Affected Public Statement - For-Profit Institutions

1845-0122 – Affected Public – For-Profit Institutions 8/28/2017

The Student Assistance General Provisions regulation was amended by adding Subpart Q to Part 668. This subpart applies to postsecondary educational programs that lead to gainful employment (GE) in recognized occupations. 1845-0122 pertains to §668.406 – Appeals for Debt to Earnings (D/E) rates. The regulations allow an institution to submit alternate earnings appeals to challenge the Secretary’s determination of a GE program that is failing or in the zone based on the D/E rates calculated for a specific GE program.

On June 16, 2017, the Department of Education (the Department) published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the intention to establish a negotiated rulemaking committee to revise the gainful employment regulations published on October 31, 2014. The Department anticipates scheduling the negotiated rulemaking sessions beginning in November or December 2017.

The Department is requesting an extension without change of burden to the currently approved information collection as any new regulations will not be available before the expiration of this current package. There have been no changes to the regulations since the initial approval of the information collection on November 3, 2014.

Section 668.406(c) –Survey requirements for appeals.

We continue to estimate that for-profit institutions will have 1,225 gainful employment programs in the zone and that 718 programs will be failing for a total of 1,943 programs. We expect that most institutions will determine that SSA data reflect accurately the earnings of students and will therefore not elect to conduct the survey. Accordingly, we estimate that for-profit institutions will submit alternate earnings appeals under the survey appeal option for 10 percent of those programs, which will equal 194 appeals annually. We estimate that conducting the survey, providing the institutional certification, and obtaining the examination-level attestation engagement report will total, on average 100 hours of burden, therefore burden will remain 19,400 hours (194 appeals times 100 hours of burden per appeal) under OMB Control Number 1845-0122.

Section 668.406(d) –State-sponsored data system requirements for appeals.

We continue to estimate that there will be 718 failing GE programs at for-profit institutions and 1,225 programs in the zone, for a total of 1,943 programs. We expect that most institutions will determine that SSA data reflect accurately the earnings of students who completed a program and will therefore not elect to submit earnings data from a State-sponsored system. Accordingly, we estimate that in 10 percent of those cases, institutions will obtain earnings data from a State-sponsored system, resulting in approximately 194 appeals. We estimate that, on average each appeal will take 20 hours, including execution of an agreement for data sharing and privacy protection under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C 1232g) (FERPA) between the institution and a State agency (when the State agency is located other than in the State in which the institution resides), preparing the list(s), submitting the list(s) to the appropriate State agency, reviewing the results, calculating the revised D/E rates, and submitting those results to the Secretary. Therefore, burden will remain 3,880 hours (194 State system appeals times 20 hours) under OMB Control Number 1845-0122.

Section 668.406(e) – Appeals procedure.

We continue to estimate that for-profit institutions will have 194 alternate earnings survey appeals annually plus 194 State-sponsored data system appeals for a total of 388 appeals. We estimate that for completing and submitting a notice of intent to use alternate earnings survey data or a State data appeal burden will remain 97 hours (388 times 0.25 hours per submission) under OMB Control 1845-0122.

TOTALS

Responses 776

Respondents 388

Burden Hours 23,377