
to address the shortage of school-based
mental health services providers. The
first strategy, embedded in proposed
priorities 1 and 2, is to focus grant
activities on hiring additional schoolbased mental health services providers
in LEAs with demonstrated need to
increase the number of school-based
mental health services providers in
schools and local educational agencies
that have the most need for such
services. The definition of LEA with
demonstrated need, incorporated into
these priorities, also was crafted to
provide flexibility for an LEA to show
need through data (ratios of school
counselors to students), a description of
events or conditions affecting school
environment (such as community
violence or disasters), or evidence that

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an applicant will serve students who
have or are likely to face adverse
childhood experiences. Although the
total number of LEAs is large (over
13,000 in school year 2018–19), the
available funding will only support a
limited number of multi-year projects.
Absent the targeting of SBMH funds to
LEAs with demonstrated need, the
program may allocate scarce Federal
resources to high-capacity LEAs that
already meet the mental health needs of
their students. Moreover, ensuring that
funds are targeted to LEAs with
demonstrated need was a requirement of
the fiscal year 2020 SBMH competition,
and Congress directed the Department,
through the Explanatory Statement
accompanying the Department of
Education Appropriations Act, 2022, to
incorporate the same requirement into
the fiscal year 2022 SBMH competition.
The benefit of including Proposed
priority 3 is that it supports another
strategy for addressing the shortage of
school-based mental health services
providers. Requirements for schoolbased mental health services providers
are established by States and generally
include completion of bachelor’s degree
or higher, completion of practicum, and
internship in a K–12 school, which
typically take several years to fulfill.
Proposed priority 3 would support
States working to establish innovative
strategies to expand the pipeline for
qualified mental health providers by
establishing pathways for individuals in
related fields to attain the credentials to
work as school-based mental health
services providers. Under this priority,
for example, a State might determine
that individuals in related fields—such
as counseling or social work—would
only need to obtain incremental,
additional training to qualify as a
school-based mental health services
provider, rather than a full degree or
credentialing program. This strategy has
the benefit of reducing the time
necessary for credentialing and
potentially increasing the number of
qualified mental health providers
available for hiring by LEAs, which is
the core goal and purpose of the SBMH
program. Absent the expanded use of
such strategies, SBMH grantees may not
be able to achieve this core goal due to
the lack of qualified candidates.
The benefit of Proposed priority 4 is
that it supports another strategy for
expanding the workforce of schoolbased mental health services providers.
Currently, the psychology 11 and school
11 https://www.apa.org/workforce/data-tools/
demographics.

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counselor 12 workforce is significantly
less diverse than the student
population.13 Increasing the number of
qualified school-based mental health
services providers from diverse
backgrounds and from communities
served by the LEAs with demonstrated
need, and who can provide culturally
and linguistically appropriate services,
not only would expand the numbers of
these providers but also increase access
to and improve the quality of mental
health services available to students.
Further, this priority supports the
Administration’s equity agenda 14 and
the Department’s mission to support
equity and excellence.
The Department believes that this
proposed regulatory action would not
impose significant costs on eligible
entities, whose participation in our
programs is voluntary, and costs can
generally be covered with grant funds.
As a result, the proposed priorities,
requirements, and definitions would not
impose a significant burden except
when an entity voluntarily elects to
apply for a grant. We believe these
benefits would outweigh any associated
costs.
The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)
section of this document discusses the
burden estimates for preparing an
application. The potential benefits of
receiving Federal funds under this
program to expand the pool of and hire
school-based mental health services
providers will likely outweigh the
application costs detailed in the PRA
section. The costs of implementing the
requirements established in this notice
can be paid for with grant funds.
Moreover, even an unsuccessful
applicant may benefit from the effort of
preparing an application, such as
conducting deep data analysis about the
needs in their LEA or developing
creative plans to expand pathways to
high-quality credentialing in this area.
Regulatory Alternatives Considered
The Department believes that the final
priorities, requirements, definitions, and
selection criteria in this notice are
needed to administer the program
effectively. The authorizing statute does
not provide sufficient detail to develop
and administer a competitive grant
program consistent with the intent of
12 https://www.schoolcounselor.org/getmedia/
9c1d81ab-2484-4615-9dd7-d788a241beaf/memberdemographics.pdf.
13 https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/
cge/racial-ethnic-enrollment.
14 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/
presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-orderadvancing-racial-equity-and-support-forunderserved-communities-through-the-federalgovernment/.

