[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 79 (Friday, April 23, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22014-22016]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-9303]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records--DC Choice Program 
Evaluation

AGENCY: Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education 
Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice of a new system of records.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended 
(Privacy Act), the Department of Education (ED) publishes this notice 
of a new system of records entitled DC Choice Program Evaluation (18-
13-07). The system will contain information about program applicants 
(students), their parents, and other adults living

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with the applicants. It will include names, addresses, telephone 
numbers, social security numbers, demographic information--such as 
race/ethnicity, age, marital status, disability, language spoken in the 
home, educational background, and income--and the results of academic 
assessments. The system will also collect information about parents' 
satisfaction with their children's current schools and the reasons for 
seeking a new school. In addition, the system will collect scores on 
academic achievement examinations administered by a Department 
contractor for applicants who may not have participated in Spring, 2004 
District of Columbia public schools (DCPS) testing. It will also 
contain academic achievement data and other student performance 
measures, including attendance and disciplinary records, from existing 
DCPS education records for all students in grades K thru 12.

DATES: The Department seeks comment on this new system of records 
described in this notice, in accordance with the requirements of the 
Privacy Act. We must receive your comments on the proposed routine use 
for the system of records included in this notice on or before May 24, 
2004.
    The Department filed a report describing the new system of records 
covered by this notice with the Chair of the Senate Committee on 
Governmental Affairs, the Chair of the House of Representatives 
Committee on Government Reform, and the Administrator of the Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB), on April 20, 2004.
    Except for the provisions governing routine uses of records 
maintained in the system, this system of records notice is effective 
upon publication. The proposed routine use included in this new system 
of records will become effective on--(1) the expiration of the 40-day 
period for OMB review on May 30, 2004; (2) the expiration of a 30-day 
period for OMB review on May 20, 2004, if OMB waives 10 days of its 
review; or, (3) May 24, 2004, unless the proposed routine use included 
in the system of records needs to be changed as a result of public 
comment or OMB review.

ADDRESSES: Address all comments about the proposed routine uses to Dr. 
Ricky Takai, Director, Evaluation Division, National Center for 
Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education 
Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW., 
room 502d, Washington, DC 20208. Telephone: (202) 208-7083. If you 
prefer to send comments through the Internet, use the following 
address: [email protected]. You must include the term ``DC Choice 
Evaluation'' in the subject line of the electronic message.
    During and after the comment period, you may inspect all public 
comments about this notice in room 502, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW., 
Washington, DC, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., eastern 
time, Monday through Friday of each week except Federal holidays.

Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities in Reviewing the Rulemaking 
Record

    On request, we will supply an appropriate aid, such as a reader or 
print magnifier, to an individual with a disability who needs 
assistance to review the comments or other documents in the public 
rulemaking record for this notice. If you want to schedule an 
appointment for this type of aid, please contact the person listed 
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Ricky Takai. Telephone: (202) 208-
7083. If you use a telecommunications devise for the deaf (TDD), you 
may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-
8339.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an 
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer 
diskette) on request to the contact person listed in the preceding 
paragraph.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Introduction

    The Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a) requires ED to publish in the 
Federal Register this notice of a new system of records maintained by 
the Department. The Department's regulations implementing the Privacy 
Act are contained in part 5b of title 34 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations (CFR).
    The Privacy Act applies to information about individuals that 
contain individually identifiable information that may be retrieved by 
a unique identifier associated with each individual, such as a name or 
social security number. The information about each individual is called 
a ``record'' and the system, whether manual or computer-based, is 
called a ``system of records.'' The Privacy Act requires each agency to 
publish notices of systems of records in the Federal Register and to 
prepare a report to OMB whenever the agency publishes a new or altered 
system of records. Each agency is also required to send copies of the 
report to the Chair of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and 
the Chair of the House Committee on Government Reform. These reports 
are intended to permit an evaluation of the probable or potential 
effect of the proposal on the privacy of individuals.

Electronic Access to This Document

    You may view this document, as well as all other Department of 
Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe 
Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at the following site: 
www.ed.gov/news/fedregister.
    To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available 
free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the U.S. 
Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498, or in 
the Washington, DC, area at (202) 512-1530.

    Note: The official version of this document is the document 
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the 
official edition of the Federal Register and the CFR is available on 
GPO Access at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html.


    Dated: April 20, 2004.
Grover Whitehurst,
Director, Institute of Education Sciences.

    For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the Director of the 
Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education publishes 
a notice of a new system of records to read as follows:
18-13-07

SYSTEM NAME:
    DC Choice Program Evaluation.

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
    None.

SYSTEM LOCATION:
    Westat, 1650 Research Boulevard, Rockville, MD, 20850.

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
    There are two categories of individuals who are covered by this 
system. The system will contain records on DC Choice Program applicants 
(students), their parents and other adults living with these students. 
The system will also contain information on all DCPS non-applicant 
students from K thru 12.

CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
    This system consists of the names, addresses, telephone numbers, 
social security numbers, demographic information--such as race/
ethnicity,

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age, marital status, disability, language spoken in the home, 
educational background, and income--and the results of academic 
assessments. The system will collect information about parents' 
satisfaction with their children's current schools and the reasons for 
seeking a new school. The system will also collect scores on academic 
achievement examinations for applicants who may not have participated 
in Spring, 2004 DCPS testing. In addition, the system will also contain 
academic achievement data and other student performance measures, 
including attendance and disciplinary records, from existing DCPS 
school records for all students in grades K thru 12.

AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
    DC School Choice Incentive Act of 2003, Pub. L. 108-199, Division 
C, Title III, Section 309(a)(3) and (4).

PURPOSE(S):
    This statute is intended to provide low-income parents residing in 
the District of Columbia (the District) with expanded opportunities for 
enrolling their children in higher-performing private schools in the 
District. The information in this system will be used to fulfill the 
requirements of the DC School Choice Incentive Act of 2003 (D.C. Choice 
Act), especially section 309, which calls for a detailed evaluation of 
the program. In particular, section 309 directs the Department to 
evaluate the performance of students participating in the program by 
comparing them with the students in the same grade at DCPS as well as 
students in DCPS who applied for the program but were not selected.

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES 
OF USERS AND THE PURPOSE OF SUCH USES:
    ED may disclose information contained in a record in this system of 
records under the routine use listed in this system without the consent 
of the individual if the disclosure is compatible with the purposes for 
which the record was collected. Any disclosure of individually 
identifiable information from a record in this system must also comply 
with the requirements of: (A) Section 183 of the Education Sciences 
Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA), Pub. L. 107-279, providing for 
confidentiality standards that apply to all collections, reporting and 
publication of data by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES); (B) 
if applicable, Title V of the E-Government Act of 2002 (E-Gov Act), 
Pub. L. 107-347, governing any pledges of confidentiality given to the 
public for statistical purposes; and (C) Section 309(a)(5) of the D.C. 
Choice Act, prohibiting the disclosure of personally identifiable 
information to the public regarding the results of the measurements 
used for the evaluations.
    Contract Disclosure. If the Department contracts with an entity for 
the purposes of performing any function that requires disclosure of 
records in this system to employees of the contractor, the Department 
may disclose the records to those employees. Before entering into such 
a contract, the Department shall require the contractor to maintain 
Privacy Act safeguards as required under 5 U.S.C. 552a(m) with respect 
to the records in the system and to agree in writing to comply with all 
other provisions of law that affect the disclosure of the information, 
including section 183 of the ESRA, Title V of the E-Gov Act, and 
section 309(a)(5) of the D.C. Choice Act.

DISCLOSURE TO CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCIES:
    Not applicable to this system notice.

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORING, RETRIEVING, ACCESSING, RETAINING, 
AND DISPOSING OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM: STORAGE:
    The contractor will maintain data for this system on its computers 
and in hard copy.

RETRIEVABILITY:
    Records in this system are indexed by a number assigned to each 
individual, which is cross-referenced by the individual's name on a 
separate list.

SAFEGUARDS:
    Individual access to the offices of Department contractor, Westat, 
that maintains the system of records is controlled and monitored by 
security personnel. The contractor has established a set of procedures 
to ensure confidentiality of data. The system ensures that information 
identifying individuals is in files physically separated from other 
research data. Westat will maintain security of the complete set of all 
master data files and documentation. Access to individually 
identifiable data will be strictly controlled. All data will be kept in 
locked file cabinets during nonworking hours, and work on hardcopy data 
will take place in a single room, except for data entry.
    Physical security of electronic data will also be maintained. 
Security features that protect project data include password-protected 
accounts that authorize users to use the Westat system but to access 
only specific network directories and network software; user rights and 
directory and file attributes that limit those who can use particular 
directories and files and determine how they can use them; e-mail 
passwords that authorize the user to access mail services and 
additional security features that the network administrator establishes 
for projects as needed.

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:
    Records are maintained and disposed of in accordance with ED's 
record disposition schedules (ED/RDS). In particular, ED will follow 
the schedules outlined in Part 3 (Research Projects and Management 
Study Records) and Part 14 (Electronic Records).

SYSTEM MANAGER AND ADDRESS:
    Director, Evaluation Division, National Center for Education 
Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, 
U.S. Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW., room 502, 
Washington, DC 20208.

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE:
    If you wish to determine whether a record exists regarding you in 
the system of records, contact the systems manager. Your request must 
meet the requirements of the regulations in 34 CFR 5b.5, including 
proof of identity.

RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURE:
    If you wish to gain access to your record in the system of records, 
contact the system manager. Your request must meet the requirements of 
the regulations in 34 CFR 5b.5, including proof of identity.

PROCEDURE FOR CONTESTING RECORD:
    If you wish to contest the content of a record regarding you in the 
system of records, contact the system manager. Your request must meet 
the requirements of the regulations in 34 CFR 5b.7, including proof of 
identity.

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
    There are three principal record source categories in this system. 
Information will be obtained from applications submitted by potential 
scholarship winners. Information will also be obtained directly from 
applicants who have to take academic assessment examinations 
administered directly by the contractor. Finally, information will be 
gathered from the education records of DCPS students in grades K thru 
12.

SYSTEMS EXEMPTED FROM CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE ACT:
    None.

[FR Doc. 04-9303 Filed 4-22-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P