[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 75 (Tuesday, April 19, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22981-22983]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-08979]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families
Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request
Title: Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration
(CSPED)
OMB No.: 0970-439.
Description: The Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) within
the Administration for Child and Families at the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services seeks an extension without change for an
existing data collection called the Child Support Noncustodial Parent
Employment Demonstration (CSPED) through September 30, 2018 (OMB no.
0970-439; expiration date September 30, 2016). Under CSPED, OCSE has
issued grants to eight state child support agencies to provide
employment, parenting, and child support services to parents who are
having difficulty meeting their child support obligations. The overall
objective of the CSPED evaluation is to document and evaluate the
effectiveness of the approaches taken by these eight CSPED grantees.
This evaluation will yield information about effective strategies for
improving child support payments by providing non-custodial parents
employment and other services through child support programs. It will
generate extensive information on how these programs operated, what
they cost, the effects the programs had, and whether the benefits of
the programs exceed their costs. The information gathered will be
critical to informing decisions related to future investments in child
support-led employment-focused programs for non-custodial parents who
have difficulty meeting their child support obligations.
The CSPED evaluation consists of the following two interconnected
components or ``studies'':
1. Implementation and Cost Study. The goal of the implementation
and cost study is to provide a detailed description of the programs--
how they are implemented, their participants, the contexts in which
they are operated, their promising practices, and their costs. The
detailed descriptions will
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assist in interpreting program impacts, identifying program features
and conditions necessary for effective program replication or
improvement, and carefully documenting the costs of delivering these
services. Key data collection activities of the implementation and cost
study include: (1) Conducting semi-structured interviews with program
staff and selected community partner organizations to gather
information on program implementation and costs; (2) conducting focus
groups with program participants to elicit participation experiences;
(3) administering a web-based survey to program staff and community
partners to capture broader staff program experiences; and (4)
collecting data on study participant service use, dosage, and duration
of enrollment throughout the demonstration using a web-based Management
Information System (MIS). Two of these collection activities will be
completed before the requested extension period begins. They include
the focus groups and the web-based survey of program staff and
community partners.
2. Impact Study. The goal of the impact study is to provide
rigorous estimates of the effectiveness of the eight programs using an
experimental research design. Program applicants who are eligible for
CSPED services are randomly assigned to either a program group that is
offered program services or a control group. The study MIS that
documents service use for the implementation study is also being used
by grantee staff to conduct random assignment for the impact study. The
impact study relies on data from surveys of participants, as well as
administrative records from state and county data systems. Survey data
are collected twice from program applicants. Baseline information is
collected from all noncustodial parents who apply for the program prior
to random assignment. A follow-up survey is collected from sample
members twelve months after random assignment. A wide range of measures
are collected through surveys, including measures of employment
stability and quality, barriers to employment, parenting and co-
parenting, and demographic and socio-economic characteristics. In
addition, data on child support obligations and payments, Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, Medicaid receipt, involvement with
the criminal justice system, and earnings and benefit data collected
through the Unemployment Insurance (UI) system are obtained from state
and county databases.
Respondents: Respondents to these activities include study
participants, grantee staff and community partners, as well as state
and county staff responsible for extracting data from government
databases for the evaluation. Specific respondents per instrument are
noted in the burden table below.
Annual Burden Estimates
The following table provides the burden estimates for the
implementation and cost study and the impact study components of the
current request. The requested extension period is estimated to be two
years and three months, from July 1, 2016 to September 30, 2018. Thus,
burden hours for all components are annualized over two years and three
months.
Implementation and Cost Study
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average Estimated Total
Total number Number of burden total annual
Instrument of responses per hours per burden burden
respondents respondent response hours hours
remaining remaining remaining remaining remaining
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff interview topic guide with program 120 1 1 120 53
staff and community partners............
Study MIS for grantee and partner staff 200 468.75 0.0333 3,125 1,390
to track program participation..........
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Impact Study
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average Estimated Total
Total number Number of burden total annual
Instrument of responses per hours per burden burden
respondents respondent response hours hours
remaining remaining remaining remaining remaining
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introductory Script for Program Staff.... 120 9 .1667 180 80
Introductory Script for Program 1,050 1 .1667 175 78
Participants............................
Baseline Survey.......................... 1,000 1 .5833 583 259
Study MIS to Conduct Random Assignment... 120 9 .1667 180 80
Protocol for collecting administrative 32 1 8 256 114
records.................................
12-month follow-up survey................ 1,476 1 0.75 1,107 492
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Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 2,546.
Additional Information: Copies of the proposed collection may be
obtained by writing to the Administration for Children and Families,
Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, 330 C Street SW.,
Washington DC 20201. Attention Reports Clearance Officer. All requests
should be identified by the title of the information collection. Email
address: [email protected].
OMB Comment: 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
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Administration of Children and Families.
Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2016-08979 Filed 4-18-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-P