The Director is authorized to make grants to or contracts with public and nonprofit private agencies and organizations to pay part or all of the cost of development and operation of projects (including direct payments to individuals serving under this part) designed for the purpose of providing opportunities for low-income persons age 55 or over to provide supportive person-to-person services in health, education, welfare, and related settings to children having special or exceptional needs or circumstances identified as limiting their academic, social, or emotional development. Such services may include services by individuals serving as foster grandparents to children who are individuals with disabilities, who have chronic health conditions, who are receiving care in hospitals, who are residing in homes for dependent and neglected children, or who are receiving services provided by day care centers, schools, early intervention programs under part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (
20 U.S.C.
1431 et seq.), Head Start agencies under the Head Start Act [
42 U.S.C.
9831 et seq.], or other programs, establishments, and institutions providing services for children having special or exceptional needs or circumstances identified as limiting their academic, social, or emotional development. Individual foster grandparents may provide person-to-person services to one or more children, depending on the needs of the project and local site. The Director may approve assistance in excess of 90 per centum of the costs of the development and operation of such projects only if the Director determines, in accordance with regulations the Director shall prescribe establishing objective criteria, that such action is required in furtherance of the purpose of this section. Provision for such assistance shall be effective as of September 19, 1972. In the case of any project with respect to which, prior to such date, a grant or contract has been made under section
3044b
(a) of this title or with respect to any project under the Foster Grandparent program in effect prior to September 17, 1969, contributions in cash or in kind from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, toward the cost of the project may be counted as part of the cost thereof which is met from non-Federal sources.