2016 4-H SuptStmt 0524-0045final

U.S. Department of Agriculture

OMB No. 0524-0045

Application for 4-H Enrollment Report

SUBJECT: Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission to Renew

Information Collection OMB No. 0524-0045, Application for 4-H Enrollment Report

A. Justification

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

The mission of 4-H National Headquarters; National Institute of Food and Agriculture; United States Department of Agriculture; is to advance scientific knowledge for agriculture, the environment, human and animal health and well-being, and communities by creating opportunities for youth. 4-H is the premier youth development program of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Originating in the early 1900’s as “four-square education,” the 4-H’s (head-heart-hands-health) seek to promote positive youth development, facilitate learning and engage youth in the work of their community to enhance the quality of life. For over a hundred years, 4-H has been dedicated to creating opportunities for youth that broaden skills and aspirations, nurturing the full potential of youth.

The educational foundation for 4-H lies in its three mission mandates: (1) Science - tied to agricultural and environmental issues; (2) Healthy Living - tied to human health and well-being; and (3) Citizenship - tied to the activities of people with institutions and government for the common good. The educational focus of 4-H lies in USDA’s charge to engage youth in the work of the land-grant universities (LGUs).

The 1914 Smith-Lever Act created the Cooperative Extension System (CES) of the LGUs and their federal partner, the Extension Service, now the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), USDA. 4-H was already well established, and became the first operating part of the new extension work. The Smith Lever Act stipulated that "It shall be the duty of said colleges, annually, to make to the Governor of the State in which it is located a full and detailed report of its operations in extension work as defined in this Act…a copy of which report shall be sent to the Secretary of Agriculture." Since 1914, states have annually reported the enrollment in 4-H to the federal CES 4-H partner, 4-H National Headquarters, at NIFA, USDA.

1. 2. Indicate how, by whom, and for what purpose the information is to be used.

4-H is a complex national organization, led by 4-H National Headquarters, USDA, NIFA, with hundreds of educational curricula, activities, and events for youth ages 5 to 18. Programs originate at 105 land-grant universities, and local programs are conducted and managed by approximately 4,000 professional Extension staff in 3,050 counties, with nearly six million youth enrolled each year. Over 500,000 volunteers work directly with the 4-H youth. The Annual 4-H Enrollment Report has been the principal means by which 4-H has kept track of its progress, as well as emerging needs, potential problems and opportunities.

What information is collected?

Information collected in the 4-H Youth Enrollment Report includes:

• Youth enrollment totals by Delivery Mode,

• Youth enrollment totals by type of 4-H activity,

• Youth enrollment totals by School grade,

• Youth enrollment totals by Gender,

• Youth enrollment totals by Place of Residence

• Youth enrollment totals by Land-Grant Institution

• Youth enrollment by Race and Ethnicity

• Youth and adult volunteers by Delivery Mode

• Youth and adult volunteers totals by Land-grant Institutions

• Youth and adult volunteer totals by Gender

• Youth and adult volunteers by Place of Residence

• Youth and adult volunteers by Race and Ethnicity

• Number of units for different delivery systems

From whom will the information be collected - reported or recorded?

All of the information necessary to run the county 4-H program is collected from individuals, Clubs, and other Units. It is maintained electronically at the county 4-H offices in cumulative individual and Club electronic records within the county 4-H program management software system. This local information may include parental information, address, telephone, e-mail address, participation in fairs and special events, awards and recognition, offices held, cumulative subjects completed, etc. USDA does not receive any of this person personal information; however the states and counties use it for their own program management purposes.

Annually each county sends their state 4-H office an electronic summary of their 4-H enrollment data. In most cases, the state requires extensive additional information beyond what is used for the report going to USDA. One professional 4-H staff member in each state or territory annually uses their program management software to electronically aggregate county 4-H enrollment for the state into a small summary state or territory database flat file in a standardized format. Only the aggregated totals in each category are forwarded to USDA.

What will the information be used for - provide ALL uses?

• Reports as requested by the Congress or the Administration on rural versus urban outreach, enrollment by race, youth participation in leadership, community service, etc.

