[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 232 (Tuesday, December 3, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72679-72680]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-28861]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families
Submission for OMB Review: Comment Request
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-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; 7 of the 17 grantees have such designs. Site-
specific impacts will be estimated for these seven 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
[[Page 72680]]
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.
A 60-Day Federal Register Notice was published for this study on
September 19, 2013. This 30-Day Federal Register 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. The following instruments are proposed for
public comment under this 30-Day Federal Register Notice. Burden for
all components is annualized over three years.
RPG Cross-Site Evaluation Annualized Burden Estimates
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Number of Average
Total number responses per burden hours Estimated Total annual
Data collection activity of respondents respondent per response total burden burden hours
(each year) (in hours) hours
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Implementation and Partnership Study
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Program director individual 17 .67 2 68 22.6
interview......................
Program manager/supervisor group 153 .67 2 612 204
interview......................
Program manager/supervisor 102 .67 1 204 68
individual interviews..........
Frontline staff individual 102 .67 1 204 68
interviews.....................
Semi-annual progress reports.... 17 2 16.5 1,683 561
Case enrollment data............ 51 30 0.25 1,147.5 382.5
Service log entries............. 102 780 .05 11,934 3,978
Staff survey.................... 340 .67 0.42 283.2 94.4
Partner survey.................. 340 .67 0.33 226.8 75.6
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Data Entry for Outcomes Study
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Administrative Data.............
Obtain access to 17 1 42.6 2,175 725
administrative data........
Report administrative data.. 17 2 144 14,688 4,896
Standardized instruments........
Review and adopt reporting 17 .33 8 136 45.33
templates..................
Enter data into local 17 2 112.5 11,475 3,825
database...................
Review records and submit... 17 2 100 10,200 3,400
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Additional Data Entry for Impact Study
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Data entry for comparison study 7 2 36.1 1,519 506.3
sites (7 grantees).............
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Estimated Total Burden Hours .............. .............. .............. .............. 18,852
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In compliance with the requirements of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Children's Bureau within 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 Administration for Children and
Families, Office of Administration, Office of Information, Service, 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.
OMB is required to make a decision concerning the collection of
information between 30 and 60 days after publication of this document
in the Federal Register. Therefore, a comment is best assured of having
its full effect if OMB receives it within 30 days of publication.
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be sent directly to the following: Office of
Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project, Email:
[email protected], Attn: Desk Officer for the Administration
of Children and Families.
Dated: November 27, 2013.
Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2013-28861 Filed 12-2-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-P