[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 82 (Friday, April 27, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25152-25155]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-10237]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records--National Longitudinal 
Transitions Study--2012

AGENCY: Institute of Education Sciences, 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 (Department) publishes this 
notice of a new system of records entitled ``National Longitudinal 
Transitions Study--2012'' (18-13-27). The National Center for Education 
Evaluation and Regional Assistance at the Department's Institute of 
Education Sciences (IES) commissioned this study as part of the 
congressionally mandated national assessment of Individuals with 
Disability Education Act (IDEA). It will be conducted under a contract 
that IES awarded in September 2010.
    The central research questions that the study will address are: How 
do the characteristics, courses of study, receipt of services and 
accommodations, school experiences, and key outcomes for transition-age 
students with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) differ from 
transition-age students with a plan that provides accommodations under 
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504 Plan) and 
from transition-age students without a Section 504 Plan or an IEP? How 
have these facets changed over time for students with IEPs?
    The system will contain records from 500 school districts on 
approximately 15,000 students and their parents, 15,000 teachers, and 
2,000 principals.

DATES: The Department seeks comment on the 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 uses 
for the system of records referenced in this notice on or before May 
29, 2012.
    The Department filed a report describing the new system of records 
covered by this notice with the Chair of the Senate Committee on 
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the Chair of the House 
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the Administrator of 
the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) on April 24, 2012. This system of records will become 
effective at the later date of--(1) The expiration of the 40-day period 
for OMB review on June 4, 2012, unless OMB waives 10 days of

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the 40-day review period for compelling reasons shown by the 
Department, or (2) May 29, 2012, unless the system of records needs to 
be changed as a result of public comment or OMB review.

ADDRESSES: Address all comments about this new system of records to Dr. 
Audrey Pendleton, Associate Commissioner, 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 20208-0001. Telephone: (202) 208-7078. 
If you prefer to send comments through the Internet, use the following 
address: [email protected].
    You must include the term ``National Longitudinal Transitions 
Study--2012'' in the subject line of the electronic message.
    During and after the comment period, you may inspect all comments 
about this notice at the U.S. Department of Education in room 502D, 555 
New Jersey Avenue NW., Washington, DC, between the hours of 8:00 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 provide an appropriate accommodation or 
auxiliary aid 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 accommodation or auxiliary aid, please contact the person 
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Audrey Pendleton. Telephone: (202) 
208-7078. If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), 
call the Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 1-800-877-8339.
    Individuals with disabilities can obtain this document in an 
accessible format (e.g., braille, large print, audiotape, or compact 
disc) on request to the contact person listed in this section.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Introduction

    The Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a) requires the Department 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 any record about an individual that is 
maintained in a system of records from which individually identifying 
information is 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 a notice of a 
system of records in the Federal Register and to prepare and send a 
report to OMB whenever the agency publishes a new system of records or 
makes a significant change to an established system of records. Each 
agency is also required to send copies of the report to the Chair of 
the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and 
the Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 
These reports are included to permit an evaluation of the probable 
effect of the proposal on the privacy rights of individuals.
    Electronic Access to This Document: 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 
Code of Federal Regulations is available via the Federal Digital System 
at: www.gpo.gov/fdsys. 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 Adobe 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: 
www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, through the advanced search 
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published 
by the Department.

    Dated: April 24, 2012.
John Q. Easton,
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:
SYSTEM NUMBER:
    18-13-27.

SYSTEM NAME:
    National Longitudinal Transitions Study--2012.

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
    None.

SYSTEM LOCATIONS:
    (1) Evaluation Division, National Center for Education Evaluation 
and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. 
Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue NW., room 502D, 
Washington, DC 20208-0001.
    (2) Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., 600 Alexander Park, 
Princeton, NJ 08540-6346 (contractor).
    (3) Decision Information Resources, Inc., 2600 Southwest Freeway, 
Suite 900, Houston, TX 77098-4610 (subcontractor).

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
    The system will contain records from 500 districts on approximately 
15,000 students and their parents, 15,000 teachers, and 2,000 
principals.

CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
    The system of records includes individually identifying information 
about the students who agree to participate. This information includes 
name, birth date, and contact information; demographic information such 
as race, ethnicity, gender, age, and educational background; 
information on accommodations and services received; information on 
attendance and disciplinary incidences; information on employment 
history and postsecondary institution attended; and scores on reading 
and mathematics achievement tests. The system of records also includes 
students' school transcripts. It is also our intention to include in 
this system of records students' Social Security numbers (SSNs). In 
order to ensure that the information on the students' employment and 
earnings can be obtained, the students' SSNs are needed because other 
methods (i.e., self-reporting) have proven to be infeasible. This 
method will place a low burden on students and be of low cost to the 
Federal government. The system of records will also include 
individually identifying information about the parents and teachers of 
participating students, including name and contact information; 
demographic information such as race and ethnicity; and teaching 
experience. The system of records will also include the name and 
contact information of principals of participating students and 
information that they provide about the school's programs, policies, 
and environment.

AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
    The study is authorized under Part D, Subpart 2, Section 664 of the

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Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. 1464.

