81 FR 41310 - Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 122 (June 24, 2016)

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 122 (Friday, June 24, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41310-41312]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[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

[[Page 41311]]

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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                     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)......................................
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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

[[Page 41312]]

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