[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 81 (Friday, April 26, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17772-17773]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-08438]


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 Notices
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  Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 81 / Friday, April 26, 2019 / 
Notices  

[[Page 17772]]



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

National Institute of Food and Agriculture


Notice of Intent To Renew a Currently Approved Information 
Collection

AGENCY: National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
regulations that implement the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this 
notice announces the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's 
(NIFA) intention to request Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
approval for the revision and extension of a currently approved 
information collection for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education 
Program (EFNEP).

DATES: To assure consideration, written comments on this notice are due 
60 days from the publication of this notice. Comments received after 
the 60th day may not be considered.

METHOD OF COMMENT SUBMISSION: Applicants may submit written comments 
concerning this notice or requests for copies of the information 
collection by Email: [email protected]; or Mail: Office of 
Information Technology (OIT), NIFA, USDA, STOP 2216, 1400 Independence 
Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250-2216.

AGENCY CONTACT: Robert Martin, e-Government Program Leader; Email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program.
    OMB Number: 0524-0044.
    Expiration Date of Current Approval: April 30, 2019.
    Type of Request: Intent to seek revision and extension of a 
currently approved information collection for three years.
    Abstract: NIFA's Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program 
(EFNEP) is a unique program that began in 1969 and is designed to reach 
limited resource audiences, especially youth and families with young 
children. EFNEP is authorized under section 1425 of the National 
Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 
U.S.C. 3175 and funded under section 3(d) of the Smith-Lever Act (7 
U.S.C. 343(d)). Extension professionals train and supervise 
paraprofessionals and volunteers who teach food and nutrition 
information and skills to limited families and youth. EFNEP operates 
through the 1862 and 1890 Land Grant Universities (LGU) in all 50 
States, the District of Columbia, and in American Samoa, Guam, 
Micronesia, Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
    The objectives of EFNEP are to assist families and youth with 
limited resourced in acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and 
changed behaviors necessary for nutritionally sound diets, and to 
contribute to their personal development and the improvement of the 
total family diet and nutritional well-being.
    NIFA sponsors an integrated data collection process that is used at 
the county, State, and Federal level. The current data collection 
system, the Web based Nutrition Education Evaluation and Reporting 
System (WebNEERS), captures EFNEP impacts. Its purpose is to gauge if 
the Federal assistance provided has had an impact on the target 
audience. It also enables EFNEP staff to make programmatic improvements 
in delivering nutrition education. Further, the data collected provide 
information for program management decisions and diagnostic assessments 
of participants' needs. In order to capture all of EFNEP's reporting 
requirements in one place, EFNEP program plans and budgetary data are 
now submitted, reviewed, and approved through WebNEERS. These specific 
reporting requirements are tied to release of Federal EFNEP funds.
    WebNEERS grew out of EFNEP's long-standing commitment to program 
evaluation. Since EFNEP's inception in 1969, states have annually 
reported demographic and dietary behavior change of their EFNEP 
audience to the federal National Program Leader at NIFA, and its 
preceding agencies within USDA. Increased rigor and attention to data 
collection began in 1990 in response to communications with staff from 
the House Committee on Agriculture, who expressed a need for greater 
accountability and the ability to show the degree to which EFNEP was 
meeting its objectives. Representatives from the Economic Research 
Service, Food and Nutrition Service, USDA Office of Budget and Program 
analysis, as well as evaluation specialists from the Federal Extension 
Service and its university partners, identified the most valuable 
behaviors to measure, which then became the core components of the 
system. Concurrence was received from staff for the House Committee on 
Agriculture. Over the years, the system has been upgraded to align with 
technological advancements, incorporate relevant evidence-based 
practices and practice-based evidence, and address changes in data 
collection standards and requirements (e.g., data collection on race/
ethnicity, updates to the U.S. dietary guidelines, etc.) Data 
submission has evolved from paper forms, to discs, to the current web-
based system. With each of these evolutionary changes, the data 
collection system was also reviewed for appropriateness and need for 
changes to collected content. Development of Web-NEERS began in FY 
2011; national implementation of this web-based platform began in FY 
2013. Web-NEERS and its predecessor collection systems have been 
approved by OMB.
    Specifications for WebNEERS were developed by a committee of 
representatives from the EFNEP and Extension community and others with 
content and audience expertise from across the United States. These 
specifications are in compliance with Federal Equal Employment 
Opportunity standards for maintaining, collecting, and presenting data 
on race and ethnicity, and protecting personally identifiable 
information. WebNEERS stores information on:
    (1) Adult program participants, their family structure, and dietary 
practices;
    (2) Youth group participants;
    (3) Staff;
    (4) Annual budgets; and
    (5) Annual program plans.
    WebNEERS is a secure online system designed, hosted, and maintained 
by

[[Page 17773]]

Clemson University. WebNEERS is accessed through the internet via 
Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari web browsers. It 
can also be accessed through mobile devices and tablets. The existing 
system incorporates local, university, and Federal components, the 
EFNEP 5-Year Plan/Annual Update (program plan), the EFNEP budget and 
budget justification, and the social ecological framework of the 
Community Nutrition Education (CNE) logic model. Only approved users 
can access WebNEERS and each user can only access data based on his/her 
defined permissions. The system also has the capability to export raw 
data for external analysis. Data exported from WebNEERS do not include 
personally identifiable information. Several stakeholder groups provide 
ongoing input on the system to ensure: (1) That EFNEP only collects 
data NIFA needs for evaluation and reporting purposes, and (2) to 
resolve bugs or other concerns experienced users. These stakeholder 
groups also give feedback to improve user interfaces and to improve 
functionality and capabilities of the system.
    The evaluation processes of EFNEP remain consistent with the 
requirements of Congressional legislation and OMB. The Government 
Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993.
    WebNEERS is a single web-based system that operates at three 
levels: Region (County); Institution (university), and Federal. Data is 
entered at the regional level and is available in aggregated form at 
the Institution level in real time. University staff are able to 
generate institutional-level reports to guide program management 
decisions and to inform State-level stakeholders.\1\ In States that 
have both 1862 and 1890 LGUs, separate reports are generated by each 
type of institution on the respective audiences served. A permissions 
process is used to allow data to flow from the Region, to the 
Institution, to the Federal level. Data is not available at the Federal 
level until the university staff submits it. This process allows for 
State and National assessments of the program's impact. National data 
is used to create National reports, which are made available to the 
public.
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    \1\ ``States'' includes all 50 states, the District of Columbia, 
and insular areas.
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    There are revisions to the currently approved collection. WebNEERS 
uses an agile development process, which allows software developers to 
work closely with users to operate smoothly, maintain securities, 
improve efficiencies, and function effectively in the ever changing 
environment in which EFNEP is administered. It also supports an 
accelerated incorporation of research-based indicators to appropriately 
identify behavioral change. Two key developments have been made since 
the last OMB approval. First was the replacement of the Adult Behavior 
Checklist--a measurement tool that had been used for more than 25 
years--with a new Food and Physical Activity Questionnaire. Prior to 
implementation, the new tool was tested for feasibility, validity, and 
reliability with the target audience via a multistate research group 
with programmatic expertise and experience. Second was the replacement 
of the evaluation form for youth grades 3-5. Replacement of youth 
evaluation indicators is an ongoing initiative within EFNEP to ensure 
that the tools used are valid, reliable, and programmatically and 
developmentally appropriate. Grades K-2 and 3-5 have been completed. 
Review and development of indicators to potentially replace the 
existing tools for grades 6-8 and 9-12 has just begun.
    Estimate of Burden: The total annual estimated burden for WebNEERS 
is 15,440 hours for this data collection process--for participant 
education and data entry, aggregation, and reporting; and for 
preparation, review, and submission of EFNEP program plans and 
budgetary information. The burden for respondents was determined in two 
parts:
    (1) Regional data estimates (14,048.73 hours)--were determined from 
time stamp averages. All FY 2018 records were analyzed to identify 
those which involved a time lapse representing data entry and 
submission. Periodic samples (every 10,000 records) were then used to 
calculate the average length of time for each type of record. Averages 
were multiplied by the total number of records to get the final 
estimate.
    (2) Institutional data estimates (421.4 hours)--included program 
plans and budgetary information. These estimates were based on 
calculations of the previous survey sent by Clemson University to nine 
EFNEP Coordinators and their data managers, since the type of data 
collected remains unchanged and since a time stamp process is not yet 
in place to determine those calculations.
    Overall, burden estimates are considerably lower than previously 
estimated--particularly at the regional level. This is likely due to 
the use of a different methodology involving technology to help 
determine the estimated burden. Although additional reporting 
requirements were included in the updated system with the 
implementation of the new food and physical activity questionnaire 
(e.g. the use of 20 rather than 10 questions), the overall burden to 
the users was reduced.
    Respondents: Individuals, households, business or other for-profit 
or not-for-profit institutions.
    Comments: 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 will 
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; and (d) ways to 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.
    All responses to this notice will be summarized and included in the 
request to OMB for approval. All comments will become a matter of 
public record.

    Done in Washington, DC, this 18th day of April, 2019.
Steve Censky,
Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
[FR Doc. 2019-08438 Filed 4-25-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-22-P