SSA APPLETREE PMs 20200408

Although the current expiration date for OMB Control No. 0923-0057 is 07/31/2020, ATSDR is requesting PRA clearance by 04/30/2020 to re-align PRA clearance with the APPLETREE Program budget cycle and recipient reporting requirements for the new program announcement, NOFO No. CDC-RFA-TS-20-2001. Several forms require year-round reporting. Awards are expected to be finalized by 04/01/2020.

Goal of the study: Under cooperative agreement, ATSDR collects information related to recipient activities and the process and outcome performance measures outlined by the cooperative agreement program. Information will be used to monitor progress toward program goals and objectives, and for quality improvement.

Intended use of the resulting data: Performance measures and progress reports will continue to be used by the APPLETREE Program to inform continuous program quality improvement. ATSDR will use these measures for program monitoring and management.

Methods to be used to collect: At the end of each budget year, recipients will report prescribed performance measures, and an annual performance report (APR) of program accomplishments, including an updated annual plan of work (APOW). For this revision information collection request (ICR), ATSDR has added four new forms, and will migrate the collection of three of the existing forms from SharePoint to a new information technology (IT) system called ATSDR’s Request Management Service System (ARMSS). Other forms will continue to be collected via SharePoint or via email.

Subpopulation to be studied: 28 cooperative agreement recipients, an increase of three over the 25 previously approved in 2017.

How data will be analyzed: Data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics for program reports.

Part A. Justification

A.1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary

The purpose of the ATSDR’s Partnership to Promote Local Efforts to Reduce Environmental Exposure (APPLETREE) Program is to: 1) identify pathways of exposure to hazardous substances at hazardous waste sites and releases; 2) identify, implement, and coordinate public health interventions to reduce exposures to hazardous substances which occur at levels of health concern; and 3) provide training at the state level to promote and achieve the safe siting of child care facilities in the United States. The APPLETREE Program is also an effective mechanism which enhances ATSDR's communication with state, local, and federal health and environmental agencies.

The APPLETREE Program is authorized under Sections 104(i)(15) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986 [42 U.S.C. 9604(i)(15)] (Attachment 1).

This is a revision information collection request (ICR) titled “APPLETREE Performance Measures” (OMB Control No. 0923-0057, expiration date 07/31/2020), for which ATSDR is requesting another three-year Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) clearance. Although the current expiration date for OMB Control No. 0923-0057 is 07/31/2020, ATSDR is requesting PRA clearance by 04/30/2020 to re-align PRA clearance with the APPLETREE Program budget cycle and recipient reporting requirements for the new program. Awards are expected to be finalized by 04/01/2020. In order to meet this request, the 60-day Federal Register Notice was published on 12/23/2019 (Attachment 2) and is further discussed in Section A.8.

On August 21, 2019, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) published a new notice of funding opportunity announcement (NOFO No. CDC-RFA-TS20-2001) for the APPLETREE Program (Attachment 3). Under the new three-year cooperative agreement, ATSDR will continue to collect information related to APPLETREE recipients’ activities, including process and outcome performance measures. ATSDR will continue to use this information to monitor progress toward program goals and objectives, and for program quality improvement.

A.2. Purpose and Use of the Information Collection

The purpose of this ICR is to support program planning and management related to recipient progress reporting, financial reporting and grants management, and quality control. Over the next three-year APPLETREE Program period, ATSDR will receive this information to monitor recipient performance and to support the recipients in terms of technical capacity for environmental assessment, community involvement and education, and stakeholder communications at ATSDR sites. ATSDR requires that recipients participate in ATSDR’s safe siting program for child care facilities. This participation will foster a systematic way to work with child care licensing authorities to evaluate prospective child care locations, to train licensing authorities, and to evaluate existing child care locations. The APPLETREE short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term outcomes and performance measures are detailed in the NOFO (Attachment 3).

