[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 122 (Friday, June 24, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41310-41312]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-15010]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families
Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request
Proposed Projects: Regional Partnership Grants To Increase the
Well-Being of and To Improve Permanency Outcomes for Children Affected
by Substance Abuse Cross-Site Evaluation and Evaluation-Related
Technical Assistance and Evaluation-Related Technical Assistance and
Data Collection Support for Regional Partnership Grant Program Round
Three Sites
Title: RPG National Cross-Site Evaluation and Evaluation Technical
Assistance
OMB No.: 0970-0444
Description: The Children's Bureau within the Administration for
Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services seeks a renewal of clearance 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
Cross-Site Evaluation and Evaluation-Related Technical Assistance and
Evaluation-Related Technical Assistance and Data Collection Support for
Regional Partnership Grant Program Round Three Sites or ``RPG''
projects. Under RPG, the Children's Bureau has issued 21 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 use dependence. 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
projects (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,
furnish evaluation-related technical assistance to the grantees in
order to improve the quality and rigor of their local evaluations, and
support their participation in the cross-site evaluation. The project
will evaluate the programs and activities conducted through the RPG
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,
WRMA, Inc., and Synergy Enterprises.
The RPG Cross-Site Evaluation includes 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 21 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
describes 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 examines
the key attributes of the regional partnerships that grantees develop
(for example, partnerships among child welfare and substance abuse
treatment providers, social services, and family courts). It describes
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 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
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service use data from grantees, enrollment date and demographics of
enrollees, exit date and reason, and service participation, which are
entered into a web-based system 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 disorder, (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 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; 5 of the 21 grantees have such designs. Site-
specific impacts will be estimated for these five 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
Number of responses per Average burden Total annual
Instrument respondents respondent hours per burden hours
each year response
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Program director individual interview........... 4 0.33 2 2.67
Program manager/supervisor group interview...... 36 0.33 2 24
Program manager/supervisor individual interviews 24 0.33 1 8
Frontline staff individual interviews........... 24 0.33 1 8
Semi-annual progress reports.................... 21 2.67 16.5 924
Case enrollment data............................ 63 30 0.25 472.5
Service log entries............................. 126 780 0.05 4,914
Staff survey.................................... 80 0.33 0.42 11.2
Partner survey.................................. 80 0.33 0.33 8.8
Obtain access to administrative data............ 21 1 42.7 896.7
Report administrative data...................... 21 2.67 144 8,064
Enter data into local database.................. 21 2.67 112.5 6,300
Review records and submit electronically........ 21 2.67 100 5,600
Data entry for comparison study sites (5 5 0.33 .25 361.6
grantees)......................................
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Estimated Total Burden Hours: 27,595.
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 Planning, Research, and Evaluation, 330 C Street
SW., Washington DC 20416, 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
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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. 2016-15010 Filed 6-23-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-P