Notice2023-14888
Identifying Burden Across Department of Education Information Collection Requests; Request for Public Input
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
July 13, 2023
Issuing agencies
Education Department
Abstract
The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is seeking comments from the public on how it can reduce the burden associated with its information collection requests (ICRs) on State, local, territorial, and Tribal governments, educational institutions, nonprofits, and individuals, while maintaining data, information, and analyses critical to fulfill the Department's mission. This effort will help the Department identify improvements, redundancies in information collections, and inefficiencies in collections in order to improve the value and use of data.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 133 (Thursday, July 13, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 133 (Thursday, July 13, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44786-44788]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-14888]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
[Docket No. ED-2023-SCC-0100]
Identifying Burden Across Department of Education Information
Collection Requests; Request for Public Input
AGENCY: Office of the Chief Data Officer (OCDO), Office of Planning,
Evaluation and Policy Development (OPEPD), Department of Education.
ACTION: Request for public input.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is seeking
comments from the public on how it can reduce the burden associated
with its information collection requests (ICRs) on State, local,
territorial, and Tribal governments, educational institutions,
nonprofits, and individuals, while maintaining data, information, and
analyses critical to fulfill the Department's mission. This effort will
help the Department identify improvements, redundancies in information
collections, and inefficiencies in collections in order to improve the
value and use of data.
DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before
August 14, 2023.
ADDRESSES: Comments submitted in response to this notice should be
submitted electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at
https://
[[Page 44787]]
www.regulations.gov. If this site is not available to the public for
any reason, the Department will temporarily accept comments at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#96dfd5d2f9f5fdf3e2dbf1e4d6f3f2b8f1f9e0"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="d8919b9cb7bbb3bdac95bfaa98bdbcf6bfb7ae">[email protected]</span></a>. If comments cannot be submitted electronically,
please submit by postal mail or delivery to the following address:
Manager of the Strategic Collections and Clearance Team, Governance and
Strategy Division, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Ave. SW,
LBJ, Room 4C210, Washington, DC 20202-8240. A list of active ICRs is
available on <a href="http://reginfo.gov">reginfo.gov</a>. Find the list of current information
collections by selecting ``Department of Education'' from the Select
Agency picklist under ``Current Inventory,'' and click ``Submit.''
Please reference the OMB control number when submitting comments
regarding a specific ICR. Comments submitted after the comment period
will not be accepted.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For specific questions related to
collection activities, please contact Joanne Bogart,
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#6b01040a05050e4509040c0a191f2b0e0f450c041d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="442e2b252a2a216a262b232536300421206a232b32">[email protected]</span></a> and 202-205-7855.
If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and
wish to access telecommunications relay services, please dial 7-1-1.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Public Participation: Interested persons are invited to comment on
this notice by submitting written data, views, or arguments using the
method identified in the ADDRESSES section.
Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and
docket number for this notice. All comments received will be posted
without change to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>. Please exclude any
personally identifiable information.
Docket: For access to the docket to read comments, go to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>.
Background
The Department collects information to support and advance its
mission and respond to regulatory and statutory requirements.
Information collection requests can include grant and financial aid
applications, performance reports, studies, and statistical information
that promote transparency and advances the field. The Department is now
examining existing data collections to ensure that they generate
benefits to students, families, educators, institutions, and the public
that are commensurate with the effort involved with providing the
information. To inform this work, the Department is soliciting public
input to (1) better understand how specific ICRs may impose unnecessary
burdens on State, local, territorial, and Tribal governments,
educational institutions, nonprofits, and individuals, and (2) collect
suggestions for improving ICRs to reduce burden while balancing the
important purpose of the collections. This effort will support the
Department in addressing requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act
(Pub. L. 104-13), including but not limited to minimizing paperwork
burden on the public and ensuring the greatest public benefit from
information created, collected, maintained, used, shared, and
disseminated by or for the Federal Government. It will also inform the
Department's work to address priorities outlined in Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) memorandum M22-10 ``Improving Access to
Public Benefits Programs Through the Paperwork Reduction Act,'' which
provides guidance for Federal agencies on (1) more completely and
transparently articulating burdens and associated costs experienced by
the public when accessing essential public benefits programs, and (2)
using an analysis of the submissions to ``minimize the Federal
information collection burden, with particular emphasis on those
individuals and entities most adversely affected.''