• Emerging interest and trend analysis with new topics, issues, delivery modes, places of residence for nation-wide management.

• Determination of market share or percentage of the youth of each state by age and place of residence who are enrolled in the 4-H youth development program.

• Reports as requested to other units within NIFA, such as youth enrolled in nutrition and fitness topics that may help in obesity prevention.

• Reports as requested to other federal agencies on youth enrollment in topics of interest to them.

• Oversight of all reasonable efforts by staff and volunteers to reach underserved and minority groups.

• Status reports of the land-grant university system, and certainly those of Cooperative Extension. Such data helps to justify state and federal appropriations to the land-grant universities.

• As the 4-H private sector counterpart, the National 4-H Council seeks private sector partners, and rely on 4-H enrollment data to show the scope of the proposed target audience for any of the mission mandate areas. An increase in 4-H enrollment presents 4-H as an attractive partner to potential cooperators, public and private.

How will the information be collected?

Each state develops or contracts their own annual reporting systems, which meet local and state needs for 4-H program operation and management. NIFA, USDA receives aggregated data from the states that were compiled using their own reporting systems. These data are sent to NIFA in Excel spreadsheets. Once NIFA receives the spreadsheets, it is put into the Research, Education, and Economics (REEIS) information system using Oracle.

How frequently will the information be collected?

4-H enrollment reporting takes place annually. The report from the states is due at the end of each year for the state program year.

Will the information be shared with any other organizations inside or outside USDA or the government?

Yes. 4-H enrollment report data from 1996-2011 are available on-line through the NIFA Research, Education, and Economics Information System (REEIS), http://www.reeis.usda.gov The REEIS online database enables the end-user to see real time trend analyses across the 4-H enrollment reports from each of those years.

If this is an ongoing collection, how have the collection requirements changed over time?

NIFA has 4-H enrollment reports going back to 1914 when the Smith-Lever funding began. That year, 4-H had a total of 116,262 members report. In the early days, a measure of impact in the states was members per agent year devoted to 4-H Club work. Early reports included pounds of beef and bushels of corn produced, quarts canned, and other measures of agriculture production outcomes. Agents reported both first enrollment of members in 4-H, and re-enrollment. Project completion was also reported and considered very important. Analysis and comparison between states focused on average years members were retained in the program and percent project completion. As time went on, various innovations in reporting continued to be introduced and some items proved burdensome or not so useful and were dropped.

Roughly, every decade the reporting system has evolved in order to produce what the 4-H movement nationwide, society and the administration of the time thought was important. In the past, recommendations for change came from the work of a broad representative task force consisting mostly of 4-H field staff and those responsible for enrollment in the states. The most recent Data Task Force worked from 1991 to 1993. Its recommendations for a new computerized program management system were implemented in 1995. It cut the number of blanks in the annual enrollment report to fill in half, while getting new information. By 1997 the electronic database format for reporting was universally adopted, and paper submissions were no longer accepted.

Beginning in the spring of 2005, the ES-237 was revised based on input from the LGU partners and comments from the Federal Register announcement. No additional fields of information were added and many fields of information were removed. These included:

• Youth enrollment totals by Source of Program (type of LGU or coalition)

• Youth enrollment totals in Integrated and non-Integrated 4-H Units

• Volunteer Service by Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Classification of Service

• Numbers of Adults and Youth Volunteers Trained Through 4-H

• Youth enrollment totals by Detailed Curriculum Classifications

3. 3. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of responses, and the basis for the decision for adopting this means of collection. Also describe any consideration of using information technology to reduce burden.

The annual 4-H enrollment reporting system relies entirely on utilizing electronic technology to a) store and aggregate county enrollment data; b) create state enrollment reports using electronic program management software or web-based programs to aggregate county reports at the state level; c) electronically transmit reports to 4-H National Headquarters, USDA in Excel as an e-mail attachment; d) use Oracle to store data and aggregate state reports into regional and national totals, and to prepare the Annual National 4-H Enrollment Report that is available on-line.

