Notice2025-19245
Notice of Revisions to Performance Area One of the LSC Performance Criteria
Primary source
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Published
October 2, 2025
Issuing agencies
Legal Services Corporation
Abstract
The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) proposes to revise Performance Area One of its Performance Criteria. In Performance Area One, LSC establishes the indicators that LSC will use to evaluate grant recipients' processes for identifying the most pressing and emerging legal needs in their service areas and determining how they will deliver legal services tailored to most effectively address those needs. LSC proposes to introduce a new criterion assessing strategic planning as well as to revise the existing criteria examining grant recipients' conduct of needs assessments, implementation of strategies to address legal needs, and self-examination of their effectiveness in delivering legal services.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 189 (Thursday, October 2, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 189 (Thursday, October 2, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47835-47836]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-19245]
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LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION
Notice of Revisions to Performance Area One of the LSC
Performance Criteria
AGENCY: Legal Services Corporation.
ACTION: Request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) proposes to revise
Performance Area One of its Performance Criteria. In Performance Area
One, LSC establishes the indicators that LSC will use to evaluate grant
recipients' processes for identifying the most pressing and emerging
legal needs in their service areas and determining how they will
deliver legal services tailored to most effectively address those
needs. LSC proposes to introduce a new criterion assessing strategic
planning as well as to revise the existing criteria examining grant
recipients' conduct of needs assessments, implementation of strategies
to address legal needs, and self-examination of their effectiveness in
delivering legal services.
DATES: Comments must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern on December 1,
2025.
ADDRESSES: You may send comments by any of the following methods:
<bullet> Email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#f9899c8b9f968b9498979a9c988b9c98c8b9958a9ad79e968f"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="dcacb9aebab3aeb1bdb2bfb9bdaeb9bded9cb0afbff2bbb3aa">[email protected]</span></a>. Include ``Comments on
Performance Area 1'' in the subject line of the message.
<bullet> Mail: Legal Services Corporation, 1825 I Street NW, Suite
800, Washington, DC 20006, ATTN: Stefanie K. Davis, Deputy General
Counsel, Comments on Performance Area 1.
<bullet> Hand Delivery/Courier: Legal Services Corporation, 1825 I
Street NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20006, ATTN: Stefanie K. Davis,
Deputy General Counsel, Comments on Performance Area 1.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stefanie K. Davis, Deputy General
Counsel, Legal Services Corporation, 1825 I Street NW, Suite 800,
Washington, DC 20006, 202-295-1563, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#fc8c998e9a938e919d929f999d8e999dcdbc908f9fd29b938a"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="86f6e3f4e0e9f4ebe7e8e5e3e7f4e3e7b7c6eaf5e5a8e1e9f0">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: LSC introduced the Performance Criteria in
1994 as a tool to support both LSC's evaluation and grant recipients'
self-evaluation of program quality. The Performance Criteria are
structured into four Performance Areas. Each Performance Area is
designed to allow users to evaluate a discrete aspect of a legal
services organization's operations:
<bullet> Performance Area One establishes criteria for examining an
LSC grant recipient's effectiveness in identifying the most pressing
civil legal issues in its service area and directing resources toward
addressing those needs.
<bullet> Performance Area Two establishes criteria for examining a
grant recipient's effectiveness in engaging and serving the low-income
population across its service area.
[[Page 47836]]
<bullet> Performance Area Three establishes criteria for examining
the effectiveness of a grant recipient's legal representation and other
activities designed to address the legal needs of the low-income
population in its service area.
<bullet> Performance Area Four establishes criteria for examining
the effectiveness of a grant recipient's governance structure,
organizational leadership, and administration.
LSC last updated Performance Area One in 2007. At that time, LSC
identified several factors driving the update. One was the
``significant change and evolution in Legal Services programs around
the country'' caused by, among other factors, mergers, rapid
developments in technology, and the restrictions placed on LSC grant
recipients through its Fiscal Year 1996 appropriations act. Legal
Services Corporation, Performance Criteria, 2007 Edition, pp. 1-2. LSC
also identified significant changes in the demographic changes of the
low-income population and the legal needs experienced by that
population as a factor. Id. at 2. Finally, LSC observed that at the
same time it was considering changes to the Performance Criteria, the
American Bar Association (ABA) was revising its Standards for the
Provision of Civil Legal Aid (ABA Standards). As a result, the 2007
revision to the Performance Criteria incorporated or referenced the ABA
Standards where appropriate. Id.