Short-term Outcomes

Timely dissemination of site-specific findings to partners, stakeholders, and community members. (Strategy A)

1.2 Increased partner buy-in and acceptance of recommendations. (Strategy A)

1.3 Buy in and support from broad array of partners. (Strategy B, NOT funded under TS17-1701)

1.4 Increased stakeholder/partners knowledge of ECE siting issues and recommendations to prevent exposure. (Strategy B, NOT funded under TS17-1701)

1.5 Increased understanding of barriers and facilitators for safe siting. (Strategy B, NOT funded under TS17-1701)

1.6 Enhanced and/or expanded CSPECE programs. (Strategy B, funded under TS17-1701)

1.7 Increased stakeholder /partner knowledge of ECE siting issues and recommendations to prevent exposure. (Strategy B, funded under TS17-1701)

1.8 Enhanced infrastructure among partners to sustain CSPECE program. (Strategy B, funded under TS17-1701)

1.9 Increased knowledge among target audience to identify, reduce, or prevent health effects from exposure to hazardous substances. (Strategy C)

2.1 Increased implementation of recommendations by regulatory agencies, policy makers, and/or individuals. (Strategy A)

2.2 Decreased or eliminated site-related exposures. (Strategy A)

2.3 Increased stakeholder practices to reduce hazardous exposure among children. (Strategy B, NOT funded under TS17-1701)

2.4 Increased process, systems, and policy changes to support prevented exposures. (Strategy B, NOT funded under TS17-1701)

2.5 Increased stakeholder practices to prevent hazardous exposure among children. (Strategy B, funded under TS17-1701)

2.6 Increased systems and policy changes to support prevented exposures. (Strategy B, funded under TS17-1701)

2.7 Increased practices of partners to manage CSPECE program independently. (Strategy B, funded under TS17-1701)

2.8 Increased actions among target audience to identify, reduce, or prevent health effects from exposure to hazardous substances. (Strategy C)

3.1 Decreased, eliminated, or prevented exposures to hazardous chemicals. (Strategies A, B, and C)

The following information collection forms collect process and outcome measures relevant to activities and outcomes for which the recipients are accountable for tracking (Attachment 4). The first five forms were previously approved by OMB in 2017. The last four forms are new.

ATSDR Health Education Activity Tracking (HEAT) Form (Attachment 4a): For each environmental health assessment and health education activity conducted at ATSDR sites, APPLETREE recipients shall quantitatively assess and report efforts to educate community members about site recommendations and health risks using indicators to assess community understanding of site findings about health risks and community understanding of agency recommendations to reduce health risks. This information, formerly entered into SharePoint, will now be entered into the new information technology (IT) system called ATSDR’s Request Management Service System (ARMSS) for each activity at ATSDR sites.

ATSDR Technical Assistance (TA) Activity Form (Attachment 4b): Throughout the budget year, this form will be used to record the routine requests made of the recipients and their program responses. These responses do not evaluate environmental data and do not make health calls. They are not reviewed and cleared through ATSDR clearance processes but are monitored by ATSDR as part of the recipients’ performance. This information, formerly entered into SharePoint, will now be entered into ARMSS.

ATSDR Site Impact Assessment (SIA) Form (Attachment 4c): For each environmental health assessment and health education activity conducted at ATSDR sites, recipients shall estimate and report the number of people protected from exposure to toxic substances at each site where implementation of agency recommendations has taken place and at each child care center where safe siting guidelines have been implemented. To the extent possible, recipients shall estimate the disease burden prevented due to the implementation of site recommendations and safe siting guidelines. This information will be entered into the ATSDR SIA database by the recipient. This information, formerly entered into SharePoint, will now be entered into ARMSS.

ATSDR Success Story Form (Attachment 4d): Recipients will provide one success story per quarter (four success stories total per year) that highlights an impact of any of their programs. Recipients will report a brief summary, background, intervention/action taken, and accomplishment/impact for each story. Optionally, they may include a photo or quote. Recipients will enter this information will continue to be entered into SharePoint.

