Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; Project To Support America's Families and Educators (Project SAFE) Grant Application

AGENCY:

Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), 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 a new information collection.

DATES:

The Department requested emergency processing from OMB for this information collection request on September 16, 2021. As a result, the Department is providing the public with the opportunity to comment under the full comment period. Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before November 22, 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-0137. 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 6W208D, Washington, DC 20202-4537.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For specific questions related to collection activities, please contact Amy Banks, 202-453-6704.

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: Project to Support America's Families and Educators (Project SAFE) Grant Application.

OMB Control Number: 1810-0763.

Type of Review: A new information collection.

Respondents/Affected Public: State, Local, and Tribal Governments.

Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 13.

Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 26.

Abstract: This is a request for emergency approval of a new information collection request so that the Department can collect applications for the Project to Support America's Families and Educators (Project SAFE) Grant Program. The Project SAFE grant program is intended to improve students' safety and well-being by providing resources to local educational agencies (LEAs) that adopt and implement strategies to prevent the spread of the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) consistent with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and that are financially penalized for doing so by their State educational agency (SEA) or other State entity. Under the new Project SAFE grant program, applications will be submitted on a rolling basis before the end of fiscal year 2021 and throughout fiscal year 2022. Upon receipt of the applications, the intent is to quickly review and make approval decisions of awards as quickly as possible to make the award the funds before the end of this fiscal year.

Additional Information: The Project SAFE grant program timeline is extremely short due to the Biden Administration's direction to the Department to create the program to address urgent needs. For these reasons, we are requesting emergency approval of the Project SAFE application so that LEAs can demonstrate their eligibility and need to implement the program as intended and receive funds to address the immediate needs of their students, staff, and schools.