[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 182 (Thursday, September 19, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57641-57643]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-22774]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families
Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request
Proposed Projects:
The President signed the Child and Family Services Improvement and
Innovation Act (Pub. L. 112-34) into law on September 30, 2011. This
act includes a targeted grants program (section 437(f) of the Social
Security Act), which directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services
(HHS) to reserve a specified portion for Regional Partnership Grants,
designed to improve the well-being of children affected by parental
substance abuse. On September 28, 2012, CB/ACYF awarded new 5-year RPG
grants to 17 partnerships in 15 states. The overall objective of the
Cross-Site Evaluation and Technical Assistance project (the RPG Cross-
Site Evaluation) is to plan, develop, and implement a rigorous national
cross-site evaluation of the RPG Grant Program, provide legislatively-
mandated performance measurement, and furnish evaluation-related
technical assistance to the grantees in order to improve the quality
and rigor of their local evaluations. The project will evaluate the
programs and activities conducted through the RPG Grant Program.
Title: RPG National Cross-Site Evaluation and Evaluation Technical
Assistance.
OMB No.: New collection.
Description: The Children's Bureau within the Administration for
Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services seeks approval to collect information for the Regional
Partnership Grants to Increase the Well-being of and to Improve
Permanency Outcomes for Children Affected by Substance Abuse (known as
the Regional Partnership Grants Program or ``RPG'') Cross-Site
Evaluation and Evaluation-Related Technical Assistance project. Under
RPG, the Children's Bureau has issued 17 grants to organizations such
as child welfare or substance abuse treatment providers or family court
systems to develop interagency collaborations and integration of
programs, activities, and services designed to increase well-being,
improve permanency, and enhance the safety of children who are in an
out-of-home placement or are at risk of being placed in out-of-home
care as a result of a parent's or caretaker's substance abuse. The
Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act (Pub. L. 112-
34) includes a targeted grants program (section 437(f) of the Social
Security Act) that directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services
to reserve a specified portion of the appropriation for these Regional
Partnership Grants, to be used to improve the well-being of children
affected by substance abuse. The overall objective of the Cross-Site
Evaluation and Technical Assistance project (the RPG Cross-Site
Evaluation) is to plan, develop, and implement a rigorous national
cross-site evaluation of the RPG Grant Program, provide legislatively-
mandated performance measurement, and furnish evaluation-related
technical assistance to the grantees in order to improve the quality
and rigor of their local evaluations. The project will evaluate the
programs and activities conducted through the RPG Grant Program. The
evaluation is being undertaken by the Children's Bureau and its
contractor Mathematica Policy Research. The evaluation is being
implemented by Mathematica Policy Research and its subcontractors,
Walter R. McDonald & Associates and Synergy Enterprises.
The RPG Cross-Site Evaluation will include the following
components:
1. Implementation and Partnership Study. The RPG cross-site
implementation and partnership study will contribute to building the
knowledge base about effective implementation strategies by examining
the process of implementation in the 17 RPG projects, with a focus on
factors shown in the research literature to be associated with quality
implementation of evidence-based programs. This component of the study
will describe the RPG projects' target populations, selected
interventions and their fit with the target populations, inputs to
implementation, and actual services provided (including dosage,
duration, content, adherence to curricula, and participant
responsiveness). It will examine the key attributes of the regional
partnerships that grantees develop (for example, partnerships among
child welfare and substance abuse treatment providers, social services,
and the courts). It will describe the characteristics and roles of the
partner organizations, the extent of coordination and collaboration,
and their potential to sustain the partnerships after the grant ends.
Key data collection activities of the implementation and partnership
study are: (1) Conducting site visits during which researchers will
interview RPG program directors, managers, supervisors, and frontline
staff who work directly with families; (2) administering a survey to
frontline staff involved in providing direct services to children,
adults, and families; (3) asking grantees to provide information about
implementation and their partnerships as part of their federally
required semi-
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annual progress reports; (4) obtaining service use data from grantees,
enrollment date and demographics of enrollees, exit date and reason,
and service participation, to be entered into a web-based system
developed and operated by Mathematica Policy Research and its
subcontractors; and (5) administering a survey to representatives of
the partner organizations.