LSC's goals for this update, which continue the theme of evolving
standards in technology and the delivery of legal services, are
threefold. First, LSC is introducing new indicators of quality and
revising others to be more relevant to the current--and future--context
of Federally funded legal aid. Second, LSC is simplifying and rewriting
the Performance Criteria in plain English to make them more user
friendly to LSC and grant recipient staff. Finally, where appropriate,
LSC is revising the standards to maintain consistency with the 2021
revisions to the ABA Standards for the Provision of Civil Legal
Services, particularly those Standards on the use of technology.
Overview of the Revisions: LSC proposes to significantly revise the
titles, introductory text, Indicators of quality, and Areas of Inquiry
for each Criterion in Performance Area One. In some cases, LSC proposes
to introduce new Indicators, while in others LSC proposes to simplify
and streamline existing Indicators. The changes are summarized below.
Criterion 1: Periodic Comprehensive Assessment and Ongoing
Consideration of Legal Needs. LSC proposes to shorten the title of this
Criterion to ``Needs Assessment'' and revise the Indicators and Areas
of Inquiry to focus on how grant recipients assess the legal needs of
the low-income populations within their service areas. The Indicators
broadly describe the factors LSC has identified as critical to
conducting a thorough, well-developed needs assessment. Indicators
examine factors such as the number and types of methods grant
recipients use to collect information; whether grant recipients
considered the needs of demographic subpopulations in their
communities; and the extent to which grant recipients considered the
capacity of other organizations to address the most pressing legal
needs of the low-income community. The Areas of Inquiry for each
Indicator further break down into questions about discrete parts of the
broader Indicator. For example, new Indicator 1 evaluates the frequency
and regularity with which a grant recipient ``conducts a comprehensive
assessment of existing and emerging needs of low-income individuals and
families within its service area.'' The proposed Areas of Inquiry ask
whether the grant recipient conducts such an assessment periodically;
when the grant recipient conducted the most recent assessment; how the
grant recipient determines when it should conduct the needs assessment;
whether it has started planning for the next needs assessment; and
whether the most recent assessment produced a ``clear record of the
most compelling existing and emerging legal needs of low-income
individuals and families in the service area.''
Criterion 2: Setting Goals and Objectives, Developing Strategies,
and Allocating Resources. LSC proposes to rename this criterion
``Strategic Planning'' and to focus the Indicators and Areas of Inquiry
on how grant recipients develop their strategic plans. LSC has
determined that a well-developed strategic plan should identify
strategies tailored to address the most pressing legal needs identified
by the needs assessment in a way that contributes to closing the
Justice Gap. LSC proposes to either replace Indicators that do not
contribute to examining how grant recipients develop their strategic
plans or to relocate Indicators to more appropriate Criteria. For
example, LSC proposes to relocate existing Indicator 8, relating to
case acceptance policies, to proposed Criterion 3, which examines
priorities and case acceptance. Other Indicators and Areas of Inquiry
have been simplified and narrowed to focus on how grant recipients
develop their strategic plans and goals.
Criterion 3: Implementation. LSC proposes to rename this Criterion
``Priority Setting and Case Acceptance Policy.'' Consistent with this
renaming and building on the preceding Criteria, LSC intends for this
Criterion to examine the extent to which grant recipients' priorities
and case acceptance policies effectuate the goals in their strategic
plans. The Indicators and Areas of Inquiry cross-reference Criteria 1
and 2 and have been rewritten into plain English.
Criterion 4: Evaluation and Adjustment. LSC proposes to shorten the
title of this Criterion to ``Evaluation.'' LSC proposes to simplify and
revise the Indicators in this Criterion to focus on grant recipients'
processes for examining how well their service delivery model is
meeting the goals stated in their strategic plans; whether strategic
plans are agile enough to adjust to changes in the legal services
delivery ecosystem, such as large variances in the availability of
resources or unanticipated changes to the most pressing legal issues
experienced by the populations in grantees' service areas; and whether
the grant recipients' priorities are expressed in terms of outcomes
that can be measured or assessed, thus allowing grant recipients to
allocate resources as needed to achieve the proposed outcomes.
LSC is publishing the proposed revisions to Performance Area One on
the Matters for Comment page of its website: <a href="http://www.lsc.gov/matters-comment">www.lsc.gov/matters-comment</a>. LSC is providing a 60-day period for interested parties and
stakeholders to submit comments.
(Authority: 42 U.S.C. 2996g(e).)
Dated: September 29, 2025.
Stefanie Davis,
Deputy General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2025-19245 Filed 10-1-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7050-01-P
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