Justification for Nonsubstantive Change

The Census Bureau annually collects School Finance data by conducting the F-33

Survey of Local Government Finances -- School Systems (F-33) for both the Census Bureau and

the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Due to enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA),

NCES has been asked to add three items to the F-33 in order to allow for an adjustment

in the allocation of Title I, Impact Aid, and other Department of Education funds. ARRA

required the State to track the ARRA funds separately.

The data reporting effort for the F-33 collection of three items would last for three survey

cycles as States receiving the ARRA funds have three years to expend the money.

In early 2009, NCES staff conducted an email survey of the State data respondents as

to their ability to provide the suggested ARRA data items. In July 2009, Census and

NCES discussed the addition of the ARRA data items with the State data respondents

attending the NCES Summer Data Conference.

Based on the results of the discussions, the ARRA data reporting items were limited

to three questions with specific references made to the existing Federal Chart of

Accounts and existing F-33 form question items.

The F-33 respondents already have programs in place for the creation of files for

the F-33 survey. The thirty Census-format respondents are expected to add one hour

per question to the F-33 survey burden, and the twenty-one State-format respondents

are expected to spend the minimal time, one-quarter hour, to provide the updated link

to their chart of accounts. Therefore, total added burden for the addition of the three

ARRA questions would be 95.25 hours, and thus the F-33 survey burden would rise

from 4,032 to 4,127 hours.