(a) Pursuant to section 438(b) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 as amended by Public Law 92-318, the United States Commissioner of Education is required to publish a list of State agencies which he determines to be reliable authorities as to the quality of public postsecondary vocational education in their respective States for the purpose of determining eligibility for Federal student assistance programs administered by the Office of Education. (b) Approval by a State agency included on the list will provide an alternative means of satisfying statutory standards as to the quality of public postsecondary vocational education to be undertaken by students receiving assistance under such programs. § 149.23 Initial recognition, and reevaluation. For initial recognition and for renewal of recognition, the State agency will furnish information establishing its compliance with the criteria set forth in § 149.24. This information may be supplemented by personal interviews or by review of the agency's facilities, records, personnel qualifications, and administrative management. Each agency listed will be reevaluated by the Commissioner at his discretion, but at least once every four years. No adverse decision will become final without affording an opportunity for a hearing. (20 U.S.C. 1087-1(b)) § 149.24 Criteria for State agencies. The following are the criteria which the Commissioner of Education will utilize in designating a State agency as a reliable authority to assess the quality of public postsecondary vocational education in its respective State. (a) Functional aspects. The functional aspects of the State agency must be shown by: (1) Its agency: scope of operations. The (1) Employs qualified personnel and uses sound procedures to carry out its operations in a timely and effective manner; (11) Receives adequate and timely financial support, as shown by its appropriations, to carry out its operations; (iii) Selects competent and knowledgeable persons, qualified by experience and training, and selects such persons in accordance with nondiscriminatory practices, (A) to participate on visiting teams, (B) to engage in consultative services for the evaluation and approval process, and (C) to serve on decision-making bodies. (3) Its procedures. The State agency: (1) Maintains clear definitions of approval status and has developed written procedures for granting, reaffirming, revoking, denying, and reinstating approval status; (ii) Requires, as an integral part of the approval and reapproval process, institutional or program self-analysis and onsite reviews by visiting teams, and provides written and consultative guidance to institutions or programs and visiting teams. (A) Self-analysis shall be a qualitative assessment of the strengths and limitations of the instructional program, including the achievement of institutional or program objectives, and should involve a representative portion of the institution's administrative staff, teaching faculty, students, governing body, and other appropriate constituencies. (B) The visiting team, which includes qualified examiners other than agency staff, reviews instructional content, methods and resources, administrative management, student services, and facilities. It prepares written reports and recommendations for use by the State agency. (iii) Reevaluates at reasonable and regularly scheduled intervals institutions or programs which it has approved. (b) Responsibility and reliability. The responsibility and reliability of the State agency will be demonstrated by: (1) Its responsiveness to the public interest. The State agency: (1) Has an advisory body which provides for representation from public employment services and employers, employees, postsecondary vocational educators, students, and the general public, including minority groups. Among its functions, this structure provides counsel to the State agency relating to the development of standards, operating procedures and policy, and interprets the educational needs and manpower projections of the State's public postsecondary Vocational education system; (ii) Demonstrates that the advisory body makes a real and meaningful contribution to the approval process; (iii) Provides advance public notice of proposed or revised standards or regulations through its regular channels of communications, supplemented, if necessary, with direct communication to inform interested members of the affected community. In addition, it provides such persons the opportunity to comment on the standards or regulations prior to their adoption; (iv) Secures sufficient qualitative information regarding the applicant institution or program to enable the institution or program to demonstrate that it has an ongoing program of evaluation of outputs consistent with its educational goals; (v) Encourages experimental and innovative programs to the extent that these are conceived and implemented in a manner which ensures the quality and integrity of the institution or program; (vi) Demonstrates that it approves only those institutions or programs which meet its published standards; that its standards, policies, and procedures are fairly applied; and that its evaluations are conducted and decisions are rendered under conditions that assure an impartial and objective judgment; (vii) Regularly reviews its standards, policies and procedures in order that the evaluative process shall support constructive analysis, emphasize factors of critical importance, and reflect the educational and training needs of the student; (viii) Performs no function that would be inconsistent with the formation of an independent judgment of the quality of an educational institution or program; (ix) Has written procedures for the review of complaints pertaining to institutional or program