Notice2026-01249
Agency Information Collection Activities: OMB Generic Clearance for the Annual Survey of School Food Authorities
Primary source
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Published
January 23, 2026
Issuing agencies
Agriculture DepartmentFood and Nutrition Service
Abstract
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection. This data collection is based on the currently approved 2023 Pulse Survey: Operational Challenges in Child Nutrition Program, OMB Control No. 0584-0689, expiration date 12/ 31/2026. This revised collection will be renamed the OMB Generic Clearance for the Annual Survey of School Food Authorities and will be reclassified as a generic clearance to more accurately reflect the process under which FNS has submitted and OIRA has cleared revised annual School Food Authority (SFA) survey instruments. The studies encompassed under this information collection will collect data from SFAs administering the Child Nutrition Programs, including information on emerging and ongoing challenges, their impacts on operations and student participation, and strategies SFAs are undertaking to address challenges they face.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 15 (Friday, January 23, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 15 (Friday, January 23, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2898-2901]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-01249]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Food and Nutrition Service
Agency Information Collection Activities: OMB Generic Clearance
for the Annual Survey of School Food Authorities
AGENCY: Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this
notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment
on this proposed information collection. This data collection is based
on the currently approved 2023 Pulse Survey: Operational Challenges in
Child Nutrition Program, OMB Control No. 0584-0689, expiration date 12/
31/2026. This revised collection will be renamed the OMB Generic
Clearance for the Annual Survey of School Food Authorities and will be
reclassified as a generic clearance to more accurately reflect the
process under which FNS has submitted and OIRA has cleared revised
annual School Food Authority (SFA) survey instruments. The studies
encompassed under this information collection will collect data from
SFAs administering the Child Nutrition Programs, including information
on emerging and ongoing challenges, their impacts on operations and
student participation, and strategies SFAs are undertaking to address
challenges they face.
DATES: Written comments must be received on or before March 24, 2026.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to: Conor McGovern, Food and Nutrition
Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1320 Braddock Pl., 5th Floor,
Alexandria, VA 22314. Comments may also be submitted via email to
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#f4b79b9a9b86dab997b39b8291869ab481879095da939b82"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="5c1f3332332e72113f1b332a392e321c292f383d723b332a">[email protected]</span></a>. Comments will also be accepted through the
Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>, and
follow the online instructions for submitting comments electronically.
All responses to this notice will be summarized and included in the
request for Office of Management and Budget
[[Page 2899]]
approval. All comments will be a matter of public record.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or
copies of this information collection should be directed to Conor
McGovern at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#42012d2c2d306c0f21052d3427302c02373126236c252d34"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="f2b19d9c9d80dcbf91b59d8497809cb287819693dc959d84">[email protected]</span></a> or (703) 457-7740.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the
proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the
information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the
agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of
information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions
that were used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity
of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden
of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including
use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other
technological collection techniques or other forms of information
technology.
Title: OMB Generic Clearance for the Annual Survey of School Food
Authorities.
Form Number: N/A.
OMB Number: 0584-0689.
Expiration Date: December 31, 2026.
Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
Abstract: FNS administers the Child Nutrition (CN) Programs in
partnership with States, local SFAs, other program sponsors, and local
program operators. Section 28(a) of the Richard B. Russell National
School Lunch Act authorizes the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Secretary to conduct annual national performance assessments of the
school meal programs and requires States and local entities
participating in the programs to cooperate with program research and
evaluations.
This information collection request is for a revision of the
currently approved collection. The FNS requests a generic clearance to
collect annual data on emerging school food service operational
challenges, including but not limited to food costs, procurement
challenges, labor shortages, changes to nutrition standards, and/or
related issues in SY 2026-2027, 2027-2028, and SY 2028-2029. Access to
a timely and reliable source of data on these topics will allow FNS to
provide the best possible support to SFAs facing continued food service
operations challenges and enable FNS to respond more quickly and
effectively to potential disruptions in the future.
