50094 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 170 / Tuesday, September 7, 2021 / Notices 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

[Docket No.: ED–2021–SCC–0130] 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Comment Request; School 

Pulse Panel Data Collection 

AGENCY: Institute for Education Sciences 

(IES), National Center for Education 

Statistics (NCES), Department of 

Education (ED). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, ED is 

requesting the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) to conduct an 

emergency review of an information 

collection. 

DATES: The Department has requested 

emergency processing from OMB for 

this information collection request by 

September 3, 2021. The information 

collection will simultaneously follow 

the regular clearance process where the 

Department will provide the public with 

the opportunity to comment. Interested 

persons are invited to submit comments 

on or before October 7, 2021. 

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– 

2021–SCC–0130. 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, 

ED will temporarily accept comments at 

ICDocketMgr@ed.gov. 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 by fax or email and those 

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 Director of the Strategic 

Collections and Clearance Governance 

and Strategy Division, U.S. Department 

of Education, 400 Maryland Ave. SW, 

LBJ, Room 6W208B, 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 of Education (ED), 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. ED is 

soliciting comments on the proposed 

information collection request (ICR) that 

is described below. The Department of 

Education 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 

Preliminary Activities. 

OMB Control Number: 1850–0963. 

Type of Review: A revision of a 

currently approved information 

collection. 

Respondents/Affected Public: State, 

Local or Tribal Govt. 

Total Estimated Number of Annual 

Responses: 17,280. 

Total Estimated Number of Annual 

Burden Hours: 26,352. 

Abstract: The School Pulse Panel is a 

new study conducted by the National 

Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 

part of the Institute of Education 

Sciences (IES), within the United States 

Department of Education, to collect 

extensive data on issues concerning the 

impact of the COVID–19 pandemic on 

students and staff in U.S. public 

primary, middle, high, and combinedgrade schools. The survey will ask 

school district staff and sampled school 

principals about topics such as 

instructional mode offered; enrollment 

counts of subgroups of students using 

various instructional modes; learning 

loss mitigation strategies; safe and 

healthy school mitigation strategies; 

special education services; use of 

technology; use of federal relief funds; 

and information on staffing. Because 

this data collection is extremely high 

priority and time sensitive, it will 

undergo Emergency Clearance. The 

administration of the School Pulse 

Panel study is in direct response to 

President Biden’s Executive Order 

14000: Supporting the Reopening and 

Continuing Operation of Schools and 

Early Childhood Education Providers. It 

will be one of the nation’s few sources 

of reliable data on a wealth of 

information focused on school 

reopening efforts, virus spread 

mitigation strategies, services offered for 

students and staff, and technology use, 

as reported by school district staff and 

principals in U.S. public schools. About 

1200 public elementary, middle, high, 

and combined-grade schools will be 

selected to participate in a panel where 

school and district staff will be asked to 

provide requested data monthly during 

the 2021–22 school years. This 

approach provides the ability to collect 

detailed information on various topics 

while also assessing changes in 

reopening efforts over time. Given the 

high demand for data collection during 

this time, the content of the survey may 

change on a quarterly basis. 

Additional Information: An 

emergency clearance approval for the 

use of the system is described below 

due to the following conditions: 

NCES requests emergency clearance 

to allow us to comply with the January 

21, 2021 Executive Order on Supporting 

the Reopening and Continuing 

Operation of Schools and Early 

Childhood Education Providers which 

states that the Department of Education 

must ‘‘coordinate with the Director of 

the Institute of Education Sciences to 

facilitate, consistent with applicable 

law, the collection of data necessary to 

fully understand the impact of the 

COVID–19 pandemic on students and 

educators, including data on the status 

of in-person learning. These data shall 

be disaggregated by student 

demographics, including race, ethnicity, 

disability, English-language-learner 

status, and free or reduced lunch status 

or other appropriate indicators of family 

income.’’ Normal clearance procedures 

would not allow IES to comply with the 

intent of this E.O. Because this data 

collection is extremely high priority and 

time sensitive, the Department is 

requesting emergency processing. 

Dated: August 31, 2021. 

Stephanie Valentine, 

PRA Coordinator, Strategic Collections and 

Clearance Governance and Strategy Division, 

Office of Chief Data Officer. 

[FR Doc. 2021–19158 Filed 9–3–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 


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