[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 111 (Tuesday, June 10, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34577-34578]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-14540]


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 Notices
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  Federal Register / Vol. 68, No. 111 / Tuesday, June 10, 2003 / 
Notices  

[[Page 34577]]



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food and Nutrition Service


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request--Pilot-Testing of WIC Staffing Administrative Data 
Collection Process

AGENCY: Food and Nutrition Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) invites the general public and other 
interested parties to comment on a proposed pilot test of a potential 
new administrative data collection system for the Special Supplemental 
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The proposed 
pilot-testing described in this notice is part of FNS' larger effort to 
address the long term staffing challenges confronting the WIC Program's 
ability to provide quality nutrition services. This effort by FNS is in 
response to a General Accounting Office (GAO) recommendation that 
resulted in part from the concerns expressed by WIC state and local 
agencies and other program stakeholders that Nutrition Services and 
Administration (NSA) funding has not kept pace with the challenges and 
costs of program operations and administration.

DATES: To be assured of consideration, comments must be received on or 
before August 11, 2003.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to Ed Herzog, Office of Analysis, 
Nutrition, and Evaluation, Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department 
of Agriculture, 3101 Park Center Drive, Alexandria, VA 22302. Comments 
may also be faxed to the attention of Mr. Herzog at 703-305-2576. The 
Internet address is: [email protected].
    We are soliciting comments 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 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.
    All written comments will be open for public inspection at the 
office of the Food and Nutrition Service during regular business hours 
(8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday) at 3101 Park Center Drive, 
Alexandria, Virginia 22302, Room 1006.
    All responses to this notice will be summarized and included in the 
request for Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval. All 
comments will be a matter of public record.
    All submitted comments should refer to the title of this proposal.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Edward Herzog at 703-305-2137.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Pilot-testing of WIC Staffing Administrative Data Collection 
Process.
    OMB Number: Not yet assigned.
    Expiration Date: N/A.
    Type of Request: New collection of information.
    Abstract: The William F. Goodling Child Nutrition Reauthorization 
Act of 1998 (Pub. L. 105-336) directed GAO to assess various aspects of 
NSA funding of the WIC program. The request was motivated by the 
concerns of WIC state and local agencies and other program stakeholders 
that the NSA funding had not kept pace with the challenges and costs of 
program operations and administration.
    In December 2001, GAO released their fifth and final report on this 
subject, Food Assistance: WIC Faces Challenges in Providing Nutrition 
Services (GAO-02-142). One of the key challenges noted in the report 
concerned the recruitment and retention of skilled staff.
    In the report, GAO confirmed a widely recognized concern in the WIC 
community that many local WIC agencies are reporting a shortfall in the 
number of professional staff available to the Program and difficulty 
acquiring professional staff members. For example, the 1998 WIC 
Participant and Program Characteristics report found that 30 percent of 
local WIC agencies serving over 40 percent of WIC participants reported 
having too few professional staff members. About half of the agencies 
reported having difficulty recruiting and hiring staff. GAO estimated 
that in Federal Fiscal Year 1998, between 5 to 15 percent of local WIC 
agencies did not have a nutritionist or dietitian on staff. The GAO 
report cites one WIC Director who suggested that the problem might 
worsen because WIC's workforce is aging and large numbers of WIC 
professionals are expected to retire in the next few years.
    The WIC Program community, at the national and state level, and the 
professional nutrition community have also registered concern about the 
staffing issues currently facing the WIC program and interest in 
identifying staffing characteristics in greater detail. The National 
WIC Association (NWA) local agency section has also identified a need 
to better understand the issues affecting local agency staffing, and 
has identified a number of items of interest to the WIC community.
    As noted by GAO and by FNS, a key obstacle in formulating 
strategies to address staffing needs in the WIC Program is the lack of 
data regarding issues such as staffing patterns, vacancies, turnover, 
and salaries at the local level. Without such data, identifying the 
exact nature of the staffing problems is difficult, and developing 
strategies to address these issues is an even greater challenge. 
Moreover, the lack of data can by itself be a contributing factor to 
the problems in recruiting and maintaining skilled staff. Until there 
is data documenting agencies' inability to meet demand, it is difficult 
to develop the infrastructure necessary to produce more professional 
staff and provide a greater level of support for them.
    In order to address the lack of WIC staffing data, GAO recommended 
that FNS work with the Economic Research Service and the National 
Association of WIC Directors (now NWA) to conduct an assessment of the 
staffing needs of

