SUPPORTING STATEMENT – PART A
Spouse Education and Career Opportunities – OMB Control Number 0704-XXXX
A. JUSTIFICATION
1. Need for the Information Collection
The Department of Defense (DoD) Spouse Education and Career Opportunities (SECO) Program is the primary source of education, career and employment counseling for all military spouses who are seeking post-secondary education, training, licenses and credentials needed for portable career employment. The SECO system delivers the resources and tools necessary to assist spouses of service members with career exploration/discovery, career education and training, employment readiness, and career connections at any point within the spouse career lifecycle. It is imperative that the DoD collect data to ensure that the SECO program is meeting its overarching goal of increasing employment opportunities for military spouses. The DoD requires the information in the proposed collection for program planning and management purposes. Collected information will ensure that the SECO program will be able to collect relevant metrics and make determinations of program viability and improvement. Additionally, the data collected is utilized to build a spouse profile that allows information to be saved over time and to prepopulate information into tools such as resume builders and career and education planning resources.
This program was developed in compliance with 10 U.S.C. §1144, “Employment Assistance, Job Training Assistance, and Other Transitional Services”, 10 U.S.C. §1784a, “Education and Training Opportunities for Military Spouses to Expand Employment and Portable Career Opportunities”, and DoDI 1342.22 “Military Family Readiness”.
2. Use of the Information
Users may learn about this collection in various ways including through the Military OneSource program, installation service providers, from other military spouses and via general online searches. Once aware of the collection users access by simply going online to the following URL: https://myseco.militaryonesource.mil. Users are able to review resources at that time or select to log in to create an account.
All information is collected from military spouses online via the SECO system and utilized to provide military spouses with education and employment resources tailored to their specific needs. Appropriate disclosures are provided to military spouses during the log in process as well as the information being made available via hyperlinks in the website footer.
Once logged in, military spouses have the option of opting in to receive email notifications about their account reminding them of actions they still need to take (e.g. completing their profile) as well as to receive email updates about upcoming events and news. Spouses who opt to receive email updates about upcoming events and news receive emails once to twice a month.
3. Use of Information Technology
All responses from military spouses (100%) are collected electronically as spouses are creating an account on the SECO system to assist with their education and employment.
4. Non-duplication
No information is currently available that can be used or modified for the purposes of this collection. Since spouses are providing information specific to their education and employment experience to receive assistance in ultimately finding employment, it is entered directly into myseco.militaryonesource.mil. However, military spouses can choose to copy and paste their information from other sources.
There are no small business respondents on the SECO system, only military spouses.
6. Less Frequent Collection
The frequency of this collection is primarily dependent on the users. Military spouses register one-time and provide additional information to utilize specific SECO resources at their convenience.
7. Paperwork Reduction Act Guidelines
There are no special circumstances that require the collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with these guidelines.
8. Consultation and Public Comments
The 60 Day notice was published on 30 June 2015 in 80 FRN 37240. No comments were received.
The 30 Day notice was published on 30 June 2016 in 81 FRN 42672.
The SECO program consulted with the Resource & Oversight, Research Lead about the information collection process. The SECO team also received information from the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) office specific to the type of support provided to service members and their families. Lastly, the SECO program and the authorized contractor responsible for the web portal continuously receive feedback/input from military spouses in general and the users of SECO services about the type of services received and whether the services were satisfactory.
Respondents do not receive payments or gifts for responding to the information collection.
10. Confidentiality
The Privacy Act Statement is available to users from the footer of every page of the SECO system (via the Legal & Security section). It is also directly accessible at the following link: https://myseco.militaryonesource.mil/Portal/Account/PrivacyActStatement. Additionally, the log in process is currently being updated so that after the Notice and Consent Statement is displayed, users will also view the Privacy Act Statement and Agency Disclosure Notice.
A draft copy of the SORN, [DPR 46 DoD, entitled “Spouse Education and Career Opportunities Program (SECO)”], has been provided with this package for OMB’s review.
A draft copy of the PIA, [For the Spouse Education and Career Opportunities Program (SECO), Military Community and Family Policy, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense], has been provided with this package for OMB’s review.
Records Retention and Disposition Schedule. Temporary: Destroy/Delete user accounts after 3 consecutive years of inactivity (N1-GRS-04-2 item 1a).
Routine uses of records maintained in the system, including categories of users and the purposes of such uses:
In addition to those disclosures generally permitted under 5 U.S.C. 552a(b) of the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, the records contained herein may specifically be disclosed outside the DoD as a routine use pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(3) as follows:
To authorized DoD SECO contractors and grantees for the purpose of responding to military spouse need.
To authorized DoD contractors and grantees for the purpose of supporting research studies concerned with the education, career and employment counseling of military spouses participating in DoD funded spousal education, career and employment programs.
To civilian educational institutions where the participant is enrolled for the purposes of ensuring correct enrollment and billing information.
To the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Education, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Justice for the purpose of complying with E.O. 13607, Establishing Principles of Excellence for Educational Institutions Serving Service Members, Veterans, Spouses, and Other Family Members.
11. Sensitive Questions
No questions of a sensitive nature are asked of respondents.
12. Respondent Burden, and its Labor Costs
a. Estimation of Respondent Burden
Estimation of Respondent Burden Hours |
|||||
|
Number of Respondents |
Number of Responses per Respondent |
Number of Total Annual Responses |
Response Time (Amount of time needed to complete the collection instrument) |
Respondent Burden Hours (Total Annual Responses multiplied by Response Time) Please compute these into hours) |
SECO portal |
26,000 |
1 |
26,000 |
45 minutes |
19,500 |
Total |
26,000 |
1 |
26,000 |
45 minutes |
19,500 |
It should be noted that these figures represent the average number of annual military spouse registrants since the SECO portal launched in May of 2013.
b. Labor Cost of Respondent Burden
Labor Cost of Respondent Burden |
|||||
|
Number of Responses |
Response Time per Response |
Respondent Hourly Wage |
Labor Burden per Response (Response Time multiplied by Respondent Hourly Wage) |
Total Labor Burden (Number of Respondents multiplied by Response Time multiplied by Respondent Hourly Wage) |
SECO portal |
26,000 |
45 minutes |
$23.23 |
$17.42 |
$452,920 |
Total |
26,000 |
45 minutes |
$23.23 |
$17.42 |
$452,920 |
Respondents complete all forms on their own time as the program is intended to help military spouses identify and attain a job in their desired career field. Utilization of the SECO portal is also completely voluntary.
Military spouses work at all levels and sectors of employment. To determine the Labor Cost of Respondent Burden mean hourly wage across all occupations [source: Department of Labor (http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm)] was utilized.
13. Respondent Costs Other Than Burden Hour Costs
There are no other respondent costs other than burden hour costs. Also to note is that the use of the SECO system is completely voluntary for military spouses if they would like to utilize the SECO education and employment resources.
14. Cost to the Federal Government
This information is collected via a government owned and operated web platform that does not require Government personnel to manually process each collection. Additionally, this platform provides a multitude of other resources and tools for military spouses. This collection is a very minor piece of the overall functionality of the platform.
Labor Cost to the Federal Government |
||
|
Collection Instrument #1 |
Total |
Number of Responses |
26,000 |
26,000 |
Processing Time Per Response (in hours) |
.05 |
.05 |
Hourly Wage of Worker(s) Processing Responses |
GS-12 = $24.83 |
GS-12 = $24.83 |
Cost to Process Each Response (Processing Time Per Response multiplied by Hourly Wage of Worker(s) Processing Responses) |
$1.24 |
$1.24 |
Total Cost to Process Responses (Cost to Process Each Response multiplied by Number of Responses |
$32,279 |
$32,279 |
Operational and Maintenance Costs |
||||||
Equipment |
Printing |
Postage |
Software Purchases |
Licensing Costs |
Other |
Total |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
$746,000* |
$746,000 |
*web support and maintenance
Total Cost to the Federal Government |
||
Operational and Maintenance Costs |
Labor Cost to the Federal Government |
Total Cost (O&M Costs + Labor Cost) |
$746,000 |
$32,279 |
$778,279 |
15. Reasons for Change in Burden
This collection does not have prior approval and is considered a new collection.
16. Publication of Results
Currently there are no plans for the results of the information collection to be published as a DoD publication or for a publication external to DoD.
17. Non-Display of OMB Expiration Date
Approval is not being requested to omit display of the expiration date of OMB approval on the collection instrument.
18. Exceptions to "Certification for Paperwork Reduction Submissions"
No exemptions are being requested.
| File Type | application/msword |
| Author | Patricia Toppings |
| Last Modified By | Tyler Robinson |
| File Modified | 2016-06-30 |
| File Created | 2016-06-03 |