Part A NCES Confidentiality Pledges Revision Emergency Clearance

Part A NCES Confidentiality Pledges Revision Emergency Clearance.docx

Revision of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Confidentiality Pledges under Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) and Education Sciences Reform

OMB: 1850-0937

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Revision of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Confidentiality Pledges under Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) and Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA 2002) – Emergency Clearance



Supporting Statement Part A

OMB # 1850-new v.1





Submitted by

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

U.S. Department of Education





April 2017





Contents

A. Justification .





A. Justification

Summary

Emergency clearance procedures are being used to obtain Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) clearance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the referenced Information Collection Requests (ICRs), in order to implement revised pledge language that is resulting from the mandatory implementation of Einstein 3A monitoring by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). More specifically, the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (codified in relevant part at 6 U.S.C. §151), mandates that federal information systems be protected from malicious activities through cybersecurity screening of transmitted data. Approval of this ICR using emergency clearance procedures is necessary to implement a change to the confidentiality pledge to notify respondents of the Einstein 3A monitoring. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a component of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) in the U.S. Department of Education (ED), is subject to the implementation of Einstein 3A.

As per OMB instruction, this single ICR is being submitted to update NCES’s pledges of confidentiality for the OMB clearance packages listed in section A.10 of this document. This ICR does not otherwise affect the content, scope, burden, or the current expiration dates of any of these packages.


  1. Circumstances Making Collection of Information Necessary

No change from the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages.

  1. Purpose and Uses of the Data

No change from the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages.

  1. Use of Information Technology

No change from the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages.

  1. Efforts to Identify Duplication

No change from the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages.

  1. Method Used to Minimize Burden on Small Businesses

No change from the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages.

  1. Frequency of Data Collection

No change from the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages.

  1. Special Circumstances of Data Collection

No change from the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages.

  1. Consultants outside the Agency

This ICR is being submitted under PRA emergency clearance procedures. Upon OMB clearance of this ICR, NCES will submitted a 60-day FRN for publication and will consider public comments received in response to that submission.

  1. Provision of Payments or Gifts to Respondents

No change from the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages.

  1. Assurance of Confidentiality

Under 44 U.S.C. 3506(e), and 44 U.S.C. 3501 (note) , the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is announcing revisions to the confidentiality pledge(s) it provides to its respondents under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 (note)) (CIPSEA) and under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA 2002). These revisions are required by the passage and implementation of provisions of the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (6 U.S.C. §151), which permits and requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to provide Federal civilian agencies’ information technology systems with cybersecurity protection for their Internet traffic.

Federal statistics provide key information that the Nation uses to measure its performance and make informed choices about education, employment, health, investments, budgets, taxes, and a host of other significant topics. The overwhelming majority of Federal surveys are conducted on a voluntary basis. Respondents, ranging from businesses to households to institutions, may choose whether or not to provide the requested information. Many of the most valuable Federal statistics come from surveys that ask for highly sensitive information such as proprietary business data from companies or particularly personal information or practices from individuals.

Confidential Information and Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA)


Strong and trusted confidentiality and exclusively statistical use pledges under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) and similar statistical confidentiality pledges are effective and necessary in honoring the trust that businesses, individuals, and institutions, by their responses, place in statistical agencies. Under CIPSEA and similar statistical confidentiality protection statutes, many Federal statistical agencies make statutory pledges that the information respondents provide will be seen only by statistical agency personnel or their sworn agents, and will be used only for statistical purposes. CIPSEA and similar statutes protect the confidentiality of information that agencies collect solely for statistical purposes and under a pledge of confidentiality. These acts protect such statistical information from administrative, law enforcement, taxation, regulatory, or any other non-statistical use and immunize the information submitted to statistical agencies from legal process. Moreover, many of these statutes carry criminal penalties of a Class E felony (fines up to $250,000, or up to five years in prison, or both) for conviction of a knowing and willful unauthorized disclosure of covered information.


As part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2016 signed on December 17, 2015, the Congress included the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (6 U.S.C. §151). This Act, among other provisions, permits and requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to provide Federal civilian agencies’ information technology systems with cybersecurity protection for their Internet traffic. The technology currently used to provide this protection against cyber malware is known as Einstein 3A; it electronically searches Internet traffic in and out of Federal civilian agencies in real time for malware signatures.


