Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission
Semi-annual Progress Report for the Grants to Reduce Violent Crimes Against Women on Campus Program
A. Justification
Statutorily-Mandated Need for Information
The Higher Education Amendments of 1998 created the Grants to Combat Violent Crimes Against Women on Campuses Program (renamed the Grants to Reduce Violent Crimes Against Women on Campus Program in the Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (Campus Program)). 20 U.S.C. 1152. Campus Program grant funds may be used to enhance victim services and develop programs to prevent violent crimes against women on campuses. The Campus Program also enables institutions of higher education to develop and strengthen effective security and investigation strategies to combat violent crimes against women on campuses, including domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
Currently, there are different statutory and regulatory reporting requirements that affect Campus Program grantees. First, Section 826(d)(3) of the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 mandates the submission of an annual report to the committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate responsible for issues relating to higher education and crime. The Higher Education Amendments require information about the effectiveness of grant-funded programs and a statistical summary of persons served. Specifically, the Attorney General must report to Congress on the following information:
A) the number of grants, and the amount of funds distributed;
B) a summary of the purposes for which the grants were provided and an evaluation of the progress made under the grants;
C) a statistical summary of the persons served, detailing the nature of victimization, and providing data on age, sex, race, ethnicity, language, disability, relationship to offender, geographic distribution, and type of campus; and
D) an evaluation of the effectiveness of programs funded, including information obtained from reports submitted pursuant to section 485 (f) of the Higher Education Act of 1965.
VAWA 2000 requires all VAWA grantees, including Campus Program grantees, to report on the effectiveness of their programs to the Attorney General who, in turn, must report to Congress every two years. Section 1003 of VAWA 2000 states that
(a) REPORT BY GRANT RECIPIENTS.- The Attorney General or Secretary of Health and Human Services, as applicable, shall require grantees under any program authorized or reauthorized by this division or an amendment made by this division to report on the effectiveness of the activities carried out with amounts made available to carry out that program, including number of persons served, if applicable, numbers of persons seeking services who could not be served and such other information as the Attorney General or Secretary may prescribe.
(b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.- The Attorney General or Secretary of Health and Human Services, as applicable, shall report biennially to the Committees on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the Senate on the grant programs described in subsection (a), including the information contained in any report under that subsection.
42 U.S.C. 3789.
OVW must also comply with the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) (Pub. L. 103-62) which was enacted to increase Congressional and Administrative focus on the results from government programs and activities. Information collected on the semi-annual progress report regarding performance measures, including output measures, that OVW has developed for the different types of Campus Program grantees will enable OVW to meet its reporting obligations under GPRA.
2. Use of Information
OVW will use the information collected from Campus Program grantees to monitor their grant-funded activities and qualitatively assess those activities. In particular, OVW is seeking data that includes baseline information to review activities supported with Grant funds, including, for example, an increase in the number of trainings or an increase in the number of victims served.
Therefore, OVW plans to use data from the proposed information collection in two different ways. First, OVW will review each semi-annual progress report to monitor individual Campus Program grantees’ performance and ensure that each grantee is achieving the goals and objectives set forth in its application for funding and award documents. Second, OVW will aggregate data from all Campus Program progress reports to assess the performance of the Campus Program as a whole and to respond to Congressional, Department of Justice, and other inquiries about how Campus Program grantees use OVW funds.
In addition to the proposed information collection, OVW will continue to use a number of other techniques to assess the performance of Campus Program grantees. These include OVW staff attendance at site visits, grant- funded training and technical assistance events, staff review of products prior to dissemination, and ongoing consultation with OVW staff.
Under a cooperative agreement between OVW and the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service, data collected from OVW grantees on all of OVW’s progress report forms is transmitted to the Muskie School for analysis. For the analysis of the data, standard descriptive statistics (frequency, sum, percentage, mean, etc.) are used to describe the characteristics of the grantees and report basic findings. All analyses are conducted in SPSS 13.0.
Use of Information Technology
The collection of information will involve the use of automated, electronic, mechanical or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
Duplication of Information Request
There is no other mechanism by which OVW collects information about grant funded activities number of victims served, victims seeking services who could not be served or persons trained.
Impact on Small Businesses
There is no impact on small businesses.