2. Outcomes Study. The goal of the outcomes study is to describe
the changes that occur in children and families who participate in the
RPG programs. This study will describe participant outcomes in five
domains: (1) Child well-being, (2) family functioning/stability, (3)
adult recovery from substance use, (4) child permanency, and (5) child
safety. Two main types of outcome data will be used--both of which are
being collected by RPG grantees: (1) Administrative child welfare and
adult substance abuse treatment records and (2) standardized
instruments administered to the parents and/or caregivers. The
Children's Bureau is requiring grantees to obtain and report specified
administrative records, and to use a prescribed set of standardized
instruments. Grantees will provide these data to the Cross-Site
Evaluation team twice a year by uploading them to a data system
developed and operated by Mathematica Policy Research and its
subcontractors.
3. Impact Study. The goal of the impact study is to assess the
impact of the RPG interventions on child, adult, and family outcomes by
comparing outcomes for people enrolled in RPG services to those in
comparison groups, such as people who do not receive RPG services or
receive only a subset of the services. The impact study will use
demographic and outcome data on both program (treatment) and comparison
groups from a subset of grantees with appropriate local evaluation
designs such as randomized controlled trials or strong quasi-
experimental designs; 8 of the 17 grantees have such designs. Site-
specific impacts will be estimated for these eight grantees. Aggregated
impact estimates will be created by pooling impact estimates across
appropriate sites to obtain a more powerful summary of the
effectiveness of RPG interventions.
In addition to conducting local evaluations and participating in
the RPG Cross-Site Evaluation, the RPG grantees are legislatively
required to report performance indicators aligned with their proposed
program strategies and activities. A key strategy of the RPG Cross-Site
Evaluation is to minimize burden on the grantees by ensuring that the
cross-site evaluation, which includes all grantees in a study that
collects data to report on implementation, the partnerships, and
participant characteristics and outcomes, fully meets the need for
performance reporting. Thus, rather than collecting separate evaluation
and performance indicator data, the grantees need only participate in
the cross-site evaluation. In addition, using the standardized
instruments that the Children's Bureau has specified will ensure that
grantees have valid and reliable data on child and family outcomes for
their local evaluations. The inclusion of an impact study conducted on
a subset of grantees with rigorous designs will also provide the
Children's Bureau, Congress, grantees, providers, and researchers with
information about the effectiveness of RPG programs. This 60-Day Notice
covers the following data collection activities: (1) The site visits
with grantees; (2) the web-based survey of frontline staff who provide
direct services to children, adults, and families, and their
supervisors; (3) the semi-annual progress reports; (4) enrollment and
service data provided by grantees; (5) the web-based survey of grantee
partners; and (6) outcome data provided by grantees.
Respondents: Respondents include grantee staff or contractors (such
as local evaluators) and partner staff. Specific types of respondents
and the expected number per data collection effort are noted in the
burden table below.
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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Program director individual interview..... 17 1 1.34 22.8
Program manager/supervisor group interview 153 1 1.34 205
Program manager/supervisor individual 102 1 0.67 68.3
interviews...............................
Frontline staff individual interviews..... 102 1 0.67 68.3
Semi-annual progress reports.............. 17 2 16.5 561
Case enrollment log....................... 51 30 0.25 382.5
Service log............................... 102 780 0.05 3978
Staff survey.............................. 340 1 0.34 115.6
Partner Survey............................ 340 1 0.34 115.6
Administrative data....................... 17 2 93.5 3,179
Outcome master instrument (data entry and 17 2 189 6426
uploading)...............................
Impact master instrument (data entry and 8 2 69 1104
uploading)...............................
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Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 15,490.
In compliance with the requirements of Section 506(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
Planning, Research and Evaluation, 370 L'Enfant Promenade SW.,
Washington, DC 20447, Attn: ACF Reports Clearance Officer. Email
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
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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. 2013-22774 Filed 9-18-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-P