APPLETREE Annual Performance Report (APR) Template (Attachment 4e) and Guidance Document (Attachment 4e1): Recipients will continue to provide an APR each year and at the end of the funding cycle, which summarizes their annual and funding cycle performances respectively. Annual APRs will be due in December of each year to coincide with the CDC Grants Management annual reports to reduce overall reporting burden. The final report will be due at the end of the funding cycle. The purpose of the performance reports will be to assess recipients based on performance measures and evaluation projects. The reports should include a summary of performance measures, results of any evaluation projects, accompanying narrative of progress and interpretation of results, optional successes, challenges, and updated work plan. These reports will continue to be entered into a Microsoft Word document and provided directly to ATSDR via email.

CSPECE Qualitative Narrative Form (Attachment 4f): This is a new form. Recipients will provide a narrative report of their Choose Safe Places for Early Care and Education (CSPECE) Programs to document descriptive details of their state’s landscape, program plan, program implementation, and results that cannot be captured through numbers. Recipients will complete and submit the narrative once a year and at the end of the grant cycle as a supplement with their Annual Performance Reports in a Microsoft Word document and provide directly to ATSDR via email. This is a new form.

CSPECE Quantitative Form (Attachment 4g): This is another new form. Recipients will provide data on their CSPECE Programs to quantify aspects of their program such as children reached, target audiences educated, early care and education programs referred and screened, and recommendations implemented. Recipients will complete and submit a Microsoft Excel form once a year and at the end of the grant cycle as a supplement with their Annual Performance Reports and provide directly to ATSDR via email. The form is cumulative and documents efforts from all three years. This is a new form.

ATSDR SoilSHOPs Form (Attachment 4h): SoilSHOPs are not a required activity, however if a recipient completes a SoilSHOP, they need to complete a SoilSHOPs Form in Word. This form gathers data on the inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes of the event, such as the number of soil samples screened, number of elevated soil samples, number of individuals receiving health consultations, and number of individuals receiving referrals. The form should be provided back to ATSDR via email within a month of a SoilSHOP completion. This is a new form.

ATSDR Recommendation Follow-up Form (Attachment 4i): For each environmental health assessment, recipients will provide an update on the status of acceptance and implementation of all recommendations to understand whether and how recommendations have been implemented, and the subsequent impact on communities. Recipients will complete an Excel reporting form annually on the anniversary date of the release of each health assessment. Initially, recipients will provide to ATSDR via email, but the form will be integrated into the ARMSS system in the future. This is a new form.

A.3. Use of Improved Information Technology and Burden Reduction

Only the minimum amount of necessary information will be collected for the “APPLETREE Performance Measures” ICR.

ATSDR will require recipients to electronically submit the HEAT, the TA and the SIA Performance Measures in ARMSS. The use of this electronic reporting system will reduce recipient burden because the information can be submitted directly and quickly into the ATSDR system. The estimated time for each entry is 3, 5 and 7 minutes for HEAT, TA and SIA, respectively. Direct entry will also reduce transcription errors, because recipients will not have to send the information in another reporting form requiring separate data entry at ATSDR. Additionally, the Success Story form will be entered into Sharepoint, another efficient electronic system. We estimate that 58% (156/267) of the requested burden hours will be spent reporting electronically in ARMSS or Sharepoint.

All other forms, including the APR, the SoilSHOPs Form, the Recommendation Follow-up Form, and both CSPECE forms, will be submitted in electronic format to ATSDR via email. We estimate that 42% (111/267) of the requested burden hours will be spent reporting by submitting reports via email to the ATSDR TPOs.

A.4. Efforts to Identify Duplication and Use of Similar Information

There will be no duplication of program management information in the APPLETREE Program. The reported information from the recipient will be generated as site activities progress throughout the budget year. No similar information exists.

A.5. Impact on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities

Recipient reports or performance measures and annual reports will not involve small businesses.

