[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 129 (Wednesday, July 6, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39402-39403]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-16789]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families
Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request
Title: Regional Partnership Grant (RPG) Program Data Collection.
OMB No.: 0970-0353.
Description
On September 30, 2007, the Administration for Children and Families
(ACF) Children's Bureau awarded multi-year grants to 53 regional
partnerships grantees (RPGs) to improve the safety, permanency and
well-being of children affected by methamphetamine or other substance
abuse who have been removed or are at risk of removal from their home.
The Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006, the authorizing
legislation for the RPG program, required that a set of performance
indicators be established to periodically assess the grantees'
outcomes. The legislation mandated that these performance indicators be
developed through a consultative process involving ACF, the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and
representatives of the State or Tribal agencies who are members of the
regional partnerships. The legislation also requires the Secretary of
the Department of Health and Human services to submit annually to
Congress a report that includes the performance indicators established
under this grant program.
The final set of RPG performance indicators was approved by ACF and
disseminated to the funded grantees in January 2008. It includes a
total of 23 indicators across four outcome domains: Child/youth (9
indicators), adult (7 indicators), family/relationship (5 indicators),
and regional partnership/service capacity (2 indicators). It also
includes a core set of child and adult demographic elements that will
provide important context needed to properly analyze, explain and
understand the outcomes. No other national data collection measures
these critical child, adult, family, and RPG outcomes specifically for
these children and
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families. The data also will have significant implications for policy
and program development for child well-being programs nationwide.
The purpose of this request is to obtain OMB approval for an
extension of the original three year request which was approved on
March 31, 2009. Forty-three of the original 53 grantees were awarded
for a five-year grant period, thus necessitating an extension of the
original request in order to continue data collection for the remainder
of the grant period. The first submission of RPG grantee data to the
RPG data collection system ocurred in December, 2008, and every six
months thereafter. Data collection will be conducted for the fifth year
of the grant period, ending September 30, 2012, with data submission by
January 2013. Data collection may be extended for one year until
January 2014 should grantees request and be granted no-cost extensions.
To minimize grantee data collection and reporting burden, many of
the data elements are already being collected by counties and States in
order to report Federally-mandated data for the Adoption and Foster
Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), the Treatment Episode Data
Set (TEDS) and the National Outcome Measures (NOMs); in addition, all
States voluntarily submit data for the Federal National Child Abuse and
Neglect Data System (NCANDS). Therefore, most child welfare data
elements included in the RPG performance measures can be found in a
State's automated case management system, which is often a Federally-
funded Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS).
TEDS admission and discharge data are collected by State substance
abuse agencies according to their own information systems for
monitoring substance abuse treatment admissions and transmitted monthly
or quarterly to the SAMHSA contractor.
As a result of prior Federal government reporting requirements,
States are already collecting several data elements needed by the RPGs.
The RPG lead agency or their state or local partners are able to
download information from these existing State child welfare and
substance abuse treatment data systems to obtain data to monitor their
RPG program outcomes, thereby reducing the amount of primary data
collection needed.
Respondents: RPG Grantees.
Annual Burden Estimates
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Number of Average burden
Instrument Number of responses per hours per Total burden
respondents respondent response hours
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State, local, and Tribal Government............. 26 2 175.50 9,126
Private Sector.................................. 17 2 175.50 5,967
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Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours......... .............. .............. .............. 15,093
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In compliance with the requirements of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Administration for Children and
Families is soliciting public comment on the specific aspects of the
information collection described above.
Copies of the proposed collection of information can be obtained
and comments may be forwarded by writing to the Administration for
Children and Families, Office of Administration, Office of Information
Services, 370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW., Washington, DC 20447, Attn: ACF
Reports Clearance Officer. E-mail address: [email protected].
All requests should be identified by the title of the information
collection.
The Department specifically requests comments on: (a) Whether the
proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the
information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the
agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of
information; (c) the quality, utility, and clarity of the information
to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection
of information on respondents, including through the use of automated
collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
Consideration will be given to comments and suggestions submitted
within 60 days of this publication.
Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2011-16789 Filed 7-5-11; 8:45 am]
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