Federal requests to collect data from local school systems originate at the federal program level; and through a series of processes, are placed before the Council of Chief State School Officers' (CCSSO) Committee on Evaluation and Information Systems (CEIS) for review. The New Jersey CEIS Coordinator is located within the Office of Management Information, allowing that office to have prior knowledge of all proposed federal data collections and allowing a rational approach to each. After consulting with local education agency personnel and the Office of Management Information, the Commissioner of Education may inform the Office of Management Information that the Department will not participate in the study, that it will participate in the study, or that no decision has been made. In the last case, the Office of Management Information should survey the Department to see if a program cost center will sponsor the study. If not, the Department must acknowledge the federal government with a no participation statement. If the Department does participate in the data collection, the Internal Data Collection Advisory Committee and the Local Education Agency (LEA) Data Collection Advisory Committee must approve the data collection instrument. (BW)