A.6. Consequences of Collecting the Information Less Frequently

The APPLETREE recipients will submit information about each site activity into the HEAT, TA, SIA, and SoilSHOPs as it occurs. Due to the high volume of ATSDR site activities anticipated per year, we estimate each recipient will submit information several times per year. This frequency is necessary for accurate tracking of site activities. To allow recipients to wait to submit activity summaries monthly, quarterly, biannually, or annually, would result in loss of detail in site activities and increased opportunity for recall bias. This high volume of entries is offset by the minimal time needed to enter each site activity.

The APPLETREE recipients will submit APRs and both CSPECE forms once per year for program management and monitoring. Reporting once per year is a minimum requirement. Additionally, each form will be submitted a 4^th time at the end of the period of performance.

There are no technical or legal obstacles to reducing burden.

A.7. Special Circumstances Relating to the Guidelines of 5 CFR 1320.5

The following special circumstance(s) apply to this information collection. We are requiring the APPLETREE recipients to report HEAT and SIA information to the agency more often than quarterly as described and justified in Section A.6.

A.8. Comments in Response to the Federal Register Notice and Efforts to Consult Outside the Agency

A 60-day Federal Register Notice was published in the Federal Register on 12/23/2019, Vol. 84, No. 246, pp. 70547 (Attachment 2). ATSDR] did not receive public comments related to this notice.
The APPLETREE Program has been in existence since 1987. As a mature program, consultations outside of ATSDR did not occur during the preparation of this NOFO (Attachment 3).

A.9. Explanation of Any Payment or Gift to Respondents

No payment or gift to APPLETREE recipients will be offered. The recipients are required to submit reports and performance measures as part of the cooperative agreement.

A.10. Protection of the Privacy and Confidentiality of Information Provided by Respondents

Three APPLETREE forms collect information in identifiable form (IIF), specifically, the recipient Point of Contact (POC) name, phone number and email (Attachments 4d,4e,4g). On 03/25/2020, the CDC Chief Privacy Officer determined that the Privacy Act does not apply to the APPLETREE ICR (Attachment 5), as records will not be retrieved by POC identifiers.

The APPLETREE Program will collect recipient performance measures using a combination of three approved IT systems: ARMSS, SharePoint, and email. See Section A.15 for a description of the modes of collection by form. Records collected under this ICR will be maintained according to the CDC/ATSDR Records Control Schedule.

A.11. Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Justification for Sensitive Questions

The APPLETREE Program is conducted under the non-research cooperative agreement (NOFO No. CDC-RFA-TS20-2001) (Attachment 3). The ATSDR Human Subjects Contact has determined that the information collection is necessary for program management and is not research involving human subjects. Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval is not required (Attachment 6).

Sensitive information will not be reported to ATSDR.

A.12. Estimates of Annualized Burden Hours and Costs

The total number of annualized burden hours requested is 267 hours. This reflects a reduction of requested time burden from the 272 hours previously approved in 2017. Details about the requested revisions are found in Section A.15.

Current estimates of burden hours for each information collection (IC) were derived as follows:

