Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment Request; School Pulse Panel 2024-25 Preliminary Field Activities, 84310-84311 [2023-26679]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 232 (Tuesday, December 5, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 84310-84311]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-26679]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket No.: ED-2023-SCC-0170]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; School Pulse Panel 2024-25 Preliminary Field Activities

AGENCY: National Center for Education Sciences (NCES), Department of 
Education (ED).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, 
the Department is proposing a revision of a currently approved 
information collection request (ICR).

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
January 4, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for proposed 
information collection requests should be submitted within 30 days of 
publication of this notice. Click on this link www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain to access the site. Find this information collection request 
(ICR) by selecting ``Department of Education'' under ``Currently Under 
Review,'' then check the ``Only Show ICR for Public Comment'' checkbox. 
Reginfo.gov provides two links to view documents related to this 
information collection request. Information collection forms and 
instructions may be found by clicking on the ``View Information 
Collection (IC) List'' link. Supporting statements and other supporting 
documentation may be found by clicking on the ``View Supporting 
Statement and Other Documents'' link.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For specific questions related to 
collection activities, please contact Carrie Claraday, 202-245-6347.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department is especially interested in 
public comment addressing the following issues: (1) is this collection 
necessary to the proper functions of the Department; (2) will this 
information be processed and used in a timely manner; (3) is the 
estimate of burden accurate; (4) how might the Department enhance the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and 
(5) how might the Department minimize the burden of this collection on 
the respondents, including through the use of information technology. 
Please note that written comments received in response to this notice 
will be considered public records.
    Title of Collection: School Pulse Panel 2024-25 Preliminary Field 
Activities.
    OMB Control Number: 1850-0969.
    Type of Review: A revision of a currently approved ICR.
    Respondents/Affected Public: State, Local, and Tribal Governments.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 6,339.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 2,551.
    Abstract: The School Pulse Panel (SPP) is a data collection 
originally designed to collect repeated voluntary responses from a 
nationally representative sample of public schools to better understand 
how schools, students, and educators are responding to the ongoing 
stressors of the coronavirus pandemic. The School Pulse Panel is 
conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part 
of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), within the United States 
Department of Education. Due to the immediate need to collect 
information from schools during the pandemic to satisfy the requirement 
of Executive Order 14000, an emergency clearance was issued to develop 
and field the first several monthly collections of the SPP in 2021 and 
a full review of the SPP data collection was performed under the 
traditional clearance review process in 2022 (OMB# 1850-0969). SPP's 
innovative design and timely dissemination of findings have been used 
and cited frequently among Department of Education senior leadership, 
the White House Domestic Policy Counsel, the USDA's Food and Nutrition 
Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Congressional 
deliberations, and the media. The ongoing interest by stakeholders has 
resulted in dedicated funding to continue the SPP as an ongoing, quick-
turnaround data collection vehicle.
    For the 2024-25 school year, the survey may ask school staff about 
a wide range of topics, including but not limited to instructional mode 
offered; enrollment counts of subgroups of students for various subject 
interests; strategies to address learning recovery; safe and healthy 
school mitigation strategies; mental health services; use of 
technology; information on staffing, nutrition services, absenteeism, 
usage of federal funds, facilities, and overall principal experiences. 
It is planned that content will be rotated in and out monthly. This 
package includes preliminary activities, including a generic special 
district application and communication materials for district and 
school recruitment, that will be conducted to help with recruitment 
efforts for the 2024-25 sample.
    Roughly 8,000 public elementary, middle, high, and combined-grade 
schools will be randomly selected to participate in a panel. The goal 
will be national representation from 1,000 responding schools in order 
to report out national estimates. School staff will be asked to provide 
requested data monthly during the 2024-25 school year. This approach 
provides the ability to collect detailed information on various topics 
while also assessing changes over time for items that are repeated from 
month to month. Given the high demand for data collection during this 
time, the content of the survey will change monthly.
    This request is to conduct the SPP 2024-25 preliminary activities, 
including contacting and obtaining research approvals from public 
school districts with an established research approval process 
(``special contact districts''), where applicable, notifying sampled 
schools of their selection for the survey and inviting them to complete 
short Screener Surveys to establish a point of contact at their school. 
Additional materials may be added to this package after the 60-day 
public comment period is complete, in

[[Page 84311]]

time for the subsequent 30-day public comment period that will begin in 
December 2023/January 2024. In spring of 2024, a clearance for main 
study data collection activities with schools and districts, including 
instruments for the first quarter of monthly collections, will be 
submitted 60-day and 30-day public comment. Subsequent quarterly 
content submissions will be submitted for 30-day public comment. 
Because the School Pulse Panel Survey is designed to collect data on 
timely questions, materials for SPP are cleared under two OMB Number 
sequences. Materials for SPP 2022 were cleared under OMB# 1850-0969, 
while 23-24 SPP were cleared primarily under OMB# 1850-0975. For 24-25 
we return to OMB# 1850-0969.

    Dated: November 30, 2023.
Stephanie Valentine,
PRA Coordinator, Strategic Collections and Clearance, Governance and 
Strategy Division, Office of Chief Data Officer, Office of Planning, 
Evaluation and Policy Development.
[FR Doc. 2023-26679 Filed 12-4-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P