[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 140 (Wednesday, July 22, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43474-43475]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-17888]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education; Rehabilitation 
Services Administration; Comment Request for Information Collection for 
the WIOA Performance Management, Information, and Reporting System (OMB 
Control No. 1205-0NEW), New Collection

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Departments of Labor and Education (the Departments), 
as part of their continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent 
burden, are conducting a preclearance consultation to provide the 
public and Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on the 
proposed collection of information in accordance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 [44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)] (PRA). The PRA helps 
ensure that respondents can provide requested data in the desired 
format with minimal reporting burden (time and financial resources), 
collection instruments are clearly understood and the impact of 
collection requirements on respondents can be properly assessed.
    Currently, the Departments are soliciting comments concerning the 
collection of data for the WIOA Performance Management, Information, 
and Reporting System (OMB Control No. 1205-0NEW). The data collections 
included in this reporting system fulfill requirements in WIOA 
Sec.116(d)(1) for the development of report templates for the State 
Performance Report for WIOA core programs, the Local Area Performance 
Report, and the Eligible Training Provider Report. Previously, a 
supporting statement was provided for this data collection under OMB 
Control No. 1205-0420, which was made public on April 16, 2015. The 
sole difference between the aforementioned supporting statement and the 
subject of this notice is that OMB Control No. 1205-0NEW does not 
include the non-WIOA related, currently cleared burden.

DATES: Submit written comments to the office listed in the addresses 
section below on or before September 21, 2015.

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 ETA-2015-0007 
or via postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. A copy of 
the proposed information collection request (ICR) with applicable 
supporting documentation, including a description of the likely 
respondents, proposed frequency of response, and estimated total burden 
may be obtained free of charge from http://www.regulations.gov or by 
contacting Luke Murren by telephone at 202-693-3733 (this is not a 
toll-free number) or by email at [email protected]. Individuals with 
hearing or speech impairments may access the telephone number above via 
TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Information Relay Service at 1-
877-889-5627 (TTY/TDD). Fax: 202-693-2766.
    Mail and hand delivery/courier: Send written comments to Luke 
Murren, Office of Policy Development and Research, Room N5641, 
Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 
Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20210. Due to security-related 
concerns, there may be a significant delay in the receipt of 
submissions by United States Mail. You must take this into 
consideration when preparing to meet the deadline for submitting 
comments.
    Comments submitted in response to this comment request will become 
a matter of public record and will be summarized and included in the 
request for Office of Management and Budget approval of the information 
collection request. In addition, comments regardless of the delivery 
method, will be posted without change on the http://www.regulations.gov 
Web site; consequently, the Departments recommend commenters not 
include personal information such as a Social Security Number, personal 
address, telephone number, email address, or confidential business 
information that they do not want made public. It is the responsibility 
of the commenter to determine what to include in the public record.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    Section 116 of WIOA requires States that operate core programs of 
the publicly-funded workforce system to comply with common performance 
accountability requirements. As such, States that operate core programs 
must submit common performance data to demonstrate that specified 
performance levels are achieved.
    WIOA Sec. 116(d)(2)--``Contents of State Performance Reports''-- 
mandates that the Secretaries of Labor and Education develop a template 
for performance reports to be used by States, local boards, and 
eligible

[[Page 43475]]

