by Meghan Maury

Study of the Week: National Special Education Spending Study. This new study will produce estimates for what is spent on special education services for students with disabilities (SWDs), both overall and by disability category, including expenditures made by states, districts, and schools. The NSSES also will provide policymakers and special education administrators with an up-to-date understanding of the key factors that influence special education spending, what this spending pays for, and to what extent federal appropriations from the IDEA cover special education spending.
Comments due March 30.

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.

Census

  • 2026 Operational Test in Support of the 2030 Census. This Test will assess the viability of new and revamped systems and methods researched and developed for the census; to identify, document, and address potential challenges. Of note, Census will conduct the test in only two of its six proposed sites, will test using postal workers as enumerators, and will use the American Community Survey - rather than the decennial Census - to test self-response and will use a modified version of the ACS to test in-field enumeration. The American Community Survey is much longer than the decennial Census and includes a question on citizenship, calling into question the accuracy of any learnings from this test.
    Comments due March 5.

Food Access

  • Study Classifying and Measuring Household Food Waste. This study is designed to identify and describe the sources of food waste for use in setting benefit levels for the SNAP program. According to the listing, "Understanding the amount of food wasted at the household level is an integral part of the TFP because even the thriftiest households generate some food loss or waste."
    Comments due March 24.

Reproductive Health

  • Updated Criteria for Determining Maternity Care Health Professional Target Areas. Through this notice, HRSA is changing the criteria it uses to identify maternity care target areas that have a shortage of maternity care health professionals) for the purpose of assigning National Health Service Corps participants who are maternity care health professionals to HPSAs with a shortage of such professionals. HRSA will no longer use the Social Vulnerability Index in its determinations. According to the listing, "200 of the more than 7,600 MCTAs may be subject to a decrease in MCTA score. These largely include MCTAs designated for Medicaid eligible population, low-income migrant seasonal worker population, low-income migrant farmworker population, and other population primary care HPSAs."
    Comments due March 5.

Behavioral Health

Labor and Employment

  • National Compensation Survey. The NCS collects data on employer costs for employee compensation, including wages and salaries, and benefits; compensation trends; and the incidence of employer-sponsored benefits among workers. These data are used to calculate statistics like change in labor costs over time, details of employer-provided health and retirement benefit plans, and wage data by occupation. BLS intends to eliminate several questions, including on sick leave carryover, non-medical premiums, the provision of other benefits, and workers compensation. The listing indicates that changes are being made to this survey, but no supplemental information about the changes is available.
    Comments due March 5.

  • Ticket to Work Program Evaluation. SSA is conducting a new evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program, which is designed to increase the availability of and access to employment services for adults with disabilities receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSA is contracting with Mathematica to conduct this evaluation, which they hope will provide the evidence base necessary to determine the need for potential programmatic changes or other proposals to maximize program effectiveness.
    Comments due March 4.

Discrimination

  • Assurance of Compliance. According to the listing, these assurances alert covered entities of their "civil rights, conscience, and religious nondiscrimination obligations" and provide the Department with a valuable enforcement tool, as a recipient's written assurance and certification documents can provide an independent contractual basis for enforcement of nondiscrimination requirements and can also give rise to a False Claims Act violation. Although the listing is unclear about what changes are being made, it appears that the forms are being revised to removed language about protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
    Comments due March 27.

  • Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Performance Measures and Additional Data Collection. ACF uses the forms in this package to collect data on programs that strengthen families through healthy marriage and relationship education and responsible fatherhood programming. ACF is making changes to 20 of the forms in the package to remove questions and response options about gender and DEI.
    Comments due March 30.

  • Division of Independent Review Application Reviewer Recruitment Form. This form is used to colect the data needed to assist HRSA in finding and selecting expert reviewers for objective review committees. While exact changes to the form are unclear from the listing, it does say that HRSA is changing two questions on the form, related to past/current affiliation and demographic information, "for compliance with administration priorities."
    Comments due March 30.