Standards Open for Comment

Published Standards Open for OSAC Registry Comment

• There are no SDO published standards currently open for comment for Registry approval. 

NOTE: IN JANUARY 2022, OSAC’S FORENSIC SCIENCE STANDARDS BOARD (FSSB) APPROVED THAT THE REQUIREMENT FOR AN OSAC-MANAGED COMMENT PERIOD FOR REGISTRY APPROVAL OF SDO PUBLISHED STANDARDS CAN BE MET DURING THE SDO’S PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD. THE PUBLIC WILL HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO COMMENT ON A STANDARD DURING ITS DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE SDO’S PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD. THIS CHANGE ALLOWS COMMENTS TO BE SUBMITTED DURING THE SDO DEVELOPMENT PROCESS, PRIOR TO PUBLICATION, ENABLING UPGRADES TO BE DIRECTLY INCORPORATED INTO THE STANDARD RATHER THAN RECEIVING THE COMMENTS AFTER THE STANDARD IS PUBLISHED. IN CASES WHERE OSAC CAN DOCUMENT THE SDO’S PUBLIC COMMENT OPPORTUNITY, OSAC WILL NOT EXECUTE A SECOND PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD DURING ITS REGISTRY APPROVAL PROCESS. SEE THE SDO UPDATES BELOW FOR INFORMATION ON THE STANDARDS CURRENTLY OPEN FOR COMMENT AT SDOS.

OSAC Proposed Standards Open for Comment

The following draft OSAC Proposed Standards are being considered for submission to an SDO. The final draft provided to the SDO will be available on the OSAC Registry as an “OSAC Proposed Standard.” OSAC welcomes comments on whether these current drafts are suitable for release to the SDO as well as suggestions for improvements in content and wording. To be considered, comments must be placed in the OSAC Comment Form and sent to comments [at] nist.gov by 11:59 p.m. ET on October 3, 2022. 

• OSAC 2022-N-0021, Family Engagement Following a Mass Fatality Incident: Victim Information Center Best Practice Recommendations for Medicolegal Authority. 
• OSAC 2022-S-0031, Standard Guide for Forensic Digital Video Examination Workflow.  
• OSAC 2022-S-0038, Standard for Feature Selection in Friction Ridge Examination.
• OSAC 2022-N-0039, Collecting and Preserving Entomological Evidence from a Terrestrial Environment. 

NOTE: OSAC RESOURCE TASK GROUP (RTG) MEMBERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO COMMENT ON THESE STANDARDS BY DOWNLOADING THE RTG COMMENT TABLE AND SUBMITTING IT TO comments [at] nist.gov IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REGISTRY APPROVAL PROCESS. 

Comments submitted, including the commenter's name and/or affiliation, will be made available to the public.

Standards Open for Comment at SDOs

Academy Standards Board (ASB)

The AAFS Academy Standards Board (ASB) is currently soliciting public comments on the following forensic science standards. To provide comments, download the comment template and return it to asb [at] aafs.org by the deadline. 

biology/dna

• Recirculation* - ASB Standard 123, Standard for Routine Internal Evaluation of a Laboratory’s DNA Interpretation and Comparison Protocol. Comment deadline October 3, 2022. 
• Recirculation* - ASB Standard 136, Forensic Laboratory Standard for Prevention, Monitoring, and Mitigation of Human DNA Contamination. Comment deadline October 3, 2022. 
• Recirculation* - ASB Standard 139, Reporting DNA Conclusions. Comment deadline October 3, 2022. 
• Recirculation* - ASB Standard 154, Standard for Training on Testimony for Forensic Biology. Comment deadline October 3, 2022. 
• Recirculation* - ASB Best Practice Recommendation 171, Best Practice Recommendations for the Management and Use of Quality Assurance DNA Elimination Databases in Forensic DNA Analysis. Comment deadline October 3, 2022. 
• ASB Standard 175, Standard for Interpreting, Comparing and Reporting DNA Test Results Associated with Failed Controls and Contamination Events. Comment deadline October 3, 2022.   

Forensic toxicology

• Recirculation* - ASB Standard 153, Standard Practices for Proficiency Testing for Forensic Toxicology Laboratories and Breath Alcohol Programs. Comment deadline October 3, 2022. 
• Recirculation* - ASB Best Practice Recommendation 156, Best Practices for Specimen Collection and Preservation for Forensic Toxicology. Comment deadline October 3, 2022. 

wildlife forensics

• Recirculation* - ASB Standard 169, Standard for Veterinary Forensic Live Animal Examination. Comment deadline October 31, 2022.
• Recirculation* - ASB Standard 170, Standard for Veterinary Forensic Postmortem Examination. Comment deadline October 31, 2022.

*Comments on a re-circulation will only be accepted on revised sections of a document. Comments made to text not revised from the original comment period will not be accepted.