To administer the survey each year, FNS will first contact state
agencies administering the National School Lunch Program and School
Breakfast Program to obtain current lists of SFA Directors or another
appropriate point of contact (the OMB control number for the collection
of contact information for sampling frames is 0584-0613, FNS Quick
Response Surveys, expiration 06/30/2027). The list will be used to
conduct a census. FNS will provide state agencies with a template email
to send to SFA Directors in their respective States to provide
information regarding the survey and express support for the data
collection. FNS will then email the survey to respondents via a web-
based survey platform such as Qualtrics. The survey instrument will
take approximately 20 minutes to complete.
Survey administration will be similar to the methods used for the
SFA Surveys on School Food Supply Chain Disruption and Student
Participation in SY 2023-2024, 2024-2025, and 2025-2026 which were
previously cleared under OMB control number 0584-0689, expiration date
12/31/2026. This proposed renewal more accurately reflects the use of
the ICR to date by limiting data collection to SFAs and reclassifying
it as a generic clearance rather than requesting annual changes through
a change memorandum under the clearance process for the current
information collection for SFA surveys.
Under the currently approved information collection, methods
consisted of a web survey of all SFAs nationwide operating Child
Nutrition Programs in schools during a given school year. The most
recent collection for the 2024-2025 school year was distributed to
18,531 SFAs based on contact information collected from the 56 CN
agencies that administer CN Programs at the state level in the 50
States, District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern
Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
FNS is proposing to use a generic ICR for this data collection
because we make small annual changes to the survey instrument each year
to reflect lessons learned from previous surveys, as well as collect
new information unique to the collection period. Under the current
information collection, this has been handled through annual change
memoranda, but the generic clearance process is more appropriate for
handling these sorts of changes on an annual basis. Therefore, this
generic clearance enables FNS to better meet the goals of Executive
Order 14058, Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service
Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government, by allowing FNS to
expeditiously gather information from program operators to improve and
refine customer experience and service delivery.
Affected Public: State/local governments and private, not-for-
profit businesses: Respondent groups identified include: (1) State
agencies administering the National School Lunch Program and School
Breakfast Program, and (2) SFA Directors from all 50 States, 5
territories, the District of Columbia, and the Department of Defense.
Estimated Number of Respondents: The total estimated number of
respondents per year is 18,692. This includes (1) 56 State Agency
Directors; and (2) 18,636 SFA Directors. Consistent with past
approaches, new survey questions will engage nine pretest participants
representative of SFA Directors (government and private, not-for-profit
business).
Estimated Number of Responses per Respondent: State Agency Director
respondents will be asked to provide a current list of SFAs operating
Child Nutrition Programs, as needed, and distribute a survey support
email to these respondent groups annually (three times total, in SY
2025-2026, SY 2027-2028, and SY 2028-2029). SFAs will be asked to
complete the web survey once per year.
In the event of non-response, survey respondents will receive
follow-up email correspondence and will be provided contact information
for FNS survey support as needed. Based on the prior three years of
data collection, FNS estimates that about 65 percent of Directors of
private SFAs will complete the survey and 72 percent of Directors of
public SFAs will complete the survey each year. Using the most recent
data from SY 2024-2025 where 84 percent of SFAs were public, FNS
estimates that 11,271 of 15,654 public SFAs will complete the survey
and 1,938 of 2,982 private SFAs will complete the survey.
Estimated Total Annual Responses: 37,328, including non-
respondents. We expect that 26,474 of these will be responsive.
Estimated Time per Response: The average time for all responses is
about 9.6 minutes (0.16 hours). Response time ranges from a little over
one minute (0.02 hours) for non-responsive contacts to 20 minutes (0.33
hours) to respond to the full survey instrument.
Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 4,406.3 hours. See
the table below for estimated total annual burden for each type of
respondent.
BILLING CODE 3410-30-P
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[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN23JA26.000
[[Page 2901]]
Patrick A. Penn,
Deputy Under Secretary, Food and Nutrition Consumer Service, U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
[FR Doc. 2026-01249 Filed 1-22-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-30-C
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