8 projects involving the joint participation or minority group and nonminority group children attending dif ferent schools, including extracurricular activities and cooperative exchange or other arrangements between schools within the same or different school districts; (f) repair or minor remodeling or alteration of existing school facilities (including the acquisition, installation, modernization, or replacement of equipment) and the lease or purchase of mobile classroom units or other mobile educational facilities; (g) the provision of transportation services for public school students, except that, in accordance with section 422 of the General Education Provisions Act, nothing in this Act shall be construed to require the transportation of students in order to overcome racial imbalance; (h) community activities, including public education efforts, in support of a plan, program, project, or other activity under this Act; (i) special administrative activities, such as the rescheduling of students, or teachers, or the provision of information to parents and other members of the gen eral public, incident to the implementation of a plan described in clause (1) or (2) of section 5 (a); 25 (j) planning and evaluation activities; and 49-732 0-70 - 2 1 2 3 14 9 (k) other specially designed programs or projects which meet the purposes of this Act. APPROVAL OF APPLICATIONS SEC. 7. (a) An application for assistance under this 5 Act may be approved by the Secretary only if he deter 6 mines 7 (1) that such application (A) sets forth a plan which is sufficiently comprehensive to offer reasonable assurance that it will achieve one or more purposes for which grants may be made under this Act; and (B) contains such other information, terms, conditions, and assurances as the Secretary may require to carry out the purposes of this Act; (2) that the State educational agency governing the school district or school districts in which the approved program or project will be carried out has been given reasonable opportunity to offer recommendations to the applicant and to submit comments to the Secretary; (3) in the case of an application for assistance under clause (3) of section 5, that the program or project to be assisted will involve an additional expenditure per pupil to be served, determined in accordance with regu lations prescribed by the Secretary, of sufficient magni 10 tude to provide reasonable assurance that the desired edu cational impact will be achieved and that funds under this Act will not be dispersed in such a way as to undermine their effectiveness; (4) in the case of an application by a local educational agency, that, to the extent consistent with the number of children in the school district of such agency enrolled in private elementary and secondary schools which are racially isolated, such agency has made provisions for special educational services and arrangements which are designed to overcome the effects of such isolation and in which such children can participate; (5) that the applicant has adopted effective pro cedures, including provisions for such objective measurements of educational and other change to be effected by this Act as the Secretary may require, for the continuing evaluation of programs or projects under this Act, includ ing their effectiveness in achieving clearly stated program goals, their impact on related programs and upon the community served, and their structure and mechanisms for the delivery of services and including, where appro priate, comparisons with proper control groups com posed of persons who have not participated in such programs; and (6) that the applicant is not reasonably able to pro 11 1 vide, out of non-Federal sources, the assistance for which 3 (b) In the case of an application by a combination of 4 local educational agencies for jointly carrying out a pro 5 gram or project under this Act, at least one such agency 6 shall be an agency described in section 5 and any one or 7 more such agencies joining in such application may be author8 ized to administer such program or project. 9 10 ESTABLISHMENT OF PRIORITIES SEC. 8. (a) The Secretary may, from time to time, set 11 dates by which applications for grants under this Act shall 12 be filed and may prescribe an order of priority to be followed 13 14 in approving such applications. Any order of priority so prescribed may give special weight to one or more categories 15 of applicants or to one or more categories of programs or projects or to applicants which fall within more than one category of need. 16 17 18 (b) In determining whether to make any grant under 19 section 5 or in fixing the amount thereof, the Secretary shall 20 take into account such criteria as he deems pertinent, in 21 cluding (1) the relative need for assistance, taking into account such factors as the extent of racial isolation in the school district to be served and the degree to which measurable deficiencies in the quality of public educa 12 1 tion afforded in such school district exceed those of other 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 school districts; (2) the relative promise which the program or project affords in carrying out the purposes of this Act; (3) the degree to which the program or project is likely to effect a decrease in racial isolation in racially isolated schools; and (4) the amount available for assistance in the State under this Act in relation to the applications pending before him. DEFINITIONS 12 SEC. 9. As used in this Act, except when otherwise 13 specified 14 (a) The term “equipment" includes machinery, utili15 ties, and built-in equipment and any necessary enclosures 16 or structures to house them, and includes all other items 17 necessary for the provision of educational services, such as 18 instructional equipment and necessary furniture, printed, 19 published, and audiovisual instructional materials, and other 20 related material. 21 (b) The term "gifted and talented children" means, in 22 accordance with objective criteria prescribed by the Secre 23 tary, children who have outstanding intellectual ability or 24 creative talent. 25 (c) The term "local educational agency" means a pub |