[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 21 (Friday, January 31, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5393-5394]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-01943]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket No.: ED-2014-ICCD-0008]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; 
Charter School Authorizer Annual Update

AGENCY: Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII), Department of 
Education (ED).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 
U.S.C. chapter 3501 et seq.), ED is proposing an extension of an 
existing information collection.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
April 1, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Comments submitted in response to this notice should be 
submitted electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
http://www.regulations.gov by selecting Docket ID number ED-2014-ICCD-
0008 or via postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. Please 
note that comments submitted by fax or email and those submitted after 
the comment period will not be accepted. Written requests for 
information or comments submitted by postal mail or delivery should be 
addressed to the Director of the Information Collection Clearance 
Division, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW., LBJ, 
Mailstop L-OM-2-2E319, Room 2E115, Washington, DC 20202.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions related to collection 
activities or burden, please call Tomakie Washington, 202-401-1097 or 
electronically mail [email protected]. Please do not send comments 
here. We will ONLY accept comments in this mailbox when the 
regulations.gov site is not available to the public for any reason.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department of Education (ED), in 
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 
3506(c)(2)(A)), provides the general public and Federal agencies with 
an opportunity to comment on proposed, revised, and continuing 
collections of information. This helps the Department assess the impact 
of its information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. It also helps the public understand the Department's 
information collection requirements and provide the requested data in 
the desired format. ED is soliciting comments on the proposed 
information collection request (ICR) that is described below. The 
Department of Education 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: Charter School Authorizer Annual Update.
    OMB Control Number: 1855-0023.
    Type of Review: An extension of an existing information collection.
    Respondents/Affected Public: State, Local, or Tribal Governments.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 90.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 2,025.
    Abstract: The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has as one of its 
important policy goals expanding the number of high-quality public 
school choice options. Specifically, according to Part B section 5201 
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, two of the established 
purposes of the
    Charter School Program office are: evaluating the effects of 
charter schools, including the effects on students,

[[Page 5394]]

student academic achievement, staff and parents, and expanding the 
number of high-quality charter schools available to students across the 
nation.
    Charter school authorization is at the very crux of any efforts to 
expand and ensure high-quality public school choice options through 
public charter schools because charter school authorizers are the 
public entities primarily responsible for: initial charter 
authorizations, on-going monitoring and oversight, and charter renewal 
and closure decisions.
    Currently, there is no other comprehensive national database of the 
roughly 900 charter school authorizers complete with the schools under 
their authority; some of these data elements are available from public 
documents, but they are not made available to the public consistently 
across all authorizers. There is also no other comprehensive, fully-
populated tool for tracking the activities of and evaluating the 
quality of authorizers nationwide based on their authorizing decisions 
in light of schools performance. This data collection will be 
administered to the all charter school authorizers.

    Dated: January 27, 2014.
Tomakie Washington,
Acting Director, Information Collection Clearance Division, Privacy, 
Information and Records Management Services, Office of Management.
[FR Doc. 2014-01943 Filed 1-30-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P