[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 40 (Wednesday, February 28, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14641-14642]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-04101]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket No.: ED-2024-SCC-0032]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; School 
Pulse Panel 2024-25 Data Collection Activities

AGENCY: Institute of Education Sciences (IES), Department of Education 
(ED).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, 
the Department is proposing a revision of a currently approved 
information collection request (ICR).

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
April 29, 2024.

ADDRESSES: To access and review all the documents related to the 
information collection listed in this notice, please use https://www.regulations.gov by searching the Docket ID number ED-2024-SCC-0032. 
Comments submitted in response to this notice should be submitted 
electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov by selecting the Docket ID number or via postal 
mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. If the regulations.gov 
site is not available to the public for any reason, the Department will 
temporarily accept comments at [email protected]. Please include the 
docket ID number and the title of the information collection request 
when requesting documents or submitting comments. Please note that 
comments submitted after the comment period will not be accepted. 
Written requests for information or comments submitted by postal mail 
or delivery should be addressed to the Manager of the Strategic 
Collections and Clearance Governance and Strategy Division, U.S. 
Department of Education, 400 Maryland Ave. SW, LBJ, Room 6W203, 
Washington, DC 20202-8240.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For specific questions related to 
collection activities, please contact Carrie Clarady, 202-245-6347.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department, in accordance with the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)), 
provides the general public and Federal agencies with an opportunity to 
comment on proposed, revised, and continuing collections of 
information. This helps the Department assess the impact of its 
information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting 
burden. It also helps the public understand the Department's 
information collection requirements and provide the requested data in 
the desired format. The Department is soliciting comments on the 
proposed information collection request (ICR) that is described below. 
The Department is especially interested in public comment addressing 
the following issues: (1) is this collection necessary to the proper 
functions of the Department; (2) will this information be processed and 
used in a timely manner; (3) is the estimate of burden accurate; (4) 
how might the Department enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of 
the information to be collected; and (5) how might the Department 
minimize the burden of this collection on the respondents, including 
through the use of information technology. Please note that written 
comments received in response to this notice will be considered public 
records.
    Title of Collection: School Pulse Panel 2024-25 Data Collection 
Activities.
    OMB Control Number: 1850-0969.
    Type of Review: A revision of a currently approved ICR.
    Respondents/Affected Public: State, Local, and Tribal Governments.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 53,955.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 10,175.
    Abstract: The School Pulse Panel (SPP) is a data collection that 
was originally designed to collect voluntary responses from a 
nationally representative sample of public schools to better understand 
how schools, students, and educators were responding to the ongoing 
stressors of the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the immediate need to 
collect information from schools during the pandemic to satisfy the 
requirement of Executive Order 14000, an emergency clearance was issued 
to develop and field the first several monthly collections of the SPP 
in 2021 and a full review of the SPP data collection was performed 
under the traditional clearance review process in 2022 (OMB# 1850-
0969). SPPs innovative design and timely dissemination of findings have 
been used and cited frequently among Department of Education senior 
leadership, the White House Domestic Policy Council, the USDA's Food 
and Nutrition Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 
Congressional deliberations, and the media. The ongoing, growing 
interest by stakeholders resulted in the request for dedicated funding 
to create an established NCES quick-turnaround data collection vehicle 
to become a mainstay for NCES. Funding for a mainstay collection was 
approved in late 2022, and NCES conducted a new

[[Page 14642]]

collection during the 2023-24 school year. The purpose of this request 
is for a full review of the 2024-25 SPP data collection under the 
traditional clearance review process.
    For the 2024-25 school year, the survey will ask school staff about 
a wide range of topics, including, but not limited to, staffing, 
learning recovery, tutoring, usage of federal funds, facilities, 
transportation, school environment issues, and overall principal and 
staff experiences, in addition to repeating items from the previous 
collections. It is planned that some new content will be rotated in 
(and some rotated out) monthly. This package includes details regarding 
the methodology and operations, as well as potential content areas and 
an item bank of potential items that can be asked any month.
    The School Pulse Panel study is one of the few reliable, nationally 
representative, quick-turnaround studies that produces data on U.S. 
public schools. The sample design for the 2024-25 collection will 
roughly be the same as the 2023-24 collection, with 4,000 public 
elementary, middle, high, and combined-grade schools in an initial 
sample and 4,000 public elementary, middle, high, and combined-grade 
schools in a reserve sample. These schools will be selected via a 
random stratified sampling approach.
    This submission will undergo a 60-day public comment period, 
followed by an additional 30-day public comment period. We continue to 
make revisions to the communication materials (Appendix A) and will 
present final versions for the 30-day comment period. Items in the Item 
Bank (Appendix B) that have not already been approved are consider 
draft and will undergo cognitive testing and revision before final 
administration. Final instruments for the August, September, and 
October 2024 surveys (Appendix C1) will be added to this package during 
the 30-day public comment, to be posted in late spring 2024. Final 
items will be submitted to OMB through a change request. Subsequent 
quarterly instruments will also be posted for 30-day comment in the 
months immediately preceding their administration, potentially followed 
by change requests to allow for small changes in items as deemed 
necessary by cognitive testing.

    Dated: February 23, 2024.
Stephanie Valentine,
PRA Coordinator, Strategic Collections and Clearance Governance and 
Strategy Division, Office of Chief Data Officer, Office of Planning, 
Evaluation and Policy Development.
[FR Doc. 2024-04101 Filed 2-27-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P