Request For Public Input
A. Importance of Public Feedback
To achieve the objectives outlined in this document, it is critical
that public input informs improvements in strategies, processes, and
planning. The Department's ICRs affect many different individuals and
entities, all of whom are likely to have useful information, data, and
perspectives on the benefits and burdens of our existing processes.
Given that unique knowledge, public feedback will play a significant
role in improving the information collection process.
B. Maximizing the Value of Public Feedback
This notice contains a list of questions, the answers to which will
assist the Department in identifying potential information collection
processes and burdens that may benefit from review. The goals of this
request are to reduce burdens on the affected groups, saving costs and
time for both the affected groups and the Government while maintaining
the critical purposes of the collections, increasing navigability,
reducing redundancy, promoting simplification, improving efficiency,
and removing barriers that unnecessarily impede access to resources.
The Department encourages public comment on these questions and seeks
any other information or data relevant to this notice. Public feedback
that simply states that a stakeholder feels strongly that the
Department should change its processes regarding information
collections may not be as useful as feedback that contains specific
information on changes that should be considered, or how a proposed
change may reduce burden or otherwise improve existing submission
processes.
Commenters should consider the principles below as they provide
feedback on this notice:
<bullet> If a comment is about a specific OMB approved information
collection, identify the collection by providing the OMB number, which
can typically be found on the first page of a form or in the burden
statement, and any data elements. You can also find this information in
<a href="http://reginfo.gov">reginfo.gov</a> under current inventory for the Department of Education.
The links to individual ICRs can be obtained from that list.
<bullet> Explain why you recommend that a form, information
collection, or submission process be modified or streamlined.
<bullet> To the extent feasible, illustrate the costs and time,
burdens, and your perspective on the utility of respective collections
and how proposed changes could reduce costs and burdens or increase the
utility to the Department or the public.
<bullet> Focus on processes considered burdensome that have been in
effect for enough time to warrant a fair evaluation (i.e., at least a
year, in most cases).
C. Questions for Commenters
The non-exhaustive list of questions below is meant to assist
members of the public in formulating comments and is not intended to
restrict the feedback that members of the public may provide:
(1) Do some Department information collections or processes place a
more significant burden on certain types of respondents, particularly
individuals and entities that could be more adversely affected? If so,
what impact could this have on these respondents in accessing public
benefits?
(2) Do some Department information collection requests contain
questions that the commenter might perceive as having limited value or
utility? If so, please identify specific data elements when
recommending burden reduction solutions.
(3) Do some Department information collections request duplicative
information? If so, please recommend solutions (for example,
eliminating duplicative questions in a specific collection or
consolidating multiple collections)?
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(4) What data-linkage or data-sharing activities can the Department
engage in to reduce the burden of information collections?
(5) The Department recognizes that burden can be reduced by
improving the usability of forms. How might the Department reduce
burden by improving the usability of forms, independent of eliminating
data collections or data elements?
(6) What additional feedback would you like to share regarding
challenges, barriers, or suggested improvements for obtaining benefits
from the Department?
Review of Public Feedback
The Department will use the public's feedback to inform an action
plan for reducing burden, pursuant to OMB's memorandum. The Department
will also use the public's feedback to consider reduction of
administrative burdens more broadly. This notice is issued solely for
information and program-planning purposes. Public input provided in
response to this notice does not bind the Department to any further
actions, including publishing a formal response or agreeing to initiate
a recommended change. The Department will consider the feedback and
make changes or improvements at its sole discretion.
Accessible Format: On request to the person listed under FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, individuals with disabilities can obtain
this document in an accessible format. The Department will provide the
requestor with an accessible format that may include Rich Text Format
(RTF) or text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3 file, braille, large
print, audiotape, or compact disc, or other accessible format.
Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this
document is the document published in the Federal Register. You may
access the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of
Federal Regulations at <a href="http://www.govinfo.gov">www.govinfo.gov</a>. At this site you can view this
document, as well as all other documents of this Department published
in the Federal Register, in text or Portable Document Format (PDF). To
use PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at
the site.
You may also access documents of the Department published in the
Federal Register by using the article search feature at
<a href="http://www.federalregister.gov">www.federalregister.gov</a>. Specifically, through the advanced search
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published
by the Department.
Roberto J. Rodriguez,
Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development.
[FR Doc. 2023-14888 Filed 7-12-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
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