SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR
PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT SUBMISSION
Fulbright
Teacher Exchange Program Application Package
OMB Number
1405-0114
DS-4502, DS-7003, DS-7004
1. The Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) is responsible for administering teacher and administrator exchanges and short-term seminars under authority of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange (Fulbright-Hays) Act of 1961. The program is administered under policies established by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB), a twelve-member body appointed by the President. Section 106 (a) (1) of the Act established the Board “for the purpose of selecting students, scholars, teachers, trainees, and other persons to participate in the programs….” The Department of State, therefore, recruits and recommends candidates for positions abroad in accordance with FSB policies, which, in turn, are consistent with the purposes of the Act. While solicitation by means of a written application is not specifically mandated, this is the vehicle that most reduces the paperwork burden of the respondent.
2. The information is used by ECA for the purpose of offering academic-year exchanges and seminar opportunities to U.S. educators under the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange (Fulbright) Act of 1961 as amended. The data collected is used to determine whether prospective candidates are qualified for participation in and/or eligible to host international participants of the program.
Applications of those desiring to interchange positions are then exchanged with ECA’s counterpart agencies or field personnel in selected countries to be matched, if possible, with a foreign applicant. If a match can be proposed, each applicant and respective school administrator here and abroad is so advised and provided a copy of the nominee’s application package. The local school authority is then asked to indicate concurrence on the exchange. When all parties concur with a proposed match, it is recommended by ECA to the FSB for final approval. Teachers who have applied to teach abroad are notified of the board’s action.
The applications from those wishing to attend a summer seminar abroad are reviewed by appropriate ECA staff and by staff of the appropriate binational commissions abroad. The funding of seminar grants varies from year to year.
Applications from those wishing to host an international educator are reviewed by the appropriate ECA staff.
A primary purpose of these programs is to broaden the educator’s understanding of another culture. This understanding, in turn, is to be shared with students, colleagues, members of civic and professional organizations, and other interested parties in his or her respective community here and abroad.
3. The burden of completing the application form for this program falls on the applicant, who
may or may not have access to new information technology. To further compliance with
GPEA, in addition to the paper based form, a fillable PDF version is available online, which
gives respondents an electronic submission option. When the application is received by ECA,
the information is entered into a database for retention, and program use as appropriate.
Around 45% of the applications are submitted online. We are currently investigating
additional electronic submission formats in order to reduce paper.
4. The Teacher Exchange Program is the only Federal program of its kind. If applications were not collected we would not be able to fulfill the requirements of the Fulbright-Teacher Exchange Program.
5. This collection has no impact on small business.
6. There is one collection per applicant. The program is conducted to coordinate with the U.S. and foreign academic year and cannot easily be altered to adjust to a lesser frequency. If this information collection were not carried out, the purpose of the legislation could not be accomplished.
7. There are no special circumstances associated with this collection.
8. A 60-day notice was published in the Federal Register to solicit public comments for this collection. One public comment was received from B. Sachau of Florham Park, NJ. His comments were not germane to the collection. (see attached comment).
International meetings have been conducted each year since 1984 (Bonn, London, Toronto, Washington, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels) in which the collection process has been discussed, including frequency of collection, clarity of instructions, record keeping, and reporting formats of the data elements collected and reported. Present at these meetings are exchange officials from counterpart agencies/ organizations from participating foreign countries.
9. No payments or gifts are made to respondents.
10. A Privacy Act statement is placed on all forms and all responses are kept confidential
11. Questions 1H, 1I and 1J on page A1 of the DS-4502 form and question 1H on the DS-7003 form request information on disabilities and racial/ethnic heritage. This information is requested as ECA is committed to ensuring that this program represents the diversity of the U.S. society. Responses to these questions are voluntary.
12. The burden calculation for this collection is as follows:
a. Number of annual respondents:
DS-4502 (U.S. Application) 800
DS-7003 (International Application) 300
DS-7004 (Hosting Application) 100
Total annual respondents for package = 1,200 respondents
b. Frequency of response: On occasion for all forms
Hour burden estimates:
DS-4502 (U.S. Application) 2 hours x 800 = 1600
DS-7003 (International Application) 2 hours x 300 = 600
DS-7004 (Hosting Application) 1.5 hours x 100 = 150
Total Hours for package = 2,350 hours
13. There is no cost to respondents.
14. The federal funding of grants varies from year to year. In fiscal year 2008, ECA’s budget to administer the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program is the following:
Orientation and Training $ 593,415
Publicity/Interviews $ 131,940
Medical Screening $ 5,500
Support Services Grant (GS/USDA)
Administrative Portion $ 1,683,113
Participant Portion $ 1,432,498
Allocation to Cooperating
Overseas Posts/Commissions $ 2,550,000
TOTAL $ 6,396,466
15. Due to the inclusion of two new forms (the international teacher application and hosting application) we anticipate a net increase of responses and respondents from 950 to 1,200.
However, due to simplification of the forms we expect a decrease in burden hours from 2,850 to 2,350.
16. The number of candidates who apply to the program is tabulated and is published in December. Statistics that are published about the program are reliant on data collected on the application form and downloaded into the program database. These statistics are published only to internal sources in the Department of State for future program planning purposes.
17. The OMB expiration date will be displayed on each form.
This collection does not employ statistical methods
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR |
| Author | USDOS |
| Last Modified By | R. A. Ciupek |
| File Modified | 2008-09-25 |
| File Created | 2008-08-14 |