When such a signature is found, the Internet packets that contain the malware signature are shunted aside for further inspection by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel. Because it is possible that such packets entering or leaving a statistical agency’s information technology system may contain a small portion of confidential statistical data, statistical agencies can no longer promise their respondents that their responses will be seen only by statistical agency personnel or their sworn agents.


Accordingly, DHS and Federal statistical agencies, in cooperation with their parent departments, have developed a Memorandum of Agreement for the installation of Einstein 3A cybersecurity protection technology to monitor their Internet traffic.


However, many current CIPSEA and similar statistical confidentiality pledges promise that respondents’ data will be seen only by statistical agency personnel or their sworn agents. Since it is possible that DHS personnel could see some portion of those confidential data in the course of examining the suspicious Internet packets identified by Einstein 3A sensors, statistical agencies need to revise their confidentiality pledges to reflect this process change.


Therefore, NCES is publishing a Federal Register notice to alert the public to these confidentiality pledge revisions in an efficient and coordinated fashion.


Under CIPSEA, the following is the revised statistical confidentiality pledge for applicable NCES data collections, with the new line added to address the new cybersecurity monitoring activities bolded for reference only:


The information you provide will be used for statistical purposes only. In accordance with the Confidential Information Protection provisions of Title V, Subtitle A, Public Law 107-347 and other applicable Federal laws, your responses will be kept confidential and will not be disclosed in identifiable form to anyone other than employees or agents. By law, every NCES employee as well as every agent, such as contractors and NAEP coordinators, has taken an oath and is subject to a jail term of up to 5 years, a fine of $250,000, or both if he or she willfully discloses ANY identifiable information about you. Electronic submission of your information will be monitored for viruses, malware, and other threats by Federal employees and contractors in accordance with the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015.


The following listing shows the current NCES Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) OMB number and information collection title whose CIPSEA confidentiality pledge will change to reflect the statutory implementation of DHS' Einstein 3A monitoring for cybersecurity protection purposes:

OMB control No.

Information collection title

1850-0928

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2017


Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA 2002)


NCES sample surveys are governed by additional laws, one of which is the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA 2002) (20 U.S.C. §9573). Under ESRA 2002, the information respondents provide can be seen only by statistical agency personnel or their sworn agents, and may not be disclosed, or used, in identifiable form for any other purpose, except in the case of an authorized investigation or prosecution of an offense concerning national or international terrorism. Under ESRA 2002, the Attorney General is permitted to petition a court of competent jurisdiction for an ex parte order requiring the Secretary of Education to provide data relevant to an authorized investigation or prosecution of an offense concerning national or international terrorism. Thus, ESRA 2002 affords many of the same protections as CIPSEA, that is, surveys conducted under ESRA 2002 are protected from administrative, taxation, regulatory, and many other non-statistical uses and the disclosure of information carries criminal penalties of a Class E felony (fines up to $250,000, or up to five years in prison, or both) for conviction of a knowing and willful unauthorized disclosure of covered information for any non-statistical uses, except as noted previously, in the case of an authorized investigation concerning national or international terrorism.


As part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2016 signed on December 17, 2015, the Congress included the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (6 U.S.C. §151). This Act, among other provisions, permits and requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to provide Federal civilian agencies’ information technology systems with cybersecurity protection for their Internet traffic. Since it is possible that DHS personnel could see some portion of the confidential data collected under ESRA 2002 in the course of examining the suspicious Internet packets identified by Einstein 3A sensors, the National Center for Education Statistics needs to revise the confidentiality pledges made under ESRA 2002 to reflect this process change.


Therefore, NCES is publishing a Federal Register notice to alert the public to these confidentiality pledge revisions in an efficient and coordinated fashion.


Under ESRA 2002, the following is the revised statistical confidentiality pledge for applicable NCES data collections, with the new line added to address the new cybersecurity monitoring activities bolded for reference only:


All of the information you provide may be used only for statistical purposes and may not be disclosed, or used, in identifiable form for any other purpose except as required by law (20 U.S.C. §9573 and 6 U.S.C. §151)


The following listing shows the current NCES Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) OMB numbers and information collection titles whose ESRA 2002 confidentiality pledge will change to reflect the statutory implementation of DHS' Einstein 3A monitoring for cybersecurity protection purposes:


OMB control No.

