[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 119 (Thursday, June 20, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51878-51880]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-13446]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket ID ED-2024-OPE-0072]


Request for Information on Identifying and Tracking Data Related 
to Early Childhood Education Providers

AGENCY: Office of Postsecondary Education, Department of Education.

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: This notice is a request for information in the form of 
written comments that include information, research, and suggestions 
regarding operational aspects of the possible inclusion of for-profit 
early childhood education providers as eligible employers for the 
purpose of Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

DATES: We must receive your comments by July 22, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Comments must be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking 
Portal at regulations.gov. However, if you require an accommodation or 
cannot otherwise submit your comments via regulations.gov, please

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contact the program contact person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT. The Department will not accept comments by email or by fax. To 
ensure that the Department does not receive duplicate copies, please 
submit your comments only once. Additionally, please include the Docket 
ID at the top of your comments.
    Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to www.regulations.gov to submit 
your comments electronically. Information on using Regulations.gov, 
including instructions for accessing agency documents, submitting 
comments, and viewing the docket, is available on the site under the 
``FAQ'' tab.
    Privacy Note: The Department's policy for comments received from 
members of the public is to make these submissions available for public 
viewing in their entirety on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
www.regulations.gov. Therefore, commenters should be careful to include 
in their comments only information that they wish to make publicly 
available. We encourage, but do not require, that each respondent 
include their name, title, institution or affiliation, and the name, 
title, mailing and email addresses, and telephone number of a contact 
person for the institution or affiliation, if any.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Greg Marak. Telephone: (202) 401-6250. 
You may also email your questions to [email protected], but as 
described above, comments must be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking 
Portal at regulations.gov.
    If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and 
wish to access telecommunications relay services, please dial 7-1-1.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Background:
    Congress created the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program 
in 2007 as part of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, Public 
Law 110-84, to encourage individuals to enter into and remain employed 
in public service professions. The program alleviates financial burdens 
associated with Federal Direct Loans for borrowers working for certain 
public service providers by forgiving all remaining loan balances 
following 10 years of public service while the borrower makes 
qualifying student loan payments. Since its creation in 2007, PSLF has 
been available to borrowers working for government at all levels, non-
profit organizations that are tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the 
Internal Revenue Code, and other non-profits that provide at least one 
of the specific services listed in the statute. This includes early 
care educators who work in the public sector or for non-profit 
organizations.
    A significant share of early care educators, however, are not 
considered public sector or non-profit employees and current 
regulations do not provide a pathway for their eligibility for PSLF. 
Data from the National Survey of Early Care and Education, conducted by 
the Department of Health and Human Service's Office of Planning, 
Research, and Evaluation, estimates that extending PSLF eligibility to 
early childhood education (ECE) workers regardless of the tax status of 
their employer would allow more than 450,000 additional ECE workers to 
earn credit toward PSLF--about 68,000 who work in home-based settings 
and 390,000 who work in center-based settings--if they have student 
loans.\1\ This reflects roughly one-third of the overall ECE workforce.
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    \1\ These estimates are from the Administration for Children and 
Families' National Survey of Early Care and Education, both the 2019 
Home-Based NSECE chartbook and the 2019 Center-Based NSECE 
chartbook. These data show that approximately three-fourths of home-
based providers had at least some college, and 72 percent of for-
profit ECE workers had some college or higher.
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    On July 13, 2022, the Department published a notice of proposed 
rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register (87 FR 41878).\2\ In the 
NPRM, the Department proposed improvements to PSLF that reduce 
regulatory and administrative barriers that have historically made it 
more difficult for borrowers to make progress toward forgiveness under 
PSLF. This included simplifying criteria to help borrowers certify 
employment, helping borrowers earn progress toward PSLF for months that 
did not count before, and providing borrowers with more opportunities 
to correct problems with PSLF.
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    \2\ https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/07/13/2022-14631/student-assistance-general-provisions-federal-perkins-loan-program-federal-family-education-loan.
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    Additionally, in the NPRM, the Department asked directed questions 
about the possibility of allowing ECE providers who are private for-
profit businesses to be considered eligible employers for the purposes 
of PSLF. In response, the Department received many detailed comments 
about early childhood education as well as a range of comments in 
support of making other for-profit employers eligible to serve as 
qualifying employers for PSLF for individuals in certain occupations.
    On November 1, 2022, the Secretary published final regulations \3\ 
in the Federal Register. Those final regulations did not include 
regulations regarding whether, and under what circumstances, private 
for-profit ECE providers employing borrowers working as early childhood 
educators, should be treated as qualifying employers for PSLF.\4\
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    \3\ https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/11/01/2022-23447/institutional-eligibility-under-the-higher-education-act-of-1965-as-amended-student-assistance.
    \4\ Section 103(8) of the Higher Education Act contains a 
definition of ''early childhood education program'' that includes 
public preschool, Head Start, and State licensed and regulated child 
care programs. It does not speak to the tax-status of providers. 
Unlike the public Kindergarten through 12th grade system, which 
provides free access to education for all age-eligible children and 
youth, there is no parallel system for our country's youngest 
children. As a result, ECE is delivered through a system of mixed 
delivery that includes public programs, non-profit settings, and 
for-profit settings. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ecd/policy-guidance/dear-colleague-letter-mixed-delivery. The vast majority of ECE 
settings are home-based, and do not carry non-profit tax 
designations. Compensation across settings is low generally, 
regardless of the tax-status of the ECE provider. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_va.htm.
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    Solicitation of Comments:
    Early care educators are among the lowest-paid workers in the 
country; and the Administration has committed through Executive Order 
14095, to better supporting the care workforce.\5\ The E.O. states that 
investments in the care workforce are foundational to helping to retain 
care workers and improving health and educational outcomes for those in 
their care. The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to 
gather information about ECE providers. This RFI and the comments 
received in response to this RFI will not be considered as part the 
Affordability and Student Loans proposed rule (87 FR 41878) and any 
subsequent related final rules. The comments received in response to 
this RFI will not be used as part of the rulemaking related to the 
treatment of for-profit employers, including ECE providers, and 
eligibility for PSLF. Instead, the feedback from this RFI will help 
inform the Department's understanding of different approaches that 
might be considered when implementing non-rulemaking solutions related 
to this issue.
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    \5\ Federal Register: Increasing Access to High-Quality Care and 
Supporting Caregivers.
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    Given the operational and implementation hurdles associated with 
PSLF, the Department is interested in understanding whether there are 
ways that eligibility could be streamlined if all ECEs became eligible. 
The Department is soliciting information and data from the public on 
how the Department could determine employer eligibility and related 
considerations if for-profit ECE employers were to be considered 
eligible employers if they provided one of the services listed in the 
statute. The Department encourages

