# Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request, Employment Transition Models Demonstration and Evaluation, New Collection
**AGENCY:**
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Chief Evaluation Office, Department of Labor.
**ACTION:**
Notice of Information Collection; request for comment.
**SUMMARY:**
The Department of Labor (DOL), as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a preclearance consultation program to provide the general public and federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA95). This program helps to ensure that requested data can be provided in the desired format, reporting burden (time and financial resources) is minimized, collection instruments are clearly understood, and the impact of collection requirements on respondents is properly assessed. Currently, DOL is soliciting comments concerning the collection of data about the Employment Transition Models Demonstration and Evaluation. A copy of the proposed Information Collection Request (ICR) can be obtained by contacting the office listed below in the addressee section of this notice.
**DATES:**
Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the addressee section below on or before November 18, 2025.
**ADDRESSES:**
You may submit comments by either one of the following methods:
*Email: [email protected];**Mail or Courier:* Neil Ridley, Chief Evaluation Office, OASP, U.S. Department of Labor, Room S-2312, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20210. *Instructions:* Please submit one copy of your comments by only one method. All submissions received must include the agency name and OMB Control Number identified above for this information collection. Comments, including any personal information provided, become a matter of public record. They will also be summarized and/or included in the request for OMB approval of the information collection request.
**FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:**
Neil Ridley by email at *[email protected]* or by phone at (202) 693-7915.
**SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:**
**I. Background**
The Employment Transition Models (ETM) Demonstration and Evaluation is a joint effort by DOL's Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), and the Employment and Training Administration (ETA).
The ETM Demonstration includes five-year grants for state projects to (1) identify, develop, and scale evidence-based solutions or strategies that improve work-related outcomes among youth and young adults with disabilities (Y&YAD) and (2) increase states' capacity to create innovative employment strategies for them. The aim of the ETM Demonstration is to make America more prosperous and to save taxpayer dollars by implementing a direct employment-based service intervention for young people with disabilities to improve labor force participation and reduce the reliance on disability income benefits. This is important to the country and economy, and aligned to the Presidential Action, ` * Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis,' * which instructed all departments and agencies to “create employment opportunities for American workers, including drawing discouraged workers into the labor force.” ETM grantees are implementing new, evidence-based strategies to increase the employment, post-secondary education, and economic independence of Y&YAD. The demonstration builds upon lessons learned from past projects designed to reduce the reliance of Y&YAD on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and other disability benefits.
In 2024, ODEP awarded ETM Demonstration project grants to four states: Connecticut, Kansas, Minnesota, and New York.
CEO and ETA are also conducting a 5-year ETM Evaluation to build evidence on the implementation and outcomes of the strategies grantees use to enable Y&YAD to successfully transition into the workforce and post-secondary settings.
This *Federal Register* Notice provides the opportunity to comment on proposed plans for collecting data needed for both the demonstration and the evaluation: intake data, service receipt data, implementation data, and outcome data. These data will be used to produce the performance measures required for ETM grants, facilitate technical assistance (TA), and address the evaluation's requirements.
• Intake data include (a) *baseline information* for all Y&YAD participating in ETM projects (“ETM youth”) or collected from these Y&YAD with support from their guardians; and (b) *information on referrals to ETM* recorded by grantee staff for all ETM youth.
• Service receipt data will involve grantee staff tracking *information on services that all ETM youth are receiving.* ETM case managers will have to periodically review their notes and gather additional information from project partners, including service providers, and participants and their families, and enter data into the management information system (MIS). These data will track which services ETM participants have ever received and the frequency of case management.
• Implementation data consists of data collected by the evaluation team from a variety of parties involved with ETM to address the evaluation's requirements, including:
— *Data on implementation activities* collected through semi-structured interviews with ETM project directors, local site administrators, and case managers during grantee site visits. There will be two site visits with each grantee—the first in 2026 and the second in 2027. The site visits will help the evaluation team understand how the grantee's program was developed, operates, and matures into a full-scale implementation, as well as the context in which the program operates.
— *Data on project partner collaboration activities* collected through (1) partner survey for ETM local site administrators and (2) semi-structured telephone interviews with ETM local site administrators to understand collaboration among ETM partners in helping Y&YAD reach employment and career milestones. The survey will ask ETM staff to describe collaborations with up to 15 partners who serve ETM youth. The evaluation team will then conduct interviews to follow-up on the survey to learn more about the partners and their contributions to the delivery of ETM services. The evaluation will collect this data once in 2026 and 2027.