Information collection title

1850-0631

2012/17 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:12/17)

1850-0695

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 2019) Pilot Test

1850-0733

Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) 108: Career and Technical Education (CTE) Programs in Public School Districts

1850-0755

Program for International Student Assessment (PISA 2018) Field Test

1850-0852

High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) Second Follow-up Main Study

1850-0870

Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) 2017 National Supplement

1850-0888

2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS 2018) Field Test

1850-0911

Middle Grades Longitudinal Study of 2017-18 (MGLS:2017) Operational Field Test (OFT) and Recruitment for Main Study Base-year

1850-0923

ED School Climate Surveys (EDSCLS) National Benchmark Study

1850-0929

International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS 2018) Field Test

1850-0931

NCER-NPSAS Grant Study - Connecting Students with Financial Aid (CSFA) 2017: Testing the Effectiveness of FAFSA Interventions on College Outcomes

1850-0932

NCER-NPSAS Grant Study - Financial Aid Nudges 2017: A National Experiment to Increase Retention of Financial Aid and College Persistence

1850-0934

Principal Follow-Up Survey (PFS 2016-17) to the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS 2015-16)

1850-0803 v.174

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Oral Reading Fluency Pilot Study 2017

1850-0803 v.176

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Survey Assessments Innovations Lab (SAIL) English Language Arts (ELA) Collaboration and Inquiry Study 2017

1850-0803 v.177

2017 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Time Use and Burden Cognitive Interviews Round 1

1850-0803 v.178

ED School Climate Surveys (EDSCLS) Additional Item Cognitive Interviews – Set 2 Round 2

1850-0803 v.179

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Pretesting of Survey and Cognitive Items for Pilot in 2017 and 2018

1850-0803 v.180

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2017 Feasibility Study of Middle School Transcript Study (MSTS)

1850-0803 v.181

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Digitally Based Assessments (DBA) Usability Study 2017-18

1850-0803 v.182

2017 National Household Education Survey (NHES) Web Data Collection Test

1850-0803 v.186

National Household Education Surveys Program 2019 (NHES:2019) Focus Groups with Parents of Students using Virtual Education

1850-0803 v.187

National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) 2017 Web Test Debriefing Interviews for Parents of Homeschoolers

1850-0803 v.189

2017-2018 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) Portal Usability Testing

1850-0803 v.191

NCER- NPSAS Grant Study – Connecting Students with Financial Aid (CSFA) 2017 Cognitive Testing

1850-0803 v.190

International Early Learning Study (IELS 2018) Cognitive Items Trial

1850-0803 v.164

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2019 Science Items Pretesting

1850-0803 v.170

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Survey Assessments Innovations Lab (SAIL) Pretesting Activities: Virtual World for English Language Arts Assessment

1850-0803 v.175

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Science Questionnaire Cognitive Interviews 2017

1850-0803 v.184

NCER- NPSAS Grant Study – Connecting Students with Financial Aid (CSFA) 2017 Focus Groups

1850-0803 v.183

NCER-NPSAS Grant Study - Financial Aid Nudges 2017 Focus Groups

1850-0803 v.185

The School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) Principals Focus Groups


  1. Sensitive Questions

No change from the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages.

  1. Estimate of Respondent Burden

No change from the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages.

  1. Estimates of Cost to Respondents

Respondents will incur no costs associated with participation in the studies described in the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages beyond the response burden time cost.

  1. Cost to Federal Government

No change from the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages.

  1. Reasons for Changes in Response Burden and Costs

There is no change in respondent burden for the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages by the revision of their respective confidentiality pledges.

  1. Publication Plans and Project Schedule

No change to plans from the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages.

  1. Approval to Not Display Expiration Date for OMB Approval

No special exception is requested. The expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection will be displayed on data collection instruments and materials.

  1. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission

There are no exceptions to the certification statement.

Part B—Statistical Methods—note

NCES has determined no Part B is needed for this ICR, as there is no change to the statistical methods from those in the currently approved underlying OMB clearance packages.

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