[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 135 (Friday, July 15, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42440-42441]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-15137]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Census Bureau


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Annual Survey of School System Finances

    The Department of Commerce will submit the following information 
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the 
general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and 
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of 
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the 
Federal Register on April 28, 2022 during a 60-day comment period. This 
notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce.
    Title: Annual Survey of School System Finances.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0700.
    Form Number(s): F-33, Supplemental forms: F-33-L1, F-33-L2 and F-
33-L3.
    Type of Request: Regular submission, Request for a Revision of a 
Currently Approved Collection.
    Number of Respondents: F-33: 51, Supplemental: 3,630.
    Average Hours per Response: F-33: 70 hours, 45 minutes, 
Supplemental: 15 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 4,465.
    Needs and Uses: The U. S. Census Bureau plans to continue the 
current Office of Management and Budget clearance for the Annual Survey 
of School System Finances with revisions. The Annual Survey of School 
System Finances is the only comprehensive source of pre-kindergarten 
through 12th grade public elementary-secondary school system finance 
data collected on a nationwide scale using uniform definitions, 
concepts, and procedures. The collection covers the revenues, 
expenditures, debt, and assets of all public elementary-secondary 
school systems. This data collection has been cosponsored by and 
coordinated with the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). 
The NCES uses this collection to satisfy its need for school finance 
data.
    Fiscal data provided by respondents aid data users in measuring the 
effectiveness of resource allocation. The products of this data 
collection make it possible for data users to search a single database 
to obtain information on such things as per pupil expenditures and the 
percent of state, local, and federal funding for each school system. 
Elementary-secondary education related spending is the single largest 
financial activity of state and local governments. Education finance 
statistics provided by the Census Bureau allow for analyses of how 
public elementary-secondary school systems receive their funding and 
how they are spending their funds.
    The Annual Survey of School System Finances was revised for the 
fiscal year (FY) 2020 collection to include 12 new data items in 
response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Six revenue data items and six 
expenditure items were added to the survey to collect financial 
information from school systems concerning the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, 
and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020. The survey was then revised 
again for the FY 2021 collection in response to new legislation passed 
due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the Coronavirus Response and 
Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSA) and the American Rescue 
Plan (ARP). Four new revenue items were added to the survey to collect 
financial data based on these two new legislative acts and two obsolete 
revenue items added in FY 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic 
were removed from the survey. Two new expenditure items were also added 
to expand the scope of financial data collected concerning COVID-19 
federal assistance funds.
    This proposed revision to the Annual Survey of School System 
Finances is to further expand the collection of expenditure data for 
COVID-19 federal assistance funds. The CARES Act of 2020 established 
several relief funds that would be made available to school systems, 
including the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) 
Fund, the Governor's Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Fund, and the 
Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF). Subsequent legislation such as the CRRSA 
and the ARP further funded these sources and established additional 
funds made available to school systems, including the ARP Act 
Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. In response to these 
various funds being established and utilized by school systems, 21 new 
data items will be added to the survey to collect data on expenditures 
from these funding sources. Three data items collecting data for 
current expenditures, instructional expenditures, and capital outlay 
expenditures will be added for seven

[[Page 42441]]

different sources of funds for a total of 21 new data items.
    As a result of these 21 new data items being added to the survey, 
an increase in the total burden hours and estimated time per response 
for the primary survey form (F-33) is expected compared to prior survey 
collections. A slight decrease in the number of supplemental 
respondents is also expected in future collections due to school system 
consolidations, mergers, and other factors affecting the composition of 
school systems in states where supplemental debt and asset data is 
collected. This will partially offset some of the increase in total 
burden hours as a result of the 21 new items collected on the survey; 
however, an overall increase in total burden hours is still expected.
    Affected Public: State and local governments.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: Census: Title 13 U.S.C. Sections 8(b), 161, and 
182. NCES: Title 20 U.S.C. Sections 9543-44.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of 
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently 
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search 
function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB 
Control Number 0607-0700.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2022-15137 Filed 7-14-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P