[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 70 (Thursday, April 13, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17838-17840]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-07482]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60 Day-17-1035; Docket No. CDC-2017-0022]


Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Notice with comment period.

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SUMMARY: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part 
of its continuing efforts to reduce public burden and maximize the 
utility of government information, invites the

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general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to 
comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as 
required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites 
comment on the proposed information collection project entitled 
``Assessing School-Centered HIV/STD Prevention Efforts in a Local 
Education Agency.'' This study provides in-depth assessment of Human 
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) 
prevention efforts in a location education agency funded by CDC's 
Division of Adolescent and School Health.

DATES: Written comments will be received on or before June 12, 2017.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2017-
0022 by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Leroy A. Richardson, Information Collection Review 
Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road 
NE., MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and Docket Number. All relevant comments received will be posted 
without change to Regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided. For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to Regulations.gov.

    Please note:  All public comment should be submitted through the 
Federal eRulemaking portal (Regulations.gov) or by U.S. mail to the 
address listed above.


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on the 
proposed project or to obtain a copy of the information collection plan 
and instruments, contact the Information Collection Review Office, 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE., MS-
D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; phone: 404-639-7570; Email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of 
information they conduct or sponsor. In addition, the PRA also requires 
Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register 
concerning each proposed collection of information, including each new 
proposed collection, each proposed extension of existing collection of 
information, and each reinstatement of previously approved information 
collection before submitting the collection to OMB for approval. To 
comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a 
proposed data collection as described below.
    Comments are invited 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; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) ways to 
minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other 
forms of information technology; and (e) estimates of capital or start-
up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services 
to provide information. Burden means the total time, effort, or 
financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, 
disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This 
includes the time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, 
install and utilize technology and systems for the purpose of 
collecting, validating and verifying information, processing and 
maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; to 
train personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of 
information, to search data sources, to complete and review the 
collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the 
information.

Proposed Project

    Assessing School-centered HIV/STD Prevention Efforts in a Local 
Education Agency (OMB Control No. 0920-0135; Expiration 11/30/2017)--
Revision--Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH), National 
Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    HIV infections remain high among young men who have sex with men. 
The estimated number of new HIV infections increased between 2008 and 
2010 both overall and among MSM ages 13 to 24. Furthermore, sexual risk 
behaviors associated with HIV, other STD, and pregnancy often emerge in 
adolescence. For example, 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System 
(YRBSS) data revealed 41.2% of U.S. high school students reported 
having had sex, and among those who had sex in the previous three 
months, only 56.9% reported having used a condom during last sexual 
intercourse. In addition, 2015 YRBSS data revealed high school students 
identifying as gay, lesbian, and bisexual and those reporting sexual 
contact with both males and females were more likely to engage in 
sexual risk-taking behaviors than heterosexual students.
    Given the disproportionate risk for HIV among YMSM ages 13-24, it 
is important to find ways to reach the younger youth (i.e., ages 13-19) 
in this range to decrease sexual risk behaviors and increase health-
promoting behaviors such as routine HIV testing. Schools provide one 
opportunity for this. Because schools enroll more than 22 million teens 
(ages 14-19) and often have existing health and social services 
infrastructure, schools and their staff members are well-positioned to 
connect youth to a wide range of needed services, including housing 
assistance, support groups, and sexual health services such as HIV 
testing. As a result, CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health 
(DASH) has focused a number of HIV and STD prevention efforts on 
strategies that can be implemented in or centered on schools.
    The CDC requests a one-year approval to conduct a revised 
information collection entitled, ``Assessing School-Centered HIV/STD 
Prevention Efforts in a Local Education Agency'' (OMB Control Number 
0920-1035). This revised information collection request covers the 
third in a series of three data collections; the previous two were 
covered under the previously approved information collection.
    The information collection uses a self-administered paper-pencil 
questionnaire, the Youth Health and School Climate Questionnaire, to 
assess HIV and STD prevention efforts in one local education agency 
(LEA) funded by the CDC, Division of Adolescent and School Health 
(DASH) under strategy 4 (School-Centered HIV/STD Prevention for Young 
Men Who Have Sex with Men) of PS13-1308: Promoting Adolescent Health 
through School-Based HIV/STD Prevention and School-Based Surveillance.
    This data collection will provide data and reports for the funded 
LEA, and will allow the LEA to identify program areas that are working 
well and other areas that need improvement. In addition, the findings 
will allow CDC to determine the potential impact of currently 
recommended strategies and make changes to those recommendations if 
necessary. The questionnaire will include questions on

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the following topics: demographic information; HIV and STD risk 
behaviors; use of HIV and STD health services; experiences at school, 
including school connectedness, harassment and bullying, homophobia, 
support of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) 
students; sexual orientation; receipt of referral for HIV and STD 
prevention health services; and health education.
    This data collection system involves administration of a paper-and-
pencil questionnaire to seven high schools that are participating in 
the HIV/STD prevention project of a local education agency that is 
funded with support from CDC's PS13-1308 cooperative agreement. The 
questionnaire, the Youth Health and School Climate Questionnaire, will 
be administered to approximately 16,500 students across the seven 
schools in the 2017-2018 school year. This is the third and final data 
collection of a four-year project that includes three data collections; 
previous data collections occurred in December 2014 and December 2016. 
Data collection points coincide with the approximate beginning, mid-
way, and end points of the PS13-1308 cooperative agreement. We 
anticipate the final data collection will yield data from up to 16,500 
high school students in grades 9 through 12 at the selected schools. 
Although some students may have completed the questionnaire in one or 
more of the previous years, this is not a longitudinal design and 
individual student responses will not be tracked across the years. No 
personally identifiable information will be collected.
    All students' parents will receive parental consent forms that 
provide them with an opportunity to opt their children out of the 
study. In addition, each student will be read verbal assent language 
that explains he or she may choose not to take the questionnaire or may 
skip any questions in the questionnaire with no penalty. Participation 
is completely voluntary.
    The estimated burden per response ranges from 35-45 minutes. This 
variation in burden is due to the slight variability in skip patterns 
that may occur with certain responses and variations in the reading 
speed of students. The burden estimate presented here is based on the 
assumption of a 40-minute response time per response. Students will 
complete the questionnaire only once under this approval. Annualizing 
the collection over one year results in an estimated annualized burden 
of 11,000 hours for respondents. There are no costs to respondents 
other than their time.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                                      Average
                                                     Number of       Number of      burden per     Total burden
      Type of respondents           Form name       respondents    responses per   response (in     (in hours)
                                                                    respondent        hours)
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Students in grades 9-12.......  Youth Health and          16,500               1           40/60          11,000
                                 School Climate
                                 Questionnaire.
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    Total.....................  ................  ..............  ..............  ..............          11,000
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Leroy A. Richardson,
Chief, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of the Associate Director for Science, Office of the 
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2017-07482 Filed 4-12-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4163-18-P