Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; Annual Progress Report for the Access to Telework Program Under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as Amended
Federal Register, Volume 79 Issue 156 (Wednesday, August 13, 2014)
Federal Register Volume 79, Number 156 (Wednesday, August 13, 2014)
Notices
Pages 47443-47444
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office www.gpo.gov
FR Doc No: 2014-19067
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Docket No. ED-2014-ICCD-0113
Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; Annual Progress Report for the Access to Telework Program Under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as Amended
AGENCY: Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), Department of Education (ED).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 3501 et seq.), ED is proposing an extension of an existing information collection.
DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before October 14, 2014.
ADDRESSES: Comments submitted in response to this notice should be submitted electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov by selecting Docket ID number ED-2014-ICCD-
0113 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 note that comments submitted by fax or email and those submitted after the comment period will not be accepted; ED will ONLY accept comments during the comment period in this mailbox when the regulations.gov site is not available. Written requests for information or comments submitted by postal mail or delivery should be addressed to the Director of the Information Collection Clearance Division, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW., LBJ, Mailstop L-OM-2-
2E319, Room 2E115, Washington, DC 20202.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For specific questions related to collection activities, please contact Robert Groenendaal, 202-245-7393.
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: Annual Progress Report for the Access to Telework Program under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as Amended.
OMB Control Number: 1820-0687.
Type of Review: An extension of an existing information collection.
Respondents/Affected Public: Individuals or households.
Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 19.
Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 219.
Abstract: Nineteen states currently have Access to Telework programs that provide financial loans to individuals
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with disabilities for the purchase of computers and other equipment that support teleworking for an employer or self-employment on a full or part-time basis. These grantees are required to report annual data on their programs to the Rehabilitation Services Administration. This information collection provides a standard format for the submission of those annual performance reports and a follow-up survey to be administered to individuals who receive loans.
The proposed instrument eliminates an entire section of optional information that is not required for submission by the Telework grantees, further reducing the burden from approximately 12.5 hours to 11 hours per state. Section C. Telework Optional Data Elements, which are not annual reporting requirements for the Telework grantees, has been proposed for removal from the current instrument. The information collected in this optional data section includes: 1. Types of Telework programs (partnership loans or revolving loans), 2. Interest Rates (lowest and highest interest rates established by policy), 3. Loan Amounts (lowest and highest loan amounts established by policy), 4. Repayment Terms (shortest and longest repayment terms established by policy), and Loan Guarantee Requirement, the percentage of the loans that must be repaid by the alternative financing program (AFP) to the lender in case of default as established by the agreement with the lender. Since the data reported under C. Telework Optional Data Elements of the current instrument is not required, grantees did not report this information uniformly across programs. If every grantee doesn't report in this section, then the data can't be reported in aggregate form. This optional section contains information about program features and descriptions that may or may not change on an annual basis. Since there is limited utility to the annual reporting of this optional information, the decision was made to further reduce the burden to all grantees by eliminating this section from the current instrument in the Management Information System (MIS).
Dated: August 7, 2014.
Tomakie Washington,
Acting Director, Information Collection Clearance Division, Privacy, Information and Records Management Services, Office of Management.
FR Doc. 2014-19067 Filed 8-12-14; 8:45 am
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
