66838 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 212 / Thursday, November 3, 2005 / Notices 

Dated: October 27, 2005. 

Betsey Dunaway, 

Acting Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for 

Disease Control and Prevention. 

[FR Doc. 05–21910 Filed 11–2–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4163–18–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention 

[60Day–06–0604] 

Proposed Data Collections Submitted 

for Public Comment and 

Recommendations 

In compliance with the requirement 

of section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 for 

opportunity for public comment on 

proposed data collection projects, the 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention (CDC) will publish periodic 

summaries of proposed projects. To 

request more information on the 

proposed projects or to obtain a copy of 

the data collection plans and 

instruments, call 404–639–4766 and 

send comments to Seleda Perryman, 

CDC Assistant Reports Clearance 

Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS–D74, 

Atlanta, GA 30333 or send an e-mail to 

omb@cdc.gov. 

Comments are invited on: (a) Whether 

the proposed collection of information 

is necessary for the proper performance 

of the functions of the agency, including 

whether the information shall have 

practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the 

agency’s estimate of the burden of the 

proposed collection of information; (c) 

ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (d) ways to minimize the 

burden of the collection of information 

on respondents, including through the 

use of automated collection techniques 

or other forms of information 

technology. Written comments should 

be received within 60 days of this 

notice. 

Proposed Project 

School Associated Violent Death 

Surveillance System (0920–0604)—

Reinstatement without change—

National Center for Injury Prevention 

and Control (NCIPC), Centers for 

Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

Background and Brief Description 

The Division of Violence Prevention 

(DVP), National Center for Injury 

Prevention and Control (NCIPC) 

proposes to maintain a system for the 

surveillance of school-associated 

homicides and suicides. The system 

will rely on existing public records and 

interviews with law enforcement 

officials and school officials. The 

purpose of the system is to (1) estimate 

the rate of school-associated violent 

death in the United States and (2) 

identify common features of schoolassociated violent deaths. The system 

will contribute to the understanding of 

fatal violence associated with schools, 

guide further research in the area, and 

help direct ongoing and future 

prevention programs. 

Violence is the leading cause of death 

among young people, and increasingly 

recognized as an important public 

health and social issue. In 1998, over 

3,500 school aged children (5 to 18 

years old) in the United States died 

violent deaths due to suicide, homicide, 

and unintentional firearm injuries. The 

vast majority of these fatal injuries were 

not school associated. However, 

whenever a homicide or suicide occurs 

in or around school, it becomes a matter 

of particularly intense public interest 

and concern. NCIPC conducted the first 

scientific study of school-associated 

violent deaths during the 1992–99 

academic years to establish the true 

extent of this highly visible problem. 

Despite the important role of schools as 

a setting for violence research and 

prevention interventions, relatively 

little scientific or systematic work has 

been done to describe the nature and 

level of fatal violence associated with 

schools. Until NCIPC conducted the first 

nationwide investigation of violent 

deaths associated with schools, public 

health and education officials had to 

rely on limited local studies and 

estimated numbers to describe the 

extent of school-associated violent 

death. 

The system will draw cases from the 

entire United States in attempting to 

capture all cases of school-associated 

violent deaths that have occurred. 

Investigators will review public records 

and published press reports concerning 

each school-associated violent death. 

For each identified case, investigators 

will also interview an investigating law 

enforcement official (defined as a police 

officer, police chief, or district attorney), 

and a school official (defined as a school 

principal, school superintendent, school 

counselor, school teacher, or school 

support staff) who are knowledgeable 

about the case in question. Researchers 

will request information on both the 

victim and alleged offender(s)—

including demographic data, their 

academic and criminal records, and 

their relationship to one another. They 

will also collect data on the time and 

location of the death; the circumstances, 

motive, and method of the fatal injury; 

and the security and violence 

prevention activities in the school and 

community where the death occurred, 

before and after the fatal injury event. 

There are no costs to the respondents 

other than their time. 

ESTIMATE OF ANNUALIZED BURDEN TABLE

Respondents Number of 

respondents 

Number of 

responses/ 

respondents 

Average burden/response 

(in hours) 

Total annual 

burden (in 

hours) 

School Officials ................................................................................................ 35 1 60/60 35 

Policy Officials ................................................................................................. 35 1 60/60 35 

Total .......................................................................................................... 70 ........................ ........................ 70 

Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 212 / Thursday, November 3, 2005 / Notices 66839 

Dated: October 28, 2005. 

Betsey Dunaway, 

Acting Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for 

Disease Control and Prevention. 