providers of training services for reporting on outcomes achieved by 
the WIOA core programs (the Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Youth 
programs under Title I; the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act 
program under Title II; the Wagner-Peyser Act program amended by Title 
III; and the Vocational Rehabilitation Services program under Title 
IV). Required annual data for the core programs include those related 
to primary performance indicators, participant counts and costs, and 
barriers to employment.
    The WIOA Annual Local Area Performance Report Template is a subset 
of the WIOA Annual State Performance Report Template that, under 
section 116(d)(3) of WIOA, requires the collection of the same 
aforementioned counts and costs disaggregated by barriers to employment 
with respect to the primary indicators for the Title I Youth, Adult, 
and Dislocated Worker programs.
    WIOA Sec. 116(d)(4)--``Contents of Eligible Training Provider 
Report'' (in 20 CFR part 677 of the NPRM)--mandates the collection of 
specific information for each program of study for each eligible 
provider of training services under Title I Adult and Dislocated Worker 
programs. Required data must include those related to primary 
performance indicators, participant counts and costs, and barriers to 
employment.
    These templates have been designed to maximize the value of the 
reports for workers, jobseekers, employers, local elected officials, 
State officials, Federal policymakers, and other key stakeholders. At 
the same time they have been designed to reflect the specific 
requirements of the reports as described in WIOA section 116(d)(2) 
through (4).
    Once States, local areas, and eligible training providers submit 
the required data, it will be used by the Departments to assess the 
effectiveness of WIOA's core programs and to monitor and analyze the 
performance of their grantees. This data collection format permits the 
Departments to evaluate program effectiveness, monitor compliance with 
statutory requirements, and analyze participant activity, while 
complying with OMB efforts to streamline Federal performance reporting.
    Under this collection, participation will be measured based on the 
count of individuals who meet the proposed definition of a 
``participant''--e.g., those who have received staff-level services 
within the program year, or have received vocational rehabilitation 
services under a signed individualized plan for employment. An 
individual will be considered to have exited after they have gone 90 
days without service, and with no future services scheduled. Should 
they return for additional services after the 90 days--within the same 
program year and exit in that same program year--the individual's exit 
date will be changed to reflect only the last exit date in that program 
year. If the individual exits in a subsequent program year, they would 
be counted as a new participant for purposes of that subsequent program 
year. Counting unique individuals in this manner will allow an 
unduplicated count of participants in the accountability and reporting 
system. The Departments understand that this may affect quarterly 
reporting results and counts of services rendered early in the program 
year for those core programs that submit quarterly reports, 
particularly for core programs whose current reporting practices differ 
from what is described above. As such, we greatly encourage your 
comments on the potential impact on individual states and local areas 
of this and all other items discussed in this package as we continue to 
finalize the details of this information collection process.

II. Review Focus

    The Department is particularly interested in comments that:
     Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
     evaluate 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;
     enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
     minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology (e.g., permitting 
electronic submissions of responses).

III. Current Actions

    Type of Review: New collection.
    Title: WIOA Performance Management, Information, and Reporting 
System.
    OMB Number: 1205-0NEW.
    Affected Public: State governments.
    Estimated Total Annual Respondents: 194.
    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 18,691,589.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 2,228,295.
    Total Estimated Annual Other Costs Burden: $0.
    We will summarize and/or include in the request for OMB approval of 
the ICR, the comments received in response to this comment request; 
they will also become a matter of public record.
    As mentioned above, this ICR is intended to cover the performance 
data collection and reporting requirements in section 116 of WIOA. The 
notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) implementing WIOA was published on 
April 16, 2015, at 80 FR 20573-20687. The comment period closed on June 
15, 2015.
    Sec. 506(b)(1) of WIOA states that section 116 of WIOA will go into 
effect at the start of the second full program year after the date WIOA 
was enacted. WIOA was enacted on July 22, 2014. Therefore, section 
116's performance accountability system will be effective on July 1, 
2016. Approval of this information collection request is required so 
that the states, locals, and other entities can begin programming their 
management information systems in order to enable them to collect the 
necessary data to implement the data collection and reporting 
requirements of section 116 in accordance with the WIOA statute.
    If this information collection receives OMB approval, it may be 
finalized before the proposed regulations are finalized. If this 
occurs, the Departments will resubmit this ICR to OMB for its approval 
when the Final Rule is published, as required by 5 CFR 1320.11(h). 
However, the Departments plan to review and analyze any comments 
received on the NPRM that are relevant to this ICR, together with 
comments received on this ICR as we finalize this ICR. This is intended 
to enable the Departments to finalize this ICR before finalizing the 
proposed regulations, and to eliminate the need to make any substantive 
changes to the ICR when the Final Rule is published.

Portia Wu,
Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, Department of Labor.

Johan E. Uvin,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical, and Adult Education, 
Department of Education.

Michael K. Yudin,
Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, 
Department of Education.
[FR Doc. 2015-17888 Filed 7-21-15; 8:45 am]
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