Att_Javits AnnRpt Supp Stmt(JH)3359

ATTACHMENT C

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission

1. Justification

1. Section 703 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, authorizes the Secretary to award fellowships under the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program for graduate study in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The fellowships support graduate students of superior ability selected on the basis of demonstrated achievement, exceptional promise and financial need. The award is a four-year fellowship contingent on the appropriation of funds by Congress. The amounts of new and continuing awards are based on a student’s financial need as determined by the Title IV, Part F needs analysis system. Each individual fellow’s need must be assessed and reported each year, along with a continuing fellow’s academic progress as determined by the institution.

2. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) uses the data in determining the eligibility and fellowship amount for Javits fellows, and the total amount of program funds that are sent to the fellow’s institution. Failure to gather this information would make it impossible for ED to make awards according to Section 703 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended. The data requested is the minimum necessary to administer the grant in compliance with program regulations as published in the Federal Register of October 28, 1993, and revised on July 1, 1998. Information gathered from the collection is used to compile program data regarding need and attrition rates. The information is used internally, for biannual reports to Congress, and to respond to congressional inquiries.

3. Once the package is approved, an electronic version of the form will be posted on the Jacob K. Javits Web page. Institutions may download the forms for completion and then submit the completed forms to ED. We will also e-mail every participating grantee institution the form for completion and submission. Last year, we received 100% of the forms via e-mail. This year, we will encourage grantees to only send the e-mailed form and receive a message of receipt from the U.S. Department of Education so that they will not have to fax and mail the same forms to the Department. The form will remain available on the Web during the year for administrative adjustments, such as student transfers.

4. The collection and use of this information is not duplicated in ED. The information requested is based on data already submitted by the fellow to the institution from their financial aid application, thereby minimizing additional burden through duplicative forms. This financial aid information is reported directly to institutions of higher education (IHEs) and is used in determining the need amount for the fellow. ED would not be able to use this information directly, as each institution must factor in local cost-of-living expenses for graduate students.

5. This information collection does not apply to small businesses or other small entities.

6. Since the grants awarded under this program are awarded on an annual basis, data must be collected for each new funding cycle.

7. This information collection does not include any special circumstances.

8. We will publish both 60 and 30-day Federal Register notices inviting public comment.

This form results from site visits to IHEs, and the processing experiences of both the IHE administrators and ED program staff.

9. No payment or gifts are provided to respondents.

10. Each respondent is informed that the financial information collected is used solely for determination of the stipend amount and total fellowship award. Any financial data made public is only presented in aggregate.

11. No questions of a sensitive nature are asked in this report.

12. Hour burden of the Collection of Information.

Respondent Type	Number of Respondents	Frequency of Response	Hours	Total Burden Hours
IHE	100	annual	4	400
TOTALS	100		4	400

The burden of individual respondents is estimated at an average of 4 hours for each IHE. These estimates are based on input from respondents during previous funding cycles.

Estimated total annual cost burden to respondents.

Respondent Type	Number of Respondents	Frequency of Response	Hours	Total Burden Hours	Wage	Total Cost
IHE	100	annual	4	400	$20 p/hour	$8,000
TOTALS	100		4	400		$8,000

13. There are no start-up costs.

14. Estimated annualized cost to the Federal Government.

Task	Cost	Hours	Number	Total Cost to USG
Securing OMB approval (every 3 years)	$25/hr	20		$ 500
Forms design (every 3 years)	$25/hr	5		$ 125
Printing of report forms	$.50 ea.		100	$ 50
Mailing of report forms	$.33 ea.		100	$ 33
Logging in and review of forms by staff (100 forms; ½ hour per form)	$25/hr	80		$2,000
Preparation and issue of Grant Award Documents (100 grants; 1 hour per grant)	$25/hr	24		$ 600
Mailing of Grant Award Documents	$.33 ea.		100	$ 33
Preparation of funding slate	$25/hr	20		$ 500
Department staff to review and approve slate	$40/hr	5		$ 200
Annual monitoring and technical assistance	$25/hr	50		$1250
TOTAL				$5,291.00

15. There is no program change.

15. ED is not planning to publish any information from this collection.

15. We will display the expiration date.

15. No exceptions are being requested.

2. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

Collection does not use statistical methods.