Ocean Guardian Part A 2.8.16

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

SOCIOECONOMICS OF OCEAN GUARDIAN SCHOOLS – AN OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARIES EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

OMB CONTROL No. 0648-XXXX

A. JUSTFICATION

1. Explain the circumstances that make the collection of information necessary.

This request is for a new information collection request relating to Ocean Guardian Schools. The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) in National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) proposes to collect information from parents about the attitudes and preferences and economic value they receive from having their child be involved with an Ocean Guardian School. These schools receive funding from the NOAA Office of Education and the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. Schools can apply for funding up to five years. A number of schools have continued their Ocean Guardian School projects after the five years. From 2010-2015 the total funding received by 71 schools was $544,315.

Up-to-date socioeconomic data is needed to understand the benefits provided by the Ocean Guardian Program and to improve conservation in MBNMS as well as other sanctuaries that are adopting the Ocean Guardian Program and to satisfy legal mandates under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act (16 U.S.C. 1431 et seq), National Environmental Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 4321), Executive Order 12866 (EO 12866), and other pertinent statutes.

Currently, there is limited to no information available that provides estimates of the value of education programs like Ocean Guardian to parents and teachers. Ocean Guardian Schools receive funding to develop projects to promote ocean conservation and stewardship and help protect the ocean in the future. Projects include recycling, beach clean-up days, installing rain barrels, installing wildlife structures, composting, and energy reduction.

The types of data targeted for this collection; that is, attitudes and preferences towards the projects and student involvement, ratings of importance/satisfaction with the program, extent of reach (are parents aware of their student’s involvement and are they too learning about ocean stewardship), how parents view impact of Ocean Guardian on their students, level of teacher, and parent involvement, and parents’ willingness to pay for their students’ involvement in the program, and if so, how much they would pay. The primary focus for the survey will be to gather data on parents’ willingness to pay for this program. Specifically, researchers will collect data to determine the economic value parents place on this program. The information collected will help to inform Ocean Guardian Schools about areas for improvement and the value that their programs create for the community.

Collection of this data will provide estimates of the potential economic benefits resulting from Ocean Guardian Programs. Additionally, analysis of this data may reveal the various characteristics of Ocean Guardian Schools that provide higher levels of satisfaction and greater economic value.

2. Explain how, by whom, how frequently, and for what purpose the information will be used. If the information collected will be disseminated to the public or used to support information that will be disseminated to the public, then explain how the collection complies with all applicable Information Quality Guidelines.

General Overview

The purpose of this information collection is to obtain the information necessary to understand the benefits provided by Ocean Guardian Schools. The information will be used by the administrators of the Ocean Guardian Program to identify what characteristics improve the value and teacher and/or parent satisfaction. Using this information may help to maximize the benefits provided by this program.

The focus of this separate survey is the parent. We will work with the teachers of Ocean Guardian Schools to have the teachers send the survey requests to the parents of all students in the Ocean Guardian class or Ocean Guardian club that the program supports. Behavioral questions about conservation and sustainability are asked (i.e. recycling, water conservation, energy use) to determine if the education students receive is changing their or their parents behaviors. Attitude questions towards the Ocean Guardian program and its activities are also asked to understand what types of programs parents would support regardless of their income or ability to pay for them. The choice questions were developed to ascertain the willingness to pay parents have for different hand-on ocean conservation/stewardship activities. Lastly, demographics are also collected to see if there are any differences in attitudes, behaviors or willingness to pay across various groups of people.

Who will use this information?

The information will be used by the administrators of the Ocean Guardian Program to identify what characteristics improve the value and teacher and/or parent satisfaction. Using this information may help to maximize the benefits provided by this program. Teachers may also use the findings of this research to design or modify their programs, in such a way that maximizes parent satisfaction and possible to increases the reach of the program to those outside of the classroom and home of students. The surveys will be conducted by Hollings Scholars under the supervision of ONMS Headquarters Staff.

How frequently will this information be used?

This one-time collection will last one to two months. It is anticipated that the data gathered from this collection will be used on an as-needed basis. Some of the elements of this submission may be replicated to support socioeconomic monitoring in future years.

For what purpose will the information be used?

Data gathered during this collection will be used by Ocean Guardian Schools and, more generally, ONMS, to inform education coordinators about the factors that increase teacher/parent satisfaction, reach of educational programs and their economic value. The data may potentially be used for conduct of socioeconomic impact analyses under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Executive Order 12866 (Regulatory Impact Review) and an Initial and Final Regulatory Flexibility Analyses (impacts on small businesses). Finally, the information collected also has potential to be used by resource managers and education coordinators to increase the efficiency of educational programs.