Consequences to Federal Programs or Policy
Through the Higher Education Act Amendments and VAWA 2000, Congress has mandated that Campus Program grantees report to the Attorney General on the effectiveness of their activities funded under VAWA including the number of victims served and the number of victims who could not be served. If OVW was not able to collect the information necessary to complete these reports on behalf of the Attorney General, not only would it be failing to meet a statutorily required reporting mandate, but also the existence of this important and necessary grant program could be jeopardized. The Campus Program supports important programs that provide critical training to assist campus law enforcement officers, campus disciplinary board members and others in addressing violence against women on campuses, supporting community education programs and serving victims of such crimes.
Special Circumstances
There are no special circumstances as identified in the specific instructions for a supporting statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions.
Federal Register Publication
OVW has consulted with persons outside the agency who have advised that the data proposed to be collected is available, the annual collection of such data is not burdensome, the form is clear, and that the information is routinely kept by most grantees receiving funds under the Campus Program. OVW has solicited public comment on this form in accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act. A 60 day notice was published in the Federal Register on June 19, 2007 (Federal Register, Volume 72, page 33771) and a 30-day was notice was published in the Federal Register on August 28, 2007 (Federal Register, Volume 72, page 49314).
Payment or Gift to Respondents
There will no payment or gift to respondents.
Confidentiality
Although this information is needed for a public report to Congress, it will not involve any personal information about victims that could identify them as specific individuals. However, anecdotal, non-identifying information about the effectiveness of individual programs may be included in the report. There is no assurance to confidentiality.
Specific Questions
The semi-annual progress report will not contain any questions of a personal, sensitive nature such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.
Hour Burden of the Collection of Information
This semi-annual progress report is not overly burdensome. The data collection tool will be completed by approximately 100 Campus Program grantees twice a year as there are 2 reporting periods- January 1 through June 30 and July 1 through December 31. There will be 200 annual responses and it is estimated that it will take grantees no more than 1 hour to complete the semi-annual progress report form. Thus, the annual reporting and recordkeeping hour burden is 200 hours. Campus Program grantees are informed about the reporting requirements during the grant solicitation process and during the grant award process. Because the semi-annual progress report covers a six month period, grantees are not in a position to complete the form until the end of each reporting period.
OVW is seeking basic information that is routinely kept by the Campus Program grantees in the normal course of their operations. Thus, the requirement that grantees complete this semi-annual progress report within a period of less than 30 days after receipt of it is not overly burdensome. OVW estimates that it will take approximately 1 hour for a grantee to complete the form. OVW developed this estimate based on the fact that information of this nature is already kept by grantees receiving funds under the Campus Program and that the grantees have been apprized of these reporting requirements during the solicitation process and reminded throughout the grant award process. The semi-annual progress report is divided into sections that pertain to the different types of activities that grantees may engage in, i.e. providing victim services, training, and product development. Grantees will only have to complete the sections of the form that relate to their specific activities.
13. Cost Burden of the Collection of Information
OVW does not believe that there is any annual cost burden on respondents or recordkeepers resulting from the collection of this information.
Annualized Costs to the Federal Government
OVW does not believe that there are any annualized costs to the Federal Government resulting from the collection of this information beyond those costs associated with the routine management, monitoring, and oversight of the Campus Program.
Program Changes or Adjustments
There are no program changes or adjustments for the estimates identified in Section 13 and in Section 14. This is a information collection that is necessary for OVW and its Campus Program grantees to comply with the statutory reporting requirements of 42 U.S.C. 3789 and the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (Pub. L. 103-62).
Published Results of Information Collections
There will be no complex analytical techniques used in connection with the publication of
information collected under the request. Information will be gathered twice a year at the end of the reporting periods, January 1 through June 30 and July 1 through December 31. OVW is statutorily required to submit a report on the effectiveness of grant-funded activities on an annual basis.
Display of the Expiration Date of OMB Approval
OVW will display the Expiration Date of OMB Approval in the upper right hand corner of the Semi-annual Progress Report.
18. Exception to the Certification Statement
OVW is not seeking any exception to the certification statement identified in Item 19, Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions, of OMB Form 83-I.
| File Type | application/msword |
| Author | Cathy Poston |
| Last Modified By | lbryant |
| File Modified | 2007-11-20 |
| File Created | 2007-11-20 |