[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 81 (Wednesday, April 27, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24817-24818]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-09803]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families
Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request
Proposed Projects:
Title: Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration
(CSPED).
OMB No.: 0970-439.
Description: The Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) within
the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) 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). OCSE
is proposing that this information collection be extended to continue
using 8 of the 10 currently approved information collection instruments
with a reduction in burden hours to reflect only the extension period,
estimated to be two years and three months, from July 1, 2016 to
September 30, 2018.
In October 2012, OCSE issued grants to eight state child support
agencies to provide employment, parenting, and child support services
to noncustodial parents who are having difficulty meeting their child
support obligation. 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 noncustodial 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
noncustodial parents who have difficulty meeting their child support
obligations.
The CSPED evaluation includes 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 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 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).
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 that is not. The study MIS
that documents service use for the implementation study is also 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.
Two components of the data collection have been completed: (1)
Focus groups with program participants; and (2) the web-based survey to
document program staff and partner experiences. The following data
collection activities are not yet complete: (1) The staff interview
topic guide; (2) the study MIS functions for tracking participation in
the program; (3) the introductory script which program staff use to
introduce the study to participants; (4) the introductory script heard
by program applicants; (5) the baseline survey; (6) the study MIS
functions for conducting random assignment; (7) the protocol for
collecting child support, benefit, earnings, and criminal justice data
from state and county administrative data systems; and (8) the 12-month
follow-up survey. As of January 1, 2016, 8,060 participants have been
enrolled and completed the baseline survey and over 2,300 participants
have completed the 12-month follow-up survey.
Respondents
Respondents to these activities include program applicants, 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 tables below.
Annual Burden Estimates
The following instruments are proposed for public comment under
this 60-Day Federal Register Notice. The following table provides the
burden
[[Page 24818]]
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total number Number of Average Total annual
Instrument of responses per burden hours Total burden burden hours
respondents respondent per response hours \a\
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Staff interview topic guide..... 120 1 1 120 53
Study MIS to track program 200 468.75 0.0333 3,125 1,390
participation..................
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Impact Study
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introductory script:
Grantee staff............... 120 9 0.1667 180 80
Program applicants \b\...... 1,050 1 0.1667 175 78
Baseline survey................. 1,000 1 0.5833 583 259
Study MIS to conduct random 120 9 0.1667 180 80
assignment.....................
Protocol for collecting 32 1 8 256 114
administrative records.........
12 month follow-up survey....... 1,476 1 0.75 1,107 492
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\a\ All burden estimates are annualized over 2.25 years.
\b\ Five percent of program applicants are not expected to agree to participate in the study; thus there are 5%
more program applicants than study participants.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 2,546.
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, 330 C Street SW., Washington, DC
20201. 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 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. 2016-09803 Filed 4-26-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-P