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Congress as expressed in the
Explanatory Statement accompanying
the Department of Education
Appropriations Act. 2022, which
provided funding for the program in
fiscal year 2022, or the Bipartisan Safer
Communities Act, which provided
additional funding for fiscal years 2022
through 2026. Consequently, absent the
proposed priorities, requirements, and

definitions, the Department would not
have a sufficient basis for evaluating the
quality of applications or ensuring that
the program achieves its intended
objectives.
Accounting Statement
As required by OMB Circular A–4
(available at www.whitehouse.gov/sites/
default/files/omb/assets/omb/
circulara004/a-4.pdf), in the following

table we have prepared an accounting
statement showing the classification of
the expenditures associated with the
provisions of this regulatory action. This
table provides our best estimate of the
changes in annual monetized transfers
as a result of this regulatory action.
Expenditures are classified as
transfers from the Federal Government
to SEAs and LEAs.

ACCOUNTING STATEMENT CLASSIFICATION OF ESTIMATED EXPENDITURES
[In millions]
Transfers
Category
Annualized monetized transfers ..............................................................................................................
From whom to whom? .............................................................................................................................

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Clarity of the Regulations
Executive Order 12866 and the
Presidential memorandum ‘‘Plain
Language in Government Writing’’
require each agency to write regulations
that are easy to understand.
The Secretary invites comments on
how to make the proposed priorities,
requirements, and definitions easier to
understand, including answers to
questions such as the following:
• Are the priorities, requirements,
and definitions in the proposed
regulations clearly stated?
• Do the proposed regulations contain
technical terms or other wording that
interferes with their clarity?
• Does the format of the proposed
regulations (grouping and order of
sections, use of headings, paragraphing,
etc.) aid or reduce their clarity?
• Would the proposed regulations be
easier to understand if we divided them
into more (but shorter) sections?
• Could the description of the
proposed regulations in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of
this preamble be more helpful in
making the proposed regulations easier
to understand? If so, how?
• What else could we do to make the
proposed regulations easier to
understand?
To send any comments that concern
how the Department could make the
proposed regulations easier to
understand, see the instructions in the
ADDRESSES section.
Intergovernmental Review: This
program is subject to Executive Order
12372 and the regulations in 34 CFR
part 79. One of the objectives of the
Executive order is to foster an
intergovernmental partnership and a

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strengthened federalism. The Executive
order relies on processes developed by
State and local governments for
coordination and review of proposed
Federal financial assistance.
This document provides early
notification of our specific plans and
actions for this program.
Regulatory Flexibility Act Certification
The Secretary certifies that this
proposed regulatory action would not
have a significant economic impact on
a substantial number of small entities.
The U.S. Small Business Administration
Size Standards define proprietary
institutions as small businesses if they
are independently owned and operated,
are not dominant in their field of
operation, and have total annual
revenue below $7,000,000. Nonprofit
institutions are defined as small entities
if they are independently owned and
operated and not dominant in their field
of operation. Public institutions are
defined as small organizations if they
are operated by a government
overseeing a population below 50,000.
The small entities that this proposed
regulatory action would affect are
school districts applying for and
receiving funds under this program. The
Secretary believes that the costs
imposed on applicants by the proposed
priorities, requirements, and definitions,
would be limited to paperwork burden
related to preparing an application and
that the benefits of implementing these
proposals would outweigh any costs
incurred by applicants.
Participation in this program is
voluntary. For this reason, the proposed
priorities, requirements, and definitions
would impose no burden on small
entities in general. Eligible applicants

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3%

7%

$108.6

$108.6

From the Federal government to SEAs
and LEAs.

would determine whether to apply for
funds and have the opportunity to
weigh the requirements for preparing
applications, and any associated costs,
against the likelihood of receiving
funding and the requirements for
implementing projects under the
program. Eligible applicants most likely
would apply only if they determine that
the likely benefits exceed the costs of
preparing an application. The likely
benefits include the potential receipt of
a grant as well as other benefits that may
accrue to an entity through its
development of an application, such as
the use of that application to seek
funding from other sources to address a
shortage in mental health providers.
Paperwork Reduction Act
As part of its continuing effort to
reduce paperwork and respondent
burden, the Department provides the
general public and Federal agencies
with an opportunity to comment on
proposed and continuing collections of
information in accordance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA)
(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). This helps
ensure that the public understands the
Department’s collection instructions,
respondents provide the requested data
in the desired format, reporting burden
(time and financial resources) is
minimized, collection instruments are
clearly understood, and the Department
can properly assess the impact of
collection requirements on respondents.
The proposed priorities,
requirements, and definitions contain
information collection requirements.
Under the PRA the Department has
submitted these requirements to OMB
for its review.

