Federal support for identifying
children with hearing loss began with the Children's Health Act of
2000, which authorized federal programs to support EHDI activities
at the state level. Since then, funds have been distributed to
states via cooperative agreements from the CDC and grants from the
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). States are
using these federal monies to enhance EHDI programs and develop
corresponding tracking and surveillance systems. These systems are
intended to help EHDI programs ensure infants and children are
receiving recommended hearing screening, follow-up, and
intervention services. The purpose of the revised survey is to
obtain annual state data on the performance indicators in a
consistent manner, which is needed to assess progress towards
meeting the National EHDI Goals. In addition, the availability of
these data will better enable the CDC-EHDI team to provide
technical assistance to states and respond to questions by the
general public, policy makers, and Healthy People 2010
officials.
Minor changes are proposed to
the original ICR that was approved by OMB in October 2006
(0920-0733). These proposed changes for the revised ICR have been
made in response to feedback from respondents and requests for
additional information from state and national partners. These
minor changes are intended to make the ICR easier to complete and
further improve the quality of the data that is collected. These
changes include revising the wording of some questions, splitting
the previously combined questions about the number of infants that
died and parents refused into two separate questions, adding a
question about how many infants with hearing loss are receiving
only monitoring services, simplifying the table for reporting type
and severity of hearing loss data, and expanding the demographics
section to include additional data items. These proposed changes
for the revised ICR are explained in more detail below.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.