quality as these relate to the agency's standards, and demonstrates that such procedures are adequate to provide timely treatment of such complaints in a manner fair and equitable to the complainant and to the institution or program; (x) Annually makes available to the public (A) its policies for approval, (B) reports of its operations, and (C) list of institutions or programs which it has approved; (xi) Requires each approved school or program to report on changes instituted to determine continued compliance with standards or regulations; (xii) Confers regularly with counterpart agencies that have similar respons1bilities in other and neighboring States about methods and techniques that may be used to meet those responsibilities. (2) Its assurances that due process is accorded to institutions or programs seeking approval. The State agency: (i) Provides for adequate discussion during the on-site visit between the visiting team and the faculty, administrative staff, students, and other appropriate persons; (1) Furnishes as a result of the evaluation visit, a written report to the institution or program commenting on areas of strength, areas needing improvement, and, when appropriate, suggesting means of improvement and including specific areas, if any, where the institution or program may not be in compliance with the agency's standards; (li) Provides the chief executive officer of the institution or program with opportunity to comment upon the written report and to file supplemental materials pertinent to the facts and conclusions in the written report of the visiting team before the agency takes action on the report; (iv) Provides the chief executive officer of the institution with a specific statement of reasons for any adverse action, and notice of the right to appeal such action before an appeal body designated for that purpose; (v) Publishes rules of procedure regarding appeals; (vi) Continues the approval status of the institution or program pending disposition of an appeal; (vii) Furnishes the chief executive officer of the institution or program with a written decision of the appeal body, including a statement of its reasons therefor. (c) Capacity to foster ethical practices. The State agency must demonstrate its capability and willingness to foster ethical practices by showing that it: (i) Promotes a well-defined set of ethical standards governing institutional or programmatic practices, including recruitment, advertising, transcripts, fair and equitable student tuition refunds, and student placement services; (ii) Maintains appropriate review in relation to the ethical practices of each approved institution or program. (20 U.S.C. 1087-1(b)) PART 150 PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF CAPTIONED FILMS FOR THE DEAF Sec. 150.1 Definitions. 150.2 Objectives of the loan service. 160.8 Objectives of research, production of films, and training of persons. 150.4 Applications to borrow films. 150.5 Obligations of borrowers As used in this Part 150: (a) "Act" means Public Law 85-905, 72 Stat. 1742, approved September 2, 1958, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2491-2494). (b) "Borrower" means an individual or a group of persons certified by the U.S. Office of Education to be eligible to use captioned films for the deaf. (c) "Deaf person" means a person whose hearing is so severely impaired as to be non-functional for the ordinary purposes of living. (d) "Film" means a sound or silent motion picture or kinescope, a filmstrip (with or without accompanying sound, disc, tape or film), slides, and transparencies. (e) "Group of deaf persons" means a class, club, school or other gathering of three or more deaf persons. (f) [Reserved] (g) "United States" means the several States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the other insular possessions of the United States. [29 FR 15955, Dec. 1, 1964, as amended at 38 FR 30660, Nov. 6, 1973] § 150.2 Objectives of the loan service. (a) The objectives of the loan of captioned films under the Act are to promote the general welfare of deaf persons by: (1) Bringing to deaf persons understanding and appreciation of those films which play such an important part in the general and cultural advancement of hearing persons; (2) Providing to deaf persons, through such films, enriched educational and cultural experiences through which they can be brought into better touch with the realities of their environment; and (3) Providing to deaf persons a wholesome and rewarding experience which they may share together. (b) Such objectives are to be accomplished by acquiring and captioning films and by lending films for exhibition for nonprofit purposes under the conditions set forth in these regulations. $150.3 Objectives of research, produc tion of films, and training of per sons. (a) The objectives of providing for research in the use of educational and training films for deaf persons, for the production and distribution of such films, and for the training of persons in the use of films for deaf persons, are: (1) To promote the academic, cultural and vocational advancement of deaf persons; and (2) To foster on the part of hearing persons a better understanding of the problems encountered by deaf persons. (b) Those objectives are to be accomplished by: (1) Conducting or contracting for the conduct of research in the use of educational and training films for deaf persons; (2) Producing or contracting for the production of such films; (3) Providing materials, conducting conferences, and giving consultation and training, in the use of films for deaf persons; and (4) Distributing, for nonprofit purposes under the conditions set forth in these regulations, educational and training films for deaf persons for exhibition to teachers and to professional workers with