Take Action! Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and More
by Meghan Maury
Collection of the Week:
Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). ED is proposing to add a new “Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement” (ACTS) to IPEDS. This component will be applicable to all four-year institutions who utilize selective college admissions, because according to the listing " these institutions have an elevated risk of noncompliance with the civil rights laws." Generally, data collected will include race and sex information about students who applied, were admitted, and enrolled, their GPA and admission test scores, and information about financial assistance provided to those students. In the first year, ED proposes to collect that data not only from the 25-26 academic year, but also from the five prior academic years.
Comments due Oct. 14.
Every time the government makes a change to a survey or a form — or introduces a new survey or form — you have the right to weigh in on that decision. The Take Action! newsletter highlights surveys or forms the government is changing, renewing, or introducing. Click the links to tell the government what you think about the changes they are making.
Note: The Take Action tab of DataIndex.us provides information about even more surveys, forms, evaluations, and records notices than are listed in your weekly newsletter.
Immigration: Biographic Information/Alien Registration. This form is used by non-citizens to register under the Immigration and Naturalization Act. The form collects personal and biometric information. During the 60-day public comment period, DHS received many comments challenging the type and extent of information collected on this form, largely on the grounds that the information is overbroad, burdensome, and sets non-citizens up for potential criminal liability due to complexities in question wording and other issues. DHS chose not to make any changes to the form in response to these comments.
Comments due Sept. 10.Immigration: Unaccompanied Alien Children Sponsor Application Packet. This packet of forms is used by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to assess the suitability of potential sponsors for unaccompanied immigrant children. ORR is making many changes to this form packet, including adding new forms on financial support and DNA testing, changing language throughout to insert the word "alien," requiring addresses from age 18 to present, adding attestations on false statements and ability to provide for the child, requiring additional documentation, and more.
Comments due Sept. 16.Public Benefits: Caseload Reduction Documentation Process. The TANF caseload reduction credit gives a state credit for reducing its caseload between a base year and a comparison year; ACF reduces a state's required work participation rate for a fiscal year by the state's caseload reduction credit. In addition to removing non-binary response options from gender fields, ACF is adding clarifying language about family eligibility, citizenship status, and education level.
Comments due Oct. 14.Disability: FEMA Reasonable Accommodation Medical Request Form. Managers at FEMA will use the information gathered on this new form to inform decisions about whether to grant an accommodation and determine together with the employee in an interactive process what accommodations would most appropriately address the requestor's functional limitations.
Comments due Oct. 14.
Data Sharing + Records Managment
Immigration: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Management System (FMS2). HUD is updating its FOIA records system to capture information about the citizenship of people making FOIA requests.
Comments due Sept. 10.Veterans: VA National Patient Database. VA is updating what is included in its National Patient Database - which includes information about VHA patients and providers as well as about people who receive services through HUD's homeless veteran programs - and how that database is used. VA is expanding the system to collect "disease registries including Veteran demographics (e.g.,name, age), military information, and screening responses" and adding data uses including sharing with other federal health care providers - including DOD - and to non-VA entities to conduct outreach to veterans on health care benefit entitlements.
Comments due Sept. 14.Health Care: IRS and SSA Data Sharing Agreement. Under this matching program, the IRS will disclose to SSA certain tax return information for the purpose of establishing the correct amount of Medicare Part B premium subsidy adjustments and Medicare Part D premium increases provided under the Social Security Act, the Medicare Modernization Act, and the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA).
Comments due Sept. 10.
Race + Ethnicity and Sexual Orientation + Gender Identity Changes
Guns: NFA Responsible Person Questionnaire. This form is used when a trust or other legal entity is applying to make or register a NFA firearm to identify a responsible individual and to provide sufficient information to conduct a background check on that person. NFA is making several changes to the form, including combining race and ethnicity questions in alignment with SPD15 and to add instructions for married couples jointly filing an application to be treated as an "other legal entity."
Comments due Oct. 14.
Surveys
Economy: Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey. The MWTS provides measures of monthly sales, end-of-month inventories, and inventories/sales ratios in the United States by selected kinds of business for merchant wholesalers, excluding manufacturers' sales branches and offices. Data are used by BEA as part of the GDP calculation and by BLS as an input to Producer Price Indexes and productivity measurements. No changes are being made to the survey at this time.
Comments due Oct. 14.
This newsletter is made possible by a very generous donation from the Leadership Conference Education Fund.