ATSDR Health Education Activity Tracking (HEAT) Form: For each environmental health assessment and health education activity conducted at ATSDR sites, APPLETREE Recipients shall quantitatively assess and report efforts to educate community members about site recommendations and health risks using indicators to assess community understanding of site findings about health risks and community understanding of agency recommendations to reduce health risks. This information will be entered in to the ATSDR HEAT system for each activity at ATSDR sites. Based on the count of 2018 ATSDR activities, ATSDR assumes a maximum of 1,036 activities will be entered into the HEAT database each year; therefore, each of the 28 recipients will enter an average of 37 activities into the HEAT database, resulting in 52 total burden hours. See Attachment 4a.
ATSDR Technical Assistance (TA) Activity Form: Throughout the budget year, this form will be used to record the routine requests made of the recipients and their program responses. These responses do not evaluate environmental data and do not make health calls, but they are monitored by ATSDR as part of the recipients’ performance. Based on 2018 activities, ATSDR expects 15 responses per recipient for a total of 420. Each response will take 5 minutes for total of 35 annualized burden hours. See Attachment 4b.
ATSDR Site Impact Assessment (SIA) Form: For each environmental health assessment and health education activity conducted at ATSDR sites, recipients shall estimate and report the number of people protected from exposure to toxic substances at each site where implementation of agency recommendations has taken place and at each child care center where safe siting guidelines have been implemented. To the extent possible, recipients shall estimate and report the disease burden prevented due to the implementation of site recommendations and safe siting guidelines. ATSDR assumes a maximum of 112 ATSDR sites will undergo an environmental assessment, or an average of 4 sites per recipient, per year, resulting in a total of 13 burden hours. See Attachment 4c.
ATSDR Success Story Form: Recipients will provide one success story per quarter (four success stories total per year) that highlights an impact of any of their programs. Recipients will report a brief summary, background, intervention/action taken, and accomplishment/impact for each story. Optionally, they may include a photo or quote. ATSDR assumes that each entry will take 30 minutes. This equates to 56 burden hours per year. See Attachment 4d.
APPLETREE Annual Performance Report (APR) Template: Recipients will provide an Annual Performance Report each year and at the end of the grant cycle, which summarizes their annual and grant cycle performances respectively. APRs will be due in December of each year to coincide with the CDC Grants Management annual reports to reduce overall reporting burden and the final report will be due at the end of the funding cycle. The purpose of the performance reports will be to assess Partners based on performance measures and evaluation projects. The reports should include a summary of performance measures, results of any evaluation projects, accompanying narrative of progress and interpretation of results, optional successes, challenges, and updated work plan. ATSDR assumes that APRs will take 2 burden hours for each recipient to prepare resulting in a total of 56 burden hours. See Attachment 4e.¹ ATSDR provides the APR Guidance Document for recipients in Attachment 4e1.
Choose Safe Places for Early Care and Education (CSPECE) Qualitative Narrative Form: Recipients will complete and submit the narrative once a year and at the end of the grant cycle as a supplement with their APRs to document descriptive details of their state’s landscape, program plan, program implementation, and results that cannot be captured through numbers. ATSDR assumes that it will take 1 hour per response for a total of 28 burden hours each year. See Attachment 4f.¹
CSPECE Quantitative Form: Recipients will complete and submit the quantitative spreadsheet once a year and at the end of the grant cycle as a supplement with their APRs to quantify aspects of their program such as children reached, target audiences screened, and recommendations implemented. ATSDR assumes that it will take 15 minutes per response for a total of 7 burden hours each year. See Attachment 4g.¹
ATSDR SoilSHOPs Form: SoilSHOPs are not a required activity; however, if conducted, a recipient will need to complete the ATSDR SoilSHOP Form. This form gathers data on the inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes of the event, such as the number of soil samples screened, number of elevated soil samples, number of individuals receiving health consultations, and number of individuals receiving referrals. The form should be provided back to ATSDR via email within two weeks of the SoilSHOP completion. Based on 2018 information, ATSDR expects that 10 SoilSHOPs will be conducted per year, total. ATSDR assumes that reporting will take 7 minutes per event for a rounded total of 1 burden hour. See Attachment 4h.
ATSDR Recommendation Follow-up Form: For each environmental health assessment, recipients will provide an update on the status of acceptance and implementation of all recommendations to understand whether and how recommendations have been implemented, and the subsequent impact on communities. Recipients will complete this reporting form annually on the anniversary date of the release of each health assessment. ATSDR expects that recommendation follow-up will be necessary 4 times per year per recipient. ATSDR estimates that each response will take 10 minutes for a total burden of 19 hours. See Attachment 4i.