— *Data on ETM program experiences* collected during site visits through semi-structured interviews with ETM youth, focus groups with families of ETM youth, and semi-structured interviews with employers to better understand the needs, service experiences, and perspectives of these groups related to the demonstration.
• Outcome data, including:
— *Data on satisfaction levels* among ETM youth and their families, employers, and participating project partners. Data will be collected by ETM grantee staff annually on customer experience satisfaction to summarize how well ETM participants and project partners believed they were served by the demonstration project.
— *Data on the employment and education outcomes* of ETM youth collected, in part, from these youth and recorded by ETM grantee staff.
To reduce burden, the demonstration and evaluation will use existing data collected as part of the DOL Participant Individual Record Layout (PIRL), whenever possible, as well as national administrative records on employment and education outcomes. The PIRL data contain information covered by OMB Control Nos. 1205-0521 and 1205-0526, and will be combined with additional information collected for the demonstration and the evaluation in grantees' MIS records.
**II. Desired Focus of Comments**
Currently, DOL is soliciting comments concerning the above data collection for the Employment Transition Models Demonstration and Evaluation. DOL is particularly interested in comments that do the following:
○ evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility;
○ evaluate the accuracy of the agency's burden estimate of the proposed information collection, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions;
○ enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and
○ minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology—for example, permitting electronic submissions of responses.
To generate the Estimated Annual Burden Hours in the table below, the evaluation team took estimates from ODEP and the TA provider on the number of respondents and duration of engagement. These intermediate values were then amortized over a three-year period. For example, the “baseline information from ETM” intake data (first row) estimates 898 annual respondents which corresponds to 2,682 youth over three years. ODEP and the TA provider estimate that, on average, the baseline information from ETM youth will take 23 minutes to collect; multiplying this estimate by annual number of respondents yields an estimated annual burden of 341.24 hours.
**III. Current Actions**
At this time, the Department of Labor is requesting clearance for baseline data collection, service receipt data, implementation data, outcome data collection, semi-structured interview protocols, family focus group interview protocols, and partner survey protocols.
*Type of Review:* New information collection request.
*OMB Control Number:* 1290-0NEW.
*Affected Public:* State, Local, or Tribal Government (Primary), and Individuals or Households.
*Total Estimated Number of Respondents:* 4,192.
*Total Estimated Number of Responses:* 11,360.
*Total Estimated Annual Time Burden:* 1,176 hours.
*Total Estimated Annual Other Costs Burden:* $0.
Comments submitted in response to this request will be summarized and/or included in the request for Office of Management and Budget approval of the information collection request; they will also become a matter of public record.
| Data type and source | Annual | Annual | Annual total | Average | Annual |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| | | | | | |
| Baseline information from ETM youth | 898 | 1 | 898 | 23/60 | 341.24 |
| Youth referral information completed by ETM and partner staff | 93 | 10 | 930 | 4/60 | 65.10 |
| Service Receipt Data for ETM Youth | 155 | 33.0 | 5,115 | 4/60 | 358.05 |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| Semi-structured interviews with project directors | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1.50 | 4.50 |
| Semi-structured interviews with ETM local site administrators | 6 | 1 | 6 | 1.00 | 6.00 |
| Semi-structured interviews with ETM case managers | 16 | 1 | 16 | 1.00 | 16.00 |
| | | | | | |
| Partner list survey for ETM local site administrators | 13 | 1 | 13 | 1.00 | 13.00 |
| Semi-structured interviews with ETM local site administrators on partner collaboration activities | 13 | 1 | 13 | 1.00 | 13.00 |
| | | | | | |
| Semi-structured interviews with ETM youth | 27 | 1 | 27 | 1.00 | 27.00 |
| Focus groups with families of ETM youth | 22 | 1 | 22 | 1.50 | 33.00 |
| Semi-structured interviews with employers | 7 | 1 | 7 | 1.00 | 7.00 |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| Satisfaction data from ETM youth | 1,197 | 1 | 1,197 | 5/60 | 95.76 |
| Satisfaction data from families of ETM youth | 1,197 | 1 | 1,197 | 5/60 | 95.76 |
| Satisfaction data from ETM employers | 96 | 1 | 96 | 5/60 | 77.68 |
| Satisfaction data from ETM project partners | 128 | 1 | 128 | 5/60 | 10.67 |
| | | | | | |
| Information on outcomes from ETM youth | 240 | 3 | 720 | 4/60 | 14.4 |
| Information on outcomes recorded by ETM and AJC staff | 81 | 12 | 972 | 4/60 | 68.04 |
| Total | 44,192 | | 11,360 | | 1,176 |
Sheng Li,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor.