[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 119 (Thursday, June 24, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33298-33299]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-13437]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-21-0604; Docket No. CDC-2021-0057]


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 effort to reduce public burden and maximize the 
utility of government information, invites the general public and other 
Federal agencies the opportunity to comment on a proposed and/or 
continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on a proposed 
information collection project titled ``School-Associated Violent 
Deaths Surveillance System (SAVD).''

DATES: CDC must receive written comments on or before August 23, 2021.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2021-
0057 by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Jeffery M. Zirger, 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. CDC will post, without change, all relevant comments 
to Regulations.gov.
    Please note: Submit all comments 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 Jeffery M. Zirger, 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 the OMB for approval. To 
comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a 
proposed data collection as described below.
    The OMB is particularly interested in comments that will help:
    1. 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;
    2. 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;
    3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected;
    4. 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; and
    5. Assess information collection costs.

Proposed Project

    School Associated Violent Death Surveillance System (OMB No. 0920-
0604, expiration 07/31/2022)--Revision--National Center for Injury 
Prevention and Control (NCIPC),

[[Page 33299]]

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    The Division of Violence Prevention (DVP), National Center for 
Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), proposes to maintain a system 
for the surveillance of school-associated homicides and suicides. The 
system relies on existing public records and interviews with law 
enforcement officials and school officials. The purpose of the system 
is to (1) estimate the rate of school-associated violent death in the 
United States, and (2) identify common features of school-associated 
violent deaths. The system will contribute to the understanding of 
fatal violence associated with schools, guide further research in the 
area, and help direct ongoing and future prevention programs.
    Violence is the leading cause of death among young people, and 
increasingly recognized as an important public health and social issue. 
In 2016, over 3,600 school-aged children (five to 18 years old) in the 
United States died violent deaths due to suicide, homicide, and 
unintentional firearm injuries. The vast majority of these fatal 
injuries were not school associated. However, whenever a homicide or 
suicide occurs in or around school, it becomes a matter of particularly 
intense public interest and concern. NCIPC conducted the first 
scientific study of school-associated violent deaths (SAVD) during the 
1992-99 academic years to establish the true extent of this highly 
visible problem. Despite the important role of schools as a setting for 
violence research and prevention interventions, relatively little 
scientific or systematic work has been done to describe the nature and 
level of fatal violence associated with schools. Until NCIPC conducted 
the first nationwide investigation of violent deaths associated with 
schools, public health and education officials had to rely on limited 
local studies and estimated numbers to describe the extent of school-
associated violent death.
    SAVD is an ongoing surveillance system that draws cases from the 
entire United States in an attempt to capture all cases of school-
associated violent deaths that have occurred. Investigators review 
public records and published press reports concerning each school-
associated violent death. For each identified case, investigators also 
contact the corresponding law enforcement agency and speak with an 
official in order to confirm or reject the case as an SAVD, and to 
request a copy of the official law enforcement report for confirmed 
SAVD cases.
    In past years, investigators would interview an investigating law 
enforcement official (defined as a police officer, police chief, or 
district attorney), and a school official (defined as a school 
principal, school superintendent, school counselor, school teacher, or 
school support staff) who were knowledgeable about the case in 
question; however, moving forward, the interviews with these 
respondents will be eliminated, and instead CDC study personnel will 
abstract data from law enforcement reports to enter using a Data 
Abstraction Tool. Data to be abstracted from the law enforcement report 
include the following: Information on both the victim and alleged 
offender(s)--including demographic data, their criminal records, and 
their relationship to one another; the time and location of the 
incident precipitating the fatality; the circumstances, motive, and 
method of the fatal injury; and the security and violence prevention 
activities in the school and community where the death occurred, before 
and after the fatal injury event. The revised data collection process 
eliminates the use of telephone interviews and will greatly reduce 
respondents' burden.
    This is a revision request for the currently approved ``School-
Associated Violent Deaths Surveillance System'' (SAVD; OMB No. 0920-
0604, expiration 07/31/2022). CDC seeks to (1) collect the majority of 
the data on school-associated violent deaths through the National 
Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), (2) eliminate the use of 
abstraction of law enforcement reports through the SAVD, and (3) 
transition to abstraction of published press reports by SAVD study 
staff. The overall burden for the collection of school-associated 
violent deaths will be increased by six hours. Data collection will 
transition entirely to the NVDRS once cases from 2020 are fully 
abstracted and there is the capability for nationwide coverage of the 
collection of school-associated violent deaths through NVDRS. All data 
are secured using technical, physical, and administrative controls. 
Hard copies of data are kept under lock and key in secured offices, 
located in a secured facility that can be accessed only by presenting 
the appropriate credentials. Digital data are password protected and 
then stored (and backed up routinely) onto a secure Local Area Network 
that can only be accessed by individuals who have been appropriately 
authorized. Study data are reported in the aggregate, such that no 
individual case can be identified from the reports.
    CDC requests approval for an estimated 23 annual burden hours. 
There are no costs to the respondents other than their time.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                     Number of
      Type of respondent            Form name        Number of    responses  per     Response      Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent    burden (hours)       hours
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Public Agencies...............  Retrieving and                45               1           30/60              23
                                 refiling
                                 records.
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.....................  ................  ..............  ..............  ..............              23
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Jeffrey M. Zirger,
Lead, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of Science, Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2021-13437 Filed 6-23-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-19-P