Fifty-seven Excel spreadsheets are made available for the states and territories to download from the 4-H National Headquarters website. Once NIFA, USDA receives the spreadsheets, they are used to auto-populate five large master spreadsheets, which contain all the data.  It is the data from the five master spreadsheets that are extracted, transformed, and loaded (ETL) into relational tables in an Oracle 10G database.  The Oracle product, Discoverer, is used to build and access the 4-H reports that are available on the REEIS website.

6. 4. Describe efforts to identify duplication.

The Expanded Food and Nutrition Program (EFNEP), which includes some 4-H participants, uses its Nutrition Education Evaluation and Reporting System (NEERS5) data collection software to collect participant data on residence, family, and several measures of impact for the nutrition content. All information needed for 4-H enrollment reporting, and aggregation into the overall 4-H report, is collected. This enables the two systems to be consistent and complimentary in the enrollment numbers reported.

9. 5. If the collection of information impacts small businesses or other small entities (Item 5 of OMB Form 83-I), describe any methods used to minimize burden.

This information collection does not impact small businesses or other small entities.

11. 6. Describe the consequence to Federal program or policy activities if the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently, as well as any technical or legal obstacles to reducing burden.

It would be extremely difficult for the 105 land-grant universities who direct and support 4-H in their states, the 3,150 county Extension offices who manage local 4-H programs, the private sector National 4-H Council, and 4-H National Headquarters, USDA, to operate as a cohesive and efficient national youth development movement without the systematic gathering and utilization of basic data on participation in the 4-H program. Since enrollment in 4-H is typically for one year, with the same learning experiences lasting all or most of the year, data collection on an annual basis is optimum.

The enrollment report is in essence a report to the federal, state and county funding agencies of how their appropriations have been used. It would be almost impossible to justify federal funding for the 4-H program without such data.

12. 7. Explain any special circumstances that would cause an information collection to be conducted in a manner:

14. * requiring respondents to report information to the agency more often than quarterly;

These data would not be needed more than once per year.

15. * requiring respondents to prepare a written response to a collection of information in fewer than 30 days after receipt of it;

Traditionally, there has been a due date of November 1 for more than 30 years. Any changes to the information to be collected are specified by June 1 of each year.

16. * requiring respondents to submit more than an original and two copies of any document;

No paper documents are required. Each responding state or territory submits one completed Excel spread sheet.

17. * requiring respondents to retain records, other than health, medical, government contract, grant-in-aid, or tax records, for more than three years;

There is no federal requirement that 4-H enrollment reports be retained by the responding state or territory for any particular length of time. However, a number of states have published histories of 4-H in their state, so extensive records have been kept by the universities.

18. * in connection with a statistical survey, that is not designed to produce valid and reliable results that can be generalized to the universe of study;

This information collection is not conducted in connection with a statistical survey.

19. * requiring the use of a statistical data classification that has not been reviewed and approved by OMB;

This information does not require the use of a statistical data classification.

20. * that includes a pledge of confidentiality that is not supported by authority established in statute or regulation, that is not supported by disclosure and data security policies that are consistent with the pledge, or which unnecessarily impedes sharing of data with other agencies for compatible confidential use; or

No pledge of confidentiality is made by USDA, because only aggregated enrollment data is reported by the states, and no identification of any individuals is made.

21. * requiring respondents to submit proprietary trade secrets, or other confidential information unless the agency can demonstrate that it has instituted procedures to protect the information's confidentiality to the extent permitted by law.

No individual information is collected. No questions of a sensitive or personal nature are included in the 4-H enrollment reporting, other than the race and ethnicity of the enrollee. OMB Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity are followed.

23. 8. If applicable, provide a copy and identify the date and page number of publication in the Federal Register of the agency's notice, required by 5 CFR 1320.8(d), soliciting comments on the information collection prior to submission to OMB.

25. Notice of request to renew this information collection was published in the Federal Register on Friday, October 21, 2016, (81 FRN 72773). No comments were received from the public.

27. Describe 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.

The 4-H program staff has been working with a committee of State 4-H program leaders formed to improve the clarity of instructions and fields of data that are collected.