PURPOSE(S):
    The information contained in the records maintained in this system 
will be used to describe the characteristics of, receipt of services 
by, and outcomes of transition-age students. The study will address the 
following research questions:

    Describe Transition-Age Students With an Individualized Education 
Plan (IEP)
    What are the personal, family, and school characteristics of this 
group?
    What are their courses of study, services and accommodations 
received to support learning, and preparation for transition? What 
barriers and challenges do they encounter?
    What are the key academic, social, and economic outcomes in school 
and after leaving school for youth with disabilities?
    How do services received, courses of study, barriers, and outcomes 
vary for subgroups defined by the nature of the student's disability, 
age, sex, race/ethnicity, or characteristics of the student's school or 
community?
    How do academic, social, and economic outcomes for students with 
disabilities vary by their course of study and receipt of services and 
accommodations, accounting for preexisting youth characteristics?

    Compare Current Transition-Age Students With an IEP to Their Peers 
in Prior Cohorts

    How do the receipt of services and accommodations and the outcomes 
of the current cohort of special education students differ from those 
of previous cohorts of special education students?

    Compare Transition-Age Students With an IEP to Their Peers Who Do 
Not Have an IEP

    What are the characteristics, school and transition experiences, 
and postsecondary outcomes of students with a plan that provides 
accommodations under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 
(Section 504 Plan)?
    How do characteristics, courses of study, receipt of services and 
accommodations, and key outcomes for transition-age students with an 
IEP differ from transition-age students with a Section 504 Plan and 
from transition-age students with no Section 504 Plan and no IEP?

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES 
OF USERS AND THE PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
    The Department of Education (Department) may disclose information 
contained in a record in this system of records under the routine uses 
listed in this system of records without the consent of the individual 
if the disclosure is compatible with the purposes for which the record 
was collected. These disclosures may be made on a case-by-case basis 
or, if the Department has complied with the computer matching 
requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (Privacy Act), 
under a computer matching agreement. Any disclosure of individually 
identifiable information from a record in this system must also comply 
with the requirements of section 183 of the Education Sciences Reform 
Act of 2002 (ESRA) (20 U.S.C. 9573) providing for confidentiality 
standards that apply to all collections, reporting, and publication of 
data by IES.
    (1) 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.
    (2) Federal Agency Disclosure. The Department may disclose records 
from this system of records to another Federal agency for the purposes 
of allowing that agency to provide assistance to the Department with 
the evaluation of a federally supported education program. Under the 
requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), 
20 U.S.C. 1232g and 34 CFR part 99, the Department will enter into an 
interagency agreement with the other Federal agency designating that 
agency as the Department's authorized representative before disclosing 
any personally identifiable information from any students' education 
records to that Federal agency. Under the terms of such an interagency 
agreement, the Federal agency will not be permitted to redisclose any 
personally identifiable information obtained from students' education 
records, and will be required to destroy any personally identifiable 
information from students' education records when no longer needed for 
the purposes of the evaluation as well as to maintain safeguards to 
protect the confidentiality of any personally identifiable information 
disclosed.

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 Department maintains records on CD-ROM, and the contractor 
(Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.) and sub-contractor (Decision 
Information Resources, Inc.) maintain data for this system on computers 
and in hard copy.

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

SAFEGUARDS:
    All physical access to the Department's site and to the site of the 
Department's contractor and subcontractor, where this system of records 
is maintained, is controlled and monitored by security personnel. The 
computer system employed by the Department offers a high degree of 
resistance to tampering and circumvention. This security system limits 
data access to Department and contract staff on a need-to-know basis, 
and controls individual users' ability to access and alter records 
within the system. The contractor and subcontractor will establish a 
similar set of procedures at its site to ensure confidentiality of 
data. The contractor's and subcontractor's systems are required to 
ensure that information identifying individuals is in files physically 
separated from other research data. The contractor and subcontractor 
will maintain security of the complete set of all master data files and 
documentation. Access to individually identifying 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 
contractor's 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; and additional security features that the 
network administrators will establish for projects as needed. The 
contractor's and subcontractor's employees who ``maintain'' (collect, 
maintain, use, or disseminate) data in this system shall comply with 
the requirements of the confidentiality

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standards in section 183 of the ESRA (20 U.S.C. 9573).

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:
    Records are maintained and disposed of in accordance with the 
Department's Records Disposition Schedules (ED/RDS, Part 3, Item 2b and 
Part 3, Item 5a).

SYSTEM MANAGER AND ADDRESS:
    Associate Commissioner, 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 20208-0001.

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 regulations at 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 
regulations at 34 CFR 5b.5, including proof of identity.

CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURE:
    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 at 34 CFR 5b.7, including proof of 
identity.

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
    This system contains records on students, their parents, teachers, 
and principals participating in the National Longitudinal Transitions 
Study 2012. Data will be obtained through student records maintained by 
the school districts, assessments administered to students, and surveys 
of students, their parents, teachers, and principals. Information on 
principals will be obtained from publicly available information and 
information that they submit in response to surveys about their 
schools' programs, policies, and environment

EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED FOR THE SYSTEM:
    None.

[FR Doc. 2012-10237 Filed 4-26-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P