Emergency Memo

MEMORANDUM

OMB # 1810-0748

DATE:

January 20, 2022

TO:

Shagufta Ahmed and Laura McFarland
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget

FROM:

Ian Rosenblum
(Acting) Assistant Secretary, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education

THROUGH:

Andrew Brake, OESE
Kate Mullan, Kathy Axt and Joanne Bogart, Strategic Collections and Clearance Team, Office of
the Chief Data Officer

SUBJECT:

Education Stabilization Fund- Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund
(GEER I/GEER II Funds) Recipient Data Collection Form: Request for Emergency Information
Collection (OMB # 1810-0748)

This memo requests OMB’s approval for emergency processing to update to the recently approved GEER data
collection form to allow the Department to collect information on GEER funds expended directly by
Governors’ offices. The attached form and Supporting Statement reflect updates to the collection approved on
January 19, 2022. A notice for the collection will be submitted to the Federal Register for a 15-day public
comment period, and approval is requested by February 11, 2022.
Background
Under the current unprecedented national health emergency, the legislative and executive branches of
government have come together to offer relief to those individuals and industries affected by the COVID-19
virus under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (P.L. 116-136) authorized on March
27, 2020, and expanded through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA)
Act. The GEER fund awards grants to Governors for the purpose of providing LEAs, institutions of higher
education (IHEs), and other education-related entities with emergency relief funds to address the impact that
Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had, and continues to have, on elementary and secondary
schools across the Nation.
The U.S. Department of Education (Department) will collect information through the Education Stabilization
Fund- Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER I/GEER II Funds) Recipient Data Collection Form to
ensure that GEER funds are used in accordance with applicable requirements under the CARES Act and CRRSA
Act, and will be shared with the public to promote transparency regarding the allocation and uses of funds.
Furthermore, the information collected will be analyzed to provide aggregate statistics on SEA, LEA, IHE, and
other education related-entities use of ESF funds to address the impacts of the COVID-19 virus on students
and schools. Data collection will be conducted through a Department-provided web portal. Electronic data
collection through a web portal was chosen because of its efficiency, cost, and ability to pre-populate certain
fields and conduct verification checks on others in an automated manner.
The GEER annual data collection was approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in December
2020 (OMB# 1810-0748), with subsequent revisions approved on January 19, 2022.
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The need for emergency processing is necessary to provide states with sufficient time to collect the required
data on expenditures of GEER funds made directly by the Governor’s office (or any other entity, such as the
SEA, designated as the administrator of the GEER fund by the Governor’s office).
Rationale and Additional Items
Questions addressing expenditures of GEER funds made directly by the Governor’s office were not included in
the forms submitted for 60- and 30-day public comment
The changes made to the GEER data collection form are described in the following table and are included in
attached questions and data form.
Additional Items
Question 2a-d (GEER Expenditures by Governor): Burden estimate: 30 minutes. This is a Y/N question asked
of prime grantees, on whether they expended GEER funds directly. Grantees who respond in the affirmative
are asked for the amount of their expenditures for administrative uses and non-administrative uses. This
should be known to all prime grantees.

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