Compliance with Information Quality Guidelines

It is anticipated that the information collected will be disseminated to the public or used to support publicly disseminated information. NOAA National Ocean Service, ONMS will retain control over the information and safeguard it from improper access, modification, and destruction, consistent with NOAA standards for confidentiality, privacy, and electronic information. See response to Question 10 of this Supporting Statement for more information on confidentiality and privacy. The information collection is designed to yield data that meet all applicable information quality guidelines. Prior to dissemination, the information will be subjected to quality control measures and a pre-dissemination review pursuant to Section 515 of Public Law 106-554. All analyses and reports developed in this project will be peer reviewed before release to the public.

3. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological techniques or other forms of information technology.

Parents will receive a letter requesting that they complete the survey online through Survey Monkey.

4. Describe efforts to identify duplication.

The research team completed thorough literature reviews and worked with field staff to identify any similar studies. To date we have not identified any studies that use the attribute approach to value the Ocean Guardian Program or similar programs.

5. If the collection of information involves small businesses or other small entities, describe the methods used to minimize burden.

It is possible that some Ocean Guardian Schools are small businesses. We are asking only one to two employees at each school to provide assistance in coordinating the dissemination of surveys to parents. In addition, we are compensating the teachers responsible for implementing the Ocean Guardian program for their work to coordinate with parents of students to ensure a timely and complete return of survey materials.

6. Describe the consequences to the Federal program or policy activities if the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently.

Without this collection, a critical data gap will remain that could inhibit the ability education coordinators with the sanctuary system to maximize the effectiveness and value of their programs.

7. Explain any special circumstances that require the collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with OMB guidelines.

All data collection will be consistent with OMB guidelines.

8. Provide information on the PRA Federal Register Notice that solicited public comments on the information collection prior to this submission. Summarize the public comments received in response to that notice and describe the actions taken by the agency in response to those comments. Describe the efforts to consult with persons outside the agency to obtain their views on the availability of data, frequency of collection, the clarity of instructions and recordkeeping, disclosure, or reporting format (if any), and on the data elements to be recorded, disclosed, or reported.

A Federal Register Notice published on November 6, 2015 (80 FR 68856, solicited public comments. No comments were received. The draft survey was also presented to ONMS and NOS education staff for review and we had informal conversations with non-staff about the surveys.

9. Explain any decisions to provide payments or gifts to respondents, other than remuneration of contractors or grantees.

Teachers will be compensated $100 each for their work to increase response rates of the parents.

10. Describe any assurance of confidentiality provided to respondents and the basis for assurance in statute, regulation, or agency policy

Procedures have been established to protect the proprietary information provided by respondents. All personal identification information will be removed from all databases sent to NOAA or distributed to the public. Each individual respondent will be assigned an identification number in the database so the data from different portions of the survey can be linked for analysis.. All non-personal or non-proprietary information will be available for distribution. This data will be removed of any personal identifying information before being shared to protect the information of each individual and business.

11. Provide additional justification for any questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.

No such questions will be asked.

_{12. Provide an estimate in hours of the burden of the collection of information.}

The affected public for this collection is parents of Ocean Guardian students. It is estimated that each survey will take 20 minutes to complete. In the table below, we present total burden hours if there is 100% or only 50% completion.

Number of Surveys	Expected time to Complete	Total Burden Hours
2583 if 100% completion	20 minutes	51,660 minutes -> 861 hours
1291.5 if 50% completion	20 minutes	25,830 minutes -> 430.5 hours

13. Provide an estimate of the total annual cost burden to the respondents or record- keepers resulting from the collection (excluding the value of the burden hours in Question

12 above).

There will be no cost to respondents beyond burden hours.

_{14. Provide estimates of annualized cost to the Federal government.}

Budget Categories	ONMS	Hollings Scholar - NOAA	Monterey Bay Sanctuary Foundation
Personnel	$40,000	$7,000
Fringe Benefits	$10,000	$2,000
Travel	$2,000	$2,000
Incentives			27*100=$2,700
Supplies	$1,000
Total	$53,500	$11,000	$2,700

15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments.

There are no program changes or adjustments.

16. For collections whose results will be published, outline the plans for tabulation and publication.

All reports will be peer reviewed per NOAA standards under the Information Quality Act and posted on the ONMS Socioeconomic Web site:

http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/science/socioeconomic

A new page(s) will be set up on this website to provide the project report to the general public. All data and documentation will be put on CD-ROM and will be made available to the general public, subject to any masking of the data required to protect privacy.

17. If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection, explain the reasons why display would be inappropriate.

Not applicable.

18. Explain each exception to the certification statement.

Not applicable.