Please find the final convening report regarding Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)-funded school facilities construction as identified in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB Act). Your comments and suggestions for improvement would be appreciated.

This report was prepared at the request of the DOI, BIA, and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). Such a convening report is described generally in the Negotiated Rulemaking Act of 1996, P.L. 104-320, Section 563 (b). As a neutral, independent federal program, the U.S. Institute and its impartial contractor team, Consensus Building Institute (CBI) conducted two-hundred (200) interviews of people with an interest in BIA-funded school facilities construction.

The purpose of the interviews was to explore the opportunities for, and barriers to, using negotiated rulemaking to develop regulations implementing the requirements of the NCLB Act related to BIA-funded school facilities. The draft report covers school facility topics identified from the NCLB Act:

• Methods to catalog school facilities;
• Determining formulas for priority and funding for school replacement construction and new construction
• Determining formulas for priority and funding for school renovation and repair;
• Facilities standards for home living (dormitory) situations.

This report was issued in draft on October 12, 2007 and made available on the websites of the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (www.ecr.gov [1]) and the Consensus Building Institute (www.cbuilding.org [2]). All interviewees were notified about the draft report by e-mail or fax, and encouraged to submit feedback and comments on the report’s findings and recommendations. A comment period was established through December 22, 2007, and later extended through February 2, 2008. Stakeholders were further notified about the report and the comment period through a Federal Register Notice, notices from BIA Education Line Officers, and through a broadcast fax to all BIA-funded schools. Stakeholders were invited to submit their comments via mail, e-mail, or fax.

CBI received five sets of comments, which we have used to revise this final report. This final convening report may also be downloaded from: www.ecr.gov [3].