Table A.12.1. Estimated Annualized Burden Hours

Type of Respondents	Form Name	No. of Respondents	No. of Responses per Respondent	Avg. Burden per Response (in hrs.)	Total Burden (in hours)
APPLETREE Recipients	ATSDR Health Education Activity Tracking (HEAT) Form	28	37	3/60	52
	ATSDR Technical Assistance (TA) Activity Form	28	15	5/60	35
	ATSDR Site Impact Assessment (SIA) Form	28	4	7/60	13
	ATSDR Success Story Form	28	4	30/60	56
	APPLETREE Annual Performance Report (APR) Template	28	1	2	56
	Choose Safe Places for Early Care and Education (CSPECE) Qualitative Narrative Form	28	1	1	28
	CSPECE Quantitative Form	28	1	15/60	7
	ATSDR SoilSHOPs Form	10	1	7/60	1
	ATSDR Recommendation Follow-up	28	4	10/60	19
Total					267

Estimates of the annualized cost burden to respondents for the collection of information are based on the Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics “May 2018 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, United States” (see http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#19-0000).

Table A.12.2. Hourly Wage Estimates for APPLETREE Recipients

Occupation Code	Occupation Title	Mean Hourly Wage
19-2041	Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health*	$37.30
* Conduct research or perform investigation for the purpose of identifying, abating, or eliminating sources of pollutants or hazards that affect either the environment or the health of the population. Using knowledge of various scientific disciplines, may collect, synthesize, study, report, and recommend action based on data derived from measurements or observations of air, food, soil, water, and other sources.

Table A.12.3. Estimated Annualized Burden Costs

Type of Respondent	Form Name	Total Burden Hours	Hourly Wage Rate	Total Respondent Costs
APPLETREE Recipients	ATSDR Health Education Activity Tracking (HEAT) Form	52	$37.30	$1,932.14
	ATSDR Technical Assistance (TA) Activity Form	35	$37.30	$1,305.50
	ATSDR Site Impact Assessment (SIA) Form	13	$37.30	$487.39
	ATSDR Success Story Form	56	$37.30	$2,088.82
	APPLETREE Annual Performance Report (APR) Template	56	$37.30	$2,088.80
	CSPECE Qualitative Narrative Form	28	$37.30	$1,044.40
	CSPECE Quantitative Form	7	$37.30	$261.10
	ATSDR SoilSHOPs Form	1	$37.30	$43.52
	ATSDR Recommendation Follow-up	19	$37.30	$696.27
Total				$9,947.91

A.13. Estimates of Other Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents and Record Keepers

Capital and start-up costs will not be required for APPLETREE recipients.

A.14. Annualized Cost to the Federal Government

The total annualized cost to the Federal Government is $11,028,595 based on the yearly costs itemized below.

The project funding for the three-year cooperative agreement is $31,500,000, or $10,500,000 per year.
Annual salary for five Technical Project Officers is $528,595, based on an annual salary of $105,719 per staff person.²

A.15. Explanation for Program Changes or Adjustments

The total annual time burden requested is 267 hours. This reflects a reduction of 5 hours of requested time burden from the 272 hours previously approved in 2017. This reduction in requested time burden is possible even with the addition of four new APPLETREE information collection forms (Attachments 4f-4i) to the five previously approved by OMB (Attachments 4a-4e) because ATSDR was able to refine the burden estimates for several forms based on the program’s experience since 2017. There are no changes to the content of the existing information collection forms other than the deletion of superfluous or redundant questions.

This revision also requests approval for an increase in the annual number of responses from 1,575 in 2017, to 1,886 in this current request (n=311 additional responses). The number of respondents is increased to 28 recipients from the previous 25.

The first three forms in the table below, formerly reported in SharePoint, will be migrated to a new IT system called ARMSS. See Section A.10 and Attachment 5 for more details about ARMSS.

Table A.15.1. Program Changes and Adjustments for Requested Time Burden.