[FR Doc. 05–21913 Filed 11–2–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4163–18–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention 

[60Day–06–0607] 

Proposed Data Collections Submitted 

for Public Comment and 

Recommendations 

In compliance with the requirement 

of section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 for 

opportunity for public comment on 

proposed data collection projects, the 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention (CDC) will publish periodic 

summaries of proposed projects. To 

request more information on the 

proposed projects or to obtain a copy of 

the data collection plans and 

instruments, call 404–639–4766 and 

send comments to Seleda Perryman, 

CDC Assistant Reports Clearance 

Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS–D74, 

Atlanta, GA 30333 or send an email to 

omb@cdc.gov. 

Comments are invited on: (a) Whether 

the proposed collection of information 

is necessary for the proper performance 

of the functions of the agency, including 

whether the information shall have 

practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the 

agency’s estimate of the burden of the 

proposed collection of information; (c) 

ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (d) ways to minimize the 

burden of the collection of information 

on respondents, including through the 

use of automated collection techniques 

or other forms of information 

technology. Written comments should 

be received within 60 days of this 

notice. 

Proposed Project 

The National Violent Death Reporting 

System-Revision-National Center for 

Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention (CDC). 

Violence is an important public 

health problem. In the United States, 

homicide and suicide are the second 

and third leading causes of death, 

respectively, in the 1–34 year old age 

group. Unfortunately, public health 

agencies do not know much more about 

the problem than the numbers and the 

sex, race, and age of the victims—all 

information obtainable from the 

standard death certificate. Death 

certificates, however, carry no 

information about key factors necessary 

for prevention such as the victimsuspect relationship or the 

circumstances of the deaths. This makes 

it impossible to discern anything but the 

gross contours of the problem. 

Furthermore, death certificates are 

typically not available until 20 months 

after the completion of a calendar year. 

Official publications of national violent 

death rates, e.g., those in the Morbidity 

and Mortality Weekly Report, rarely use 

data that are more than two years old. 

Public health interventions aimed at a 

moving target last seen two years ago 

may well miss the mark. 

Local and Federal criminal justice 

agencies such as the Federal Bureau of 

Investigation (FBI) provide slightly more 

information about homicides, but they 

do not routinely collect standardized 

data about suicides, which are much 

more common within all age groups 

than homicides. The FBI’s 

Supplemental Homicide Report System 

(SHRS) does collect basic information 

about the victim-suspect relationship 

and circumstances. But, as with death 

certificates, SHRS does not link violent 

deaths that are part of one incident such 

as homicides-suicides. Because it is a 

voluntary system, approximately 10–20 

percent of police departments 

nationwide do not participate. The FBI’s 

National Incident Based Reporting 

System (NIBRS) addresses some of these 

deficiencies, but covers less of the 

country than SHRS, includes only 

homicides, and collects only police 

information. Also, the Bureau of Justice 

Statistics Reports do not use data that 

are more than two years old. 

CDC therefore proposes to continue a 

state-based surveillance system for 

violent deaths that will provide more 

detailed and timely information. It taps 

into the case records held by medical 

examiners/coroners, police, and crime 

labs. Data are collected centrally by each 

state in the system, stripped of 

identifiers, and then sent to the CDC. 

Information is collected from these 

records about the characteristics of the 

victims and suspects, the circumstances 

of the deaths, and the weapons 

involved. States use standardized data 

elements and software designed by CDC. 

Ultimately, this information is intended 

to guide states in designing programs 

that reduce multiple forms of violence. 

Neither victim families nor suspects 

are contacted to collect information for 

The National Violent Death Reporting 

System. Data come from existing records 

and are collected by state health 

department staff or their subcontractors. 

Health departments incur an average of 

2.5 hours per death in identifying the 

deaths from death certificates, 

contacting the police and medical 

examiners to get copies of or to view the 

relevant records, abstracting the records, 

various data processing tasks, various 

administrative tasks, etc. 

The number of state health 

departments to be funded may be as 

high as 22 by 2009. Seventeen states are 

currently funded. NCIPC hopes to 

eventually fund all 50 states. Violent 

deaths include all homicides, suicides, 

legal interventions, deaths from 

undetermined causes, and unintentional 

firearm deaths. There are 50,000 such 

deaths annually among U.S. residents; 

thus the average state will experience 

approximately 1,000 such deaths each 

year. 

ESTIMATE OF ANNUALIZED BURDEN TABLE

Respondents Number of respondents 

Number of responses/respondent Average burden/response 

(in hours) 

Total burden 

(in hours) 

State Health Departments ............................................................................... 22 1,000 2.5 

Total .......................................................................................................... ........................ ........................ ........................ 55,000