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comments from researchers, academics, policy experts, and other 
individuals familiar with ECE employer data; organizations that work 
directly with ECE workers; State and Tribal government officials who 
oversee and administer ECE programs; ECE practitioners; and other 
members of the public. The Department will review all comments 
received, but does not intend to respond to comments.
    The Department seeks feedback on the following questions:
    (1) The Department has always relied upon employer identification 
numbers (EINs) to identify whether an employer is a non-profit under 
IRC 501(c)(3). This approach has allowed the Department to create a 
comprehensive list of eligible employers and use a consistent 
identifier system. However, some for-profit businesses may be sole 
proprietors or other providers that do not have an EIN. Are there other 
uniform sources that the Department might consider using for 
determinations of qualifying employers?
    (2) If there are not other uniform sources, how should the 
Department address eligibility determinations of a for-profit ECE 
employer?
    (3) If in consultation with the Department, the U.S. Department of 
Health & Human Services (HHS), issued a voluntary Public Records Act 
request from the States to create a nationwide registry of EINs of ECE 
providers, are State and Tribal agencies that oversee and administer 
ECE programs in a position to collect this information? Do commenters 
believe that all States would provide this information? Are there any 
additional considerations the Department should be aware of should HHS 
issue this request?
    (4) What feedback can be provided concerning the time it would take 
a State or Tribe to undertake the collection of EINs for licensed and 
regulated providers, including the process, privacy, administrative, or 
other considerations that the Department should take into account?
    (5) Should the Department consider a process that relies on unique 
identifiers associated with licensure as opposed to EINs to identify 
eligible employers?
    This is a request for information only. This RFI is not a request 
for proposals and does not commit the Department to take any future 
administrative, contractual, regulatory, or other action. The 
Department will not pay for any information or costs that you may incur 
in responding to this RFI. Any documents and information submitted in 
response to this RFI become the property of the U.S. Government and 
will not be returned.
    Accessible Format: By request to the program contact person listed 
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, individuals with disabilities 
can obtain this document in an accessible format. The Department will 
provide the requestor with an accessible format that may include Rich 
Text Format (RTF) or text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3 file, 
braille, large print, audiotape, or compact disc, or other accessible 
format.
    Electronic Access to this Document: The official version of this 
document is the document published in the Federal Register. You may 
access the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of 
Federal Regulations at www.govinfo.gov. At this site you can view this 
document, as well as all other documents of this Department published 
in the Federal Register, in text or Portable Document Format (PDF). To 
use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at 
the site.
    You may also access documents of the Department published in the 
Federal Register by using the article search feature at 
www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, through the advanced search 
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published 
by the Department.

Nasser Paydar,
Assistant Secretary, Office of Postsecondary Education.
[FR Doc. 2024-13446 Filed 6-18-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P