Form Name	2017 Approval Status	Current Request	Mode of Collection
Attachment 4a - ATSDR HEAT Form	Approved 47 hours	Increase to 52 total hours requested; No change to the content of the forms	Approved in SharePoint in 2017. Migration to new IT system, ARMSS. See Section A.10 and Attachment 5 – PIA Form approval.
Attachment 4b – ATSDR TA Activity Form	Approved 32 hours	Increase to 35 total hours requested; No change] to the content of the forms
Attachment 4c – ATSDR SIA Form	Approved 18 hours	Request 13 total hours; reducing number of annualized responses from 6 to 4. ATSDR has not been receiving as many responses as have previously and updated this based on last year’s entries. There has been on a downward trend for 5 years, and ATSDR does not anticipate SIAs to increase.
Attachment 4d – ATSDR Success Story Form	Approved 100 hours	Request 56 total hours; reducing time per response from 1 hour to 30 minutes. Based on the responses received, ATSDR did not agree with the previous estimate. The responses are generally brief and would not take more than 30 minutes to collect and compose.	Approved in SharePoint in 2017. No change in mode of collection requested.
Attachment 4e – APPLETREE APR Template	Approved 75 hours	Request 56 total hours, reducing time per response from 3 hours to 2 hours. The template very clearly and directly links the partners’ Evaluation and Performance Management Plans (EPMPs) and planned performance measures and evaluation projects to what they should be reporting on, thus drastically increasing efficiency of reporting versus having an open-ended report. Previously partners would write very lengthy narratives about their annual performance without the structured report, which we are not looking for, and this helps to limit the amount of content.	Approved in Word document via email in 2017. No change in mode of collection requested.
Attachment 4f – CSPECE Qualitative Narrative Form	N/A	New form. Request 28 total hours	New – submit Word file via email.
Attachment 4g – CSPECE Quantitative Form	N/A	New form. Request 7 total hours	New – submit Excel file via email.
Attachment 4h – ATSDR SoilSHOPs Form	N/A	New form. SoilSHOPs are not a mandatory program requirement for all recipients. Request 1 total hour, reported by subset of 10 recipients, only if they choose to conduct a SoilSHOP.	New – submit Word file via email.
Attachment 4i – ATSDR Recommendation Follow-up Form	N/A	New form. Request 19 total hours	New – submit Excel file via email. ATSDR plans to migrate this new form to ARMSS in the future.

A.16. Plans for Tabulation and Publication and Project Time Schedule

ATSDR requests PRA clearance for three years, which will coincide with the three-year program period.

Although the current PRA clearance expires in 07/31/2020, ATSDR requests approval by 04/30/2020 as a critical date by which information collection must begin. Several forms require year-round reporting. ATSDR anticipates all awards will be obligated by that time to begin the new three-year program period. Each budget year, recipients must submit an initial annual plan of work (APOW) via the application process, SoilSHOPs, HEAT, TA and SIA database entries throughout, and APRs (including updated APOWs), CSPECE Quantitative and Qualitative forms, Success Stories, and Recommendation Follow-up Forms at the end of the budget year.

Data on performance measures will be analyzed and presented in a variety of ATSDR products as descriptive statistics.

Table A.16.1. Project Time Schedule

Activity	Time Schedule
Date of Awards	03/31/2020
PRA Clearance Obtained	Requested by 04/30/2020
Information Collection and Reporting	FY2020, 2021, 2022

A.17. Reason(s) Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate

The display of the OMB expiration date is appropriate.

A.18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

There are no exceptions to the certification.

1 In addition to the required annual reporting, at the end of the three-year program, each recipient will report cumulative three-year data in the APR, the CSPECE Qualitative Narrative Form, and the CSPECE Quantitative Form to summarize recipient efforts and performance. This will result in four total responses in a three-year period per form. The estimated annualized number of required responses is thus rounded down to once per year for these three forms, as 4 hours divided by three years equals 1.33 hours per year.

2 Assuming all FTEs are GS-13 Step 5 using the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Salary and Locality Pay for Atlanta at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2019/ATL.pdf.

File Type	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Author	Richardson, Tony (CDC/OD/OADS)
File Modified	0000-00-00
File Created	2021-01-13

SSA APPLETREE PMs 20200408