[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 160 (Monday, August 19, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67074-67075]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-18490]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket No.: ED-2024-SCC-0101]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; School 
Pulse Panel 2025-26 (SPP 2025-26) Preliminary Field 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 
October 18, 2024.

ADDRESSES: To access and review all the documents related to the 
information collection listed in this notice, please use http://www.regulations.gov by searching the Docket ID number ED-2024-SCC-0101. 
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

[[Page 67075]]

Governance and Strategy Division, U.S. Department of Education, 400 
Maryland Ave SW, LBJ, Room 4C210, Washington, DC 20202-1200.

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 2025-26 (SPP 2025-26) 
Preliminary Field Activities.
    OMB Control Number: 1850-0975.
    Type of Review: A revision of a currently approved ICR.
    Respondents/Affected Public: State, Local, and Tribal Governments.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 6,339.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 2,525.
    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. The School Pulse Panel is 
conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part 
of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), within the United States 
Department of Education. Initially, the purpose of the study was to 
collect extensive data on issues brought to light by the COVID-19 
pandemic, as well as other important education-related issues that 
could inform data-driven policy decisions, in U.S. public schools. Due 
to the immediate need to collect pandemic-era information from schools 
as described in 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 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 USDAs Food and Nutrition Service, the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention, Congressional deliberations, and the 
media. The growing interest from stakeholders resulted in a request for 
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 
collection during the 2023-24 school year (OMB# 1850-0975).
    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 2025-26 collection will 
roughly be the same as the 2024-25 collection with 4,000 public schools 
randomly selected to an initial sample and 4,000 in a reserve sample. 
It is expected these schools will come from roughly 3,000 districts. 
The goal is national representation from about 1,200 responding schools 
each month in order to report out national estimates. School staff will 
be asked to provide requested data monthly during the 2025-26 school 
year. This approach provides the ability to collect detailed 
information on various topics while also assessing changes over time 
for items that are repeated from year to year. Given the demand for 
data collection, the content of the survey is expected to change 
monthly. For the 2025-26 school year, the survey may ask school staff 
about a wide range of topics, including but not limited to staffing; 
learning recovery; absenteeism; usage of federal funds; and overall 
principal experiences.
    This package includes preliminary activities, including contacting 
and obtaining research approvals from public school districts with an 
established research approval process (special contact districts) where 
applicable; notifying sampled schools and districts of their selection 
for the survey; and inviting them to complete a short Screener Survey 
to establish points of contact. In spring of 2025, a clearance for main 
study data collection activities that will include instruments for the 
first quarter of collections will be submitted for 60-day and 30-day 
public comment. Subsequent quarterly content submissions will be 
submitted for 30-day public comment.
    This request is to conduct the SPP 2025-26 preliminary activities. 
Substantial edits and additional materials may be added to this package 
after the 60-day public comment period is complete, in time for the 
subsequent 30-day public comment period that will begin Fall 2024. 
Materials for SPP are cleared under two OMB Number sequences. Materials 
for SPP 2022 and SPP 2024-25 were cleared under OMB# 1850-0969, while 
SPP 2023-24 and now SPP 2025-26 are cleared under OMB# 1850-0975.

    Dated: August 13, 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. 2024-18490 Filed 8-16-24; 8:45 am]
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