83 FR 31555 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 130 (July 6, 2018)

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 130 (Friday, July 6, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31555-31556]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-14486]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    Title: Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood performance 
measures and additional data collection (part of the Fatherhood and 
Marriage Local Evaluation and Cross-Site (FaMLE Cross-Site) Project)--
Extension.
    OMB No.: 0970-0460.

Description

Background

    For decades various organizations and agencies have been developing 
and operating programs to strengthen families through healthy marriage 
and relationship education and responsible fatherhood programming. The 
Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family 
Assistance (OFA), has had administrative responsibility for federal 
funding of such programs since 2006 through the Healthy Marriage (HM) 
and Responsible Fatherhood (RF) Grant Programs. The authorizing 
legislation for the programs may be found in Section 403(a)(2) of the 
Social Security Act [1].

Extension of Current Approval

    The Offices of Family Assistance (OFA) and Planning, Research and 
Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families 
(ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are proposing 
to extend performance measure and other data collection activities, in 
service to the HM and RF programs. This data collection is part of the 
Fatherhood and Marriage Local Evaluation and Cross-Site (FaMLE Cross-
Site) project, whose purpose is to support high quality data 
collection, strengthen local evaluations, and conduct cross-site 
analysis for the Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage grantees.
    ACF is requesting comment on the following data collection, which 
has been ongoing under OMB #0970-0460 since 2016. There are no changes 
proposed to the information collection, we are only requesting an 
extension to continue data collection with the current grantees for 
another three years.
    Performance measures. ACF is proposing to extend collection of a 
set of performance measures that are collected by all grantees. These 
measures collect standardized information in the following areas:
     Applicant characteristics;
     Program operations (including program characteristics and 
service delivery); and
     Participant outcomes:
    [cir] Entrance survey, with four versions: (1)Healthy Marriage 
Program Pre-Program Survey for Adult-Focused Programs; (2) Healthy 
Marriage Program Pre-Program Survey for Youth-Focused Programs; (3) 
Responsible Fatherhood Program Pre-Program Survey for Community-Based-
Fathers; and (4)Responsible Fatherhood Program Pre-Program Survey for 
Incarcerated Fathers.

    [cir] Exit survey, with four versions: (1) Healthy Marriage Program 
Post-Program Survey for Adult-Focused Programs; (2) Healthy Marriage 
Program Post-Program Survey for Youth-Focused Programs; (3) Responsible 
Fatherhood Program Post-Program Survey for Community-Based-Fathers; and 
(4) Responsible Fatherhood Program Post-Program Survey for Incarcerated 
Fathers.

These measures were developed per extensive review of the research 
literature and grantees' past measures.
    Grantees are required to submit data on these standardized measures 
on a regular basis (e.g., quarterly). In addition to the performance 
measures mention above, ACF proposes to extend collection for these 
data submissions:
     Semi-annual Performance Progress Report (PPR), with two 
versions: (1) Performance Progress Report for Healthy Marriage 
Programs, and (2) Performance Progress Report for Responsible 
Fatherhood Programs; and
     Quarterly Performance Report (QPR), with two versions: (1) 
Quarterly Performance Progress Report for Healthy Marriage Programs, 
and (2)Quarterly Performance Progress Report for Responsible Fatherhood 
Programs.
    A management information system has been implemented which improves 
efficiency and the quality of data, and makes reporting easier.
    Additional data collection. We also seek to extend the approval to 
collect information from a sub-set of grantees on how they designed and 
implemented their programs (information on outcomes associated with 
programs will also be assessed), per the following protocols:
     Staff interview protocol on program design (will be 
collected from about half of all grantees);
     Staff interview protocols on program implementation (will 
be collected from about 20 grantees); and
     Program participant focus group protocol (will be 
conducted with about 20 grantees).
    Respondents: Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage Program 
grantees (e.g., grantee staff) and program applicants and 
participants--participants are called ``clients.''

                                                                 Annual Burden Estimates
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                             Number of    Average burden
                Instrument                           Respondent            Total number    Annual number   responses per     hours per     Annual burden
                                                                          of respondents  of respondents    respondent       response          hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               Data Collection by Grantees
                                                            (DCS, or Data Collected by Sites)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Instrument DCS-1: Applicant                 Program applicants..........         265,838          88,613               1            0.25          22,153
 characteristics.
                                            Program staff...............             360             360             246            0.10           8,856
Instrument DCS-2:Grantee program            Program staff...............             120             120               1            0.75              90
 operations.
Instrument DCS-3: Service receipt in MIS..  Program staff...............         239,493          79,831              15           0.033          39,916
Instrument DCS-4:Entrance and Exit Surveys  Program clients (Entrance            239,493          79,831               1            0.42          33,529
                                             Survey; 4 versions).
                                            Program clients (Exit                132,087          44,029               1            0.42          18,492
                                             Survey; 4 versions).
                                            Program staff (Entrance and               60              20           1,285            0.30           7,710
                                             Exit surveys on paper).

[[Page 31556]]

 
Instrument DCS-5: Semi-annual report......  Program staff (2 versions)..             120             120               2               3             720
Instrument DCS-6: Quarterly performance     Program staff (2 versions)..             120             120               2               1             240
 report.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                            Data Collection by the Contractor
                                                    (DCI, or Data collected by the Contractor Itself)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Instrument DCI-1: Topic guide on program    Program staff...............              60              20               1               1              20
 design.
Instrument DCI-2: Topic guide on program    Program staff...............             300             100               1               1             100
 implementation.
Instrument DCI-3: Focus group protocol....  Program clients.............             801             267               1            1.50             401
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 132,227
    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, Attn: OPRE 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 Administration 
for Children and Families.

Reference

    [1] http://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title04/0403.htm.

Mary B. Jones,
ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018-14486 Filed 7-5-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4184-73-P