[[Page 34578]]

state and local agencies. FNS has determined that additional data 
collection is required to adequately respond to the GAO recommendation 
and to the staffing concerns currently facing the WIC program. FNS is 
interested in eventually developing a data collection system that all 
WIC local agencies would respond to on a periodic basis. Before 
proceeding with such a data collection system, however, FNS needs to 
better understand the burden associated with such a system. As a first 
step, FNS is planning to pilot-test a paper and an electronic version 
of the data collection system with volunteer local WIC agencies.
    Methods: As a first step towards developing a draft data collection 
instrument, FNS, in consultation with the National WIC Association 
(NWA), established an eleven member advisory board consisting of local 
and state WIC agency representatives and a representative from the 
academic nutrition community. FNS thus assured that expert opinion and 
dialogue with the WIC stakeholder community was utilized in the process 
of developing the instrument. The diverse membership of the advisory 
board includes administrators and nutritionists from large and small 
geographic states and one Native American agency, representing all 
seven FNS regions.
    FNS believes that the use of an electronic data collection 
instrument would help minimize the burden of the data collection 
process. However, according to NWA, only half of their member agencies 
currently have internet access. For this reason, FNS will pilot both an 
electronic and a paper version of the data collection instrument in 
order to test the effectiveness of both systems.
    The draft data collection instrument was designed to collect 
information on the following areas:
    1. Number and type of staff;
    2. Functional responsibilities, by category of staff;
    3. Salary and benefit levels by category of staff;
    4. Factors affecting recruitment and retention of staff;
    5. Changes in staffing levels over time;
    6. Local agency characteristics.
    FNS plans for pilot testing to be performed in selected local WIC 
agencies. The selected local WIC agencies are to be identified in 
consultation with the advisory board. Participation in the pilot-test 
will be voluntary; no local agency will be required to participate.
    The pilot-test of the data collection system will serve three 
purposes. It will allow FNS to: (1) Make further refinements to the 
data collection instrument; (2) better understand the burden on local 
agencies to report staffing data; and (3) decide whether to go forward 
with a national periodic administrative data collection of staffing 
data from all local WIC agencies.
    A copy of the proposed data collection instrument (paper version) 
can be obtained from the contact person identified at the beginning of 
this notice. The electronic version will not be available for review 
but will have the same questions, in the same order, as the paper 
version.
    Estimate of Burden: The estimate of the reporting burden is based 
on the assumption that the information being requested should be 
available somewhere within each local agency; however, it may require 
some effort to collect and compile the information for the pilot-test. 
Furthermore, while there is a relatively fixed amount of time needed to 
fill out the pilot-test data collection instrument, agencies with more 
employees will likely need more time to collect and compile the 
requested information.
    Respondents: Local WIC Agencies.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: The pilot test will be conducted 
in one hundred local agencies, fifty of which will test the paper data 
collection instrument and fifty of which will test the electronic 
instrument. In addition, one day follow-up visits will be conducted at 
twelve of the original one hundred agencies for the purpose of 
verifying the accuracy of their responses and further understanding the 
process necessary to collect and compile the information.
    Number of Responses per Respondent: Each local agency in the pilot 
test will complete the data collection instrument once. Each agency 
will also complete a second, shorter survey indicating how difficult 
the information was to collect, how much time it took to complete the 
data collection instrument, and which questions were particularly 
difficult to respond to. The twelve agencies selected for the follow-up 
will have one visit from a project team member.
    Estimated Time per Response: The estimated time required for local 
agencies to compile and report the information will likely vary based 
on the size of the agency, as measured by the number of employees. 
Nationally, the size of local agencies ranges from one or two employees 
to the largest agency which employees approximately 350 staff. The 
agencies in the pilot will represent this diversity of size to the 
extent that appropriate volunteers can be identified. Estimates were 
developed for various ranges of agency size. These are:
    (a) 1-20 employees: 30 minutes to read and understand the 
instructions, 120 minutes to collect the information, 40 minutes to 
complete the data collection instrument, and 30 minutes to complete the 
second survey for a total of 220 minutes.
    (b) 21-100 employees: 30 minutes to read and understand the 
instructions, 240 minutes to collect the information, 40 minutes to 
complete the data collection instrument, and 30 minutes to complete the 
second survey for a total of 340 minutes.
    (c) Over 100 employees: 30 minutes to read and understand the 
instructions, 360 minutes to collect the information, 40 minutes to 
complete the data collection instrument, and 30 minutes to complete the 
second survey for a total of 460 minutes.
    All agencies, follow-up visits: Approximately six hours, regardless 
of agency size, for the follow-up visit and interviews.
    There is no source of information regarding the number of employees 
in each of the local agencies across the country. However, from the 
oversite and monitoring of states and their local agencies over several 
years, FNS believes that the majority of local agencies probably fall 
within the middle size group. Accordingly, the pilot will include 
approximately twenty-five agencies from the first and third size groups 
and fifty agencies from the middle size groups for both versions of the 
pilot (paper and electronic). A slightly larger number of volunteer 
agencies will initially be identified to allow for a non-response rate 
and still have the desired number of responses.
    Estimated Total Burden on Respondents in the Pilot: The total 
burden is calculated as follows:
    25 local agencies x 220 minutes = 5,500 minutes or 91.7 hours.
    50 local agencies x 340 minutes = 17,000 minutes or 283.3 hours.
    25 local agencies x 460 minutes = 11,500 minutes or 191.7 hours.
    12 local agencies x 6 hours = 72 hours.
    Total respondent time: 638.7 hours.

    Dated: June 2, 2003.
Roberto Salazar,
Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service.
[FR Doc. 03-14540 Filed 6-9-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-30-P