OMB83 Change Memo

U NITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

National Center for Education Statistics

September 21, 2015

MEMORANDUM

To: Shelly Martinez, OMB

From: Rachel Hansen, NCES

Through: Kashka Kubzdela, NCES

Re: School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) 2016 and 2018 Communication Materials Change Request (OMB# 1850-0761 v.9)

The 2015–16 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) was approved in August 2015 (1850-0761 v.8). The collection for this study is scheduled to begin on September 30, 2015. This submission updates the approved respondent communication materials in Appendix A - SSOCS 2016 & 2018 Communication Materials.pdf as follows:

1. Per the Special District Contact Call Script, page 3 of the approved package, modifications have been made as follows:

   1. In the first paragraph of Part A2, “upcoming school year” has been replaced with “this school year” to clarify to the respondent that the interviewer is referring to the 2015–16 school year.

   2. In Part A3, the interviewer instructions have been re-worded to “Read address information from research. Make any necessary corrections if needed.” to specify to interviewers where to locate the address information.

   3. Based on experiences during the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) precontact process, the “No” instructions in Part A4 were revised to instruct interviewers to probe for a department name and/or point of contact as opposed to requesting an appointment time.

   4. A new question was added following Part A4. The interviewer is now instructed to ask “Are there any other documents your district requires for the research application process that we should include in the package?” and to record information based on the respondent’s response.

   5. Due to the inclusion of new a question, the former Part A5 has been renamed to Part A6.

2. Following the Special District Contact Call Script, a District Administration Form has been added (page 5 of the revised package) for the district to send back in order to indicate whether they approve their schools to participate.

3. Per the Special District Generic Cover Letter, page 5 of the approved package (page 6 of the revised package), one non-substantive wording edit was made to improve language clarity and consistency across the communication materials.

1990 K Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20006-5650

Our mission is to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the Nation.