deaf persons. $150.4 Applications to borrow films. An application to borrow films shall be submitted on a form provided for that purpose, which may be obtained from Captioned Films for the Deaf, U.S. Office of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, D.C., 20202. § 150.5 Obligations of borrowers. (a) The borrower shall be responsible for assuring that: (1) No admission or other fee will be charged to anyone for the purpose of viewing the borrowed film; (2) The borrowed film will not be exhibited by television without the prior approval of Captioned Films for the Deaf; (3) The borrowed film will not be used in any manner that will infringe upon or violate any copyright interest; (4) Exhibition of entertainment or general interest films will be limited to groups of deaf persons, or to individual deaf persons under conditions described in subparagraph (6) of this paragraph. (This does not preclude at exhibitions the occasional attendance of persons who are not deaf persons so long as the audience is composed predominately of deaf persons.) (5) Educational and training films for deaf persons (as well as films of general interest which may be shown for the purpose of promoting better understanding, on the part of hearing persons, of deafness and the problems faced by deaf persons (may be exhibited to groups of deaf persons, to groups or individuals with hearing who may be working, or training to work, with deaf persons, such as teachers, professionals, interpreters and the like, or to individual deaf persons under conditions described in subparagraph (6) of this subparagraph. (6) Borrowed captioned films may be exhibited to individual deaf persons only with the prior approval of Captioned Films for the Deaf. Such an approval will be granted, in the discretion of Captioned Films for the Deaf, when there are extenuating circumstances which preclude the individual deaf person from attending an exhibition for a group of deaf persons. Such extenuating circumstances include, among others: (1) A demonstrated need for purposes of the education or training of a deaf person for the exhibition of captioned films in his home rather than at an exhibition for a group of deaf persons, and (ii) The physical disability, quarantine or isolation of the individual deaf person such as to make it impracticable for him to attend an exhibition for a group of deaf persons. (7) The borrower will pay the transportation costs for the return of films as provided in subparagraph (6) of paragraph (b) of this section but will not be required to pay for their use. (b) In order to benefit the greatest possible number of persons who may wish to use films and to expedite the distribution of films: (1) The borrower shall be responsible for the safekeeping of the borrowed film from the time of its receipt until it is returned or delivered to a common carrier for return. The borrower may be required to pay the replacement costs of any borrowed film that is lost or destroyed or to pay the cost of repairing damage occurring to a borrowed film during the period in which the borrower is responsible for the film's safekeeping. (2) The borrower shall exercise care in the projection of films. This includes using a suitable projector and a qualified projectionist. (3) The borrower shall not repair a borrowed film that is damaged nor rewind a borrowed film prior to its return. (4) The borrower shall return any film primarily designed for entertainment purposes on the first day, other than a Sunday or holiday, following the scheduled date of exhibition. Return of the borrowed film may be delayed if the exhibition thereof is postponed because of late receipt of the film, but in any event the film shall be returned within 72 hours after its receipt. (5) Educational and training films for deaf persons will be clearly labeled and designated as such, with the maximum time of retention indicated. The borrower shall return such a film within such period of time from the date of its receipt as is specified for the particular film. (6) The borrower shall return any film in its containers (cans and shipping cases) and pay the return transportation costs. The addressed return label which will be furnished with each film loaned must be properly affixed to the container. (7) The borrower shall, for each exhibition of each film borrowed, report the identity of the individual or group of deaf persons who viewed the film, the date of its exhibition, the number of deaf persons and other persons present at its exhibition, and the comments made by the individuals or the group. An appropriate reporting form will be sent to each borrower for each loan. (c) The U.S. Office of Education reserves the right to refuse the additional loan of films to a borrower in the event of flagrant or persistent violation of the regulations in this part. (a) The provisions of this subpart apply to all grant awards made with funds available to carry out the Right to Read Program pursuant to section 2(a) (1) of the Cooperative Research Act. (b) Assistance provided under this part shall also be subject to applicable provisions contained in Subchapter A of this Chapter (General Provisions for Office of Education programs relating to fiscal, administrative, property management, and other matters). (c) Contracts which may be awarded by the Right to Read Program will be made in accordance with criteria specified in this subpart and shall be subject to regulations in Chapters 1 and 3 of Title 41 of the Code of Federal Regulations. (d) The regulations of this part are not applicable to the provision of technical assistance by the Commissioner in the field of reading. (20 U.S.C. 3318, 332) § 151.2 Purpose. The purpose of the Right to Read Program is, through the means of funding surveys, dissemination, and exemplary |