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A Federal agency may not conduct or
sponsor a collection of information
unless OMB approves the collection
under the PRA and the corresponding
information collection instrument
displays a currently valid OMB control
number. Notwithstanding any other
provision of the law, no person is
required to comply with, or is subject to
penalty for failure to comply with, a
collection of information if the
collection instrument does not display a
currently valid OMB control number.
In the notice of final priorities,
requirements, and definitions we will
display the control number assigned by
OMB to any information collection
proposed in this document and adopted
in the notice of final priorities,
requirements, and definitions.
For the years that the Department
holds an SBMH Program competition,
we estimate 300 applicants will apply
and submit an application based on
prior competitions for the program. We
estimate that it will take each applicant
40 hours to complete and submit the
application, including time for
reviewing instructions, searching
existing data sources, gathering and

maintaining the data needed, and
completing and reviewing the collection
of information. The total burden hour
estimate for this collection is 12,000
hours. At $95.46 per hour (using mean
wages for Education and Childcare
Administrators 15 and assuming the total
cost of labor, including benefits and
overhead, is equal to 200 percent of the
mean wage rate), the total estimated cost
for 300 applicants to complete the
SBMH Program application is
approximately $1,145,520.
The Department is requesting
paperwork clearance on the OMB
1810–xxxx data collection associated
with this proposed requirement. That
request will account for all burden
hours and costs discussed within this
section.
Consistent with 5 CFR 1320.8(d), the
Department is soliciting comments on
the information collection through this
document. Between 30 and 60 days after
publication of this document in the
Federal Register, OMB is required to
make a decision concerning the
collections of information contained in
these proposed priorities, requirements,
and definitions. Therefore, to ensure

that OMB gives your comments full
consideration, it is important that OMB
receives your comments on this
Information Collection Request by
September 1, 2022.
Comments related to the information
collection activities must be submitted
electronically through the Federal
eRulemaking Portal at
www.regulations.gov by selecting the
Docket ID number ED–2022–OESE–
XXXX or via postal mail, commercial
delivery, or hand delivery by
referencing the Docket ID number and
the title of the information collection
request at the top of your comment.
Comments submitted by postal mail or
delivery should be addressed to the PRA
Coordinator of the Strategic Collections
and Clearance Governance and Strategy
Division, U.S. Department of Education,
400 Maryland Ave. SW, LBJ, Room
6W208D, Washington, DC 20202–8240.
Note: The Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs and the Department
review all comments related to the
information collection activities posted
at www.regulations.gov.
Collection of Information

Information collection activity

Estimated
number of
responses

Hours per
response

Total
estimated
burden hours

Estimated
cost at an
hourly rate
of $95.46

School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Application ...............................

300

40

12,000

$1,145,520

We consider your comments on this
proposed collection of information in—
• Deciding whether the proposed
collection is necessary for the proper
performance of our functions, including
whether the information will have
practical use;
• Evaluating the accuracy of our
estimate of the burden of the proposed
collection, including the validity of our
methodology and assumptions;
• Enhancing the quality, usefulness,
and clarity of the information we
collect; and
• Minimizing the burden on those
who must respond. This includes
exploring the use of appropriate
automated, electronic, mechanical, or
other technological collection
techniques.
Accessible Format: On request to the
program contact person listed under FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT,
individuals with disabilities can obtain
this document in an accessible format.
The Department will provide the
requestor with an accessible format that
may include Rich Text Format (RTF) or
15 See

text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3
file, braille, large print, audiotape, or
compact disc, or other accessible format.
Electronic Access to This Document:
The official version of this document is
the document published in the Federal
Register. You may access the official
edition of the Federal Register and the
Code of Federal Regulations at
www.govinfo.gov. At this site you can
view this document, as well as all other
documents of the Department published
in the Federal Register, in text or
Portable Document Format (PDF). To
use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat
Reader, which is available free at the
site.
You may also access documents of the
Department published in the Federal
Register by using the article search
feature at www.federalregister.gov.
Specifically, through the advanced
search feature at this site, you can limit

your search to documents published by
the Department.
Ruth E. Ryder,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and
Programs, Office of Elementary and
Secondary Education.
[FR Doc. 2022–16557 Filed 8–1–22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000–01–P

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
RIN 1810–AB67

34 CFR Chapter II
[Docket ID ED–2022–OESE–0094]

Proposed Priorities, Requirements,
and Definitions—Mental Health Service
Professional Demonstration Grant
Program
Office of Elementary and
Secondary Education, Department of
Education.
ACTION: Proposed priorities,
requirements, and definitions.
AGENCY:

www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm.

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