9. Explain any decision to provide any payment or gift to respondents, other than re-enumeration of contractors or grantees.

No payments or gifts have been, are, or will be provided to respondents.

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

No assurance of confidentiality is made to state respondents, since they are reporting aggregate data, with no identification of any individuals.

30. 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 questions of a sensitive or personal nature are included in 4-H enrollment reporting, other than the race and ethnicity of the enrollee. OMB Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity are followed.

12. Provide estimates of the hour burden of the collection of information.

Estimate of Burden: The total reporting and recordkeeping requirement for the submission of

4-H Youth Enrollment report is estimated to average 1 hour per response.

Estimated number of respondents: 109

Estimated number of responses per respondent: 1

Estimated total annual burden on respondents: 111 hours

Frequency of Responses: Annually

No changes have been made to this collection instrument, so the previous burden estimates allotted for the time to review instructions, gather information, complete, and submit are believed to still be accurate and appropriate.

* Provide estimates of annualized cost to respondents for the hour burdens for collections of information, identifying and using appropriate wage rate categories. The cost of contracting out or paying outside parties for information collection activities should not be included here. Instead, this cost should be included in Item 13.

Using the average respondent burden above of 60 minutes, NIFA estimates that the annualized cost to respondents for the burden hours of the collection of 4-H enrollment report information is $28.06 for a State 4-H Specialist. These estimates were derived from a “National 4-H Staffing Structure” study conducted by Montana State University and adjusted for a 3% increase in cost of living over the last 3 years. Each state varies in the level of professional personnel that is used to complete the USDA’s Excel spreadsheet.

Using the hourly costs of $28.06 (the estimated hourly wage for a State 4-H Specialist) the total annualized cost to all respondents is $3114.66.

33. 13. Provide an estimate for the total annual cost burden to respondents or record-keepers resulting from the collection of information. (Do not include the cost of any hour burden shown in Items 12 and 14).

There are no start-up/capital or operation/maintenance costs associated with this collection. NIFA believes there are no additional costs to the respondent other than the costs represented in Item 12. The states have demonstrated they would collect this information in the absence of USDA requesting the aggregate information.

14. Provide estimates of annualized costs to the Federal government. Also, provide a description of the method used to estimate cost, which should include quantification of hours, operational expenses (such as equipment, overhead, printing, and support staff), and any other expense that would not have been incurred without this collection of information. Agencies may also aggregate cost estimates from Items 12, 13, and 14 in a single table.

The estimated annualized costs associated to NIFA in order to prepare and manage the 4-H youth enrollment report totals $35, 693.20.

The table below represents the estimated annualized costs to NIFA for the management and preparation of this collection.

Activity	Grade	Pay/Hour	Hours	Cost
Aggregating state and territory Excel spreadsheets into national report through REEIS system	14 Step 5	$59.33 /hour	150	$$8900
Management of overall enrollment report system including responding to questions, preparing OMB materials, etc.	14 Step 5	$59.33 /hour	25	$$1483
Preparing the Excel spreadsheet web download page, posting the spreadsheets on the Web, answer questions/problems, etc.	13 step 6	$ $51.70	6	$ $310.20
Preparation of data in Oracle	Government contractor	NA	NA	$25,000
Total				$ 35,693.20

15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments reported in Items 13 or 14 of the OMB Form 83-I.

There are no changes from previous approval.

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

Once NIFA, USDA receives the Excel spreadsheets from the states and territories, the data is processed through Oracle and placed into the Research, Education, and Economics (REEIS) Information System. No complex analytical techniques are used to process the data. The data is then available through the REEIS system on-line at www.reeis.usda.gov, (Please see the following website for the 2011 enrollment report:

http://www.reeis.usda.gov/portal/page?_pageid=193,899783&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&smi_id=31

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

The agency plans to display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection on all instruments.

18. Explain each exception to the certification statement identified in Item 19, “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions,” of OMB Form 83-I.

NIFA is not reporting any exceptions to the certification statement.

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