Submission for Office of Management and Budget Review; National and State Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSSCAW): Site Recruitment and Baseline Data Collection
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, intends to collect data on a new cohort of children and families for the Nation...
Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
ACTION:
Request for public comments.
SUMMARY:
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, intends to collect data on a new cohort of children and families for the National and State Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSSCAW). Previous data collections have been approved by OMB under OMB #0970-0202. This request is for data collection with a new cohort.
Description:
NSSCAW will provide state and national estimates on the well-being, experiences, and service needs and receipt of children and families involved with the child welfare system. Data are collected to provide states with information to support decision-making about practice and policy improvements intended to strengthen child and family well-being, prevent the need for foster care, and promote the recruitment and retention of safe and stable foster homes. NSSCAW instruments will collect firsthand information about child and family health and well-being, as well as family needs and contextual factors. Instruments will also collect information about the safety and stability of the child's home environment, including information about the motivators and challenges of foster and kin caregivers. This information request seeks approval to (1) recruit a purposively selected set of states and randomly selected set of county child welfare agencies within those states for participation in NSSCAW; (2) sample child cases from participating states and child welfare agencies; and (3) conduct interviews with sampled children and their caregivers, including foster and kin caregivers. Deidentified data will be archived for research use.
Respondents:
Child welfare agency data systems staff will submit monthly sample files. Caregivers of children ages 0 to 17 and children ages 6 to 17 will complete an in-person or online survey. Caregivers will complete a telephone verification interview. Caregivers and young adults ages 18 and older will complete a panel maintenance contact card.
Annual Burden Estimates
This request is for 3 years of approval to allow sufficient time for baseline data collection efforts. As such, the burden has been annualized over 3 years.
Instrument
Total
number of
respondents
Total
number of
responses per
respondent
Average
burden
hours per
response
Total
burden
hours
Annual
burden
hours
Specifications for Monthly Sample File Submissions
100
15
1.0
1,500
500
Caregiver Baseline Survey
6,273
1
1.0
6,273
2,091
Child Baseline Survey
4,160
1
0.75
3,120
1,040
Telephone Verification Interview
627
1
0.13
82
27
Panel Maintenance Contact Card
900
1
0.05
45
15
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours:
3,673
Authority:42 U.S.C. 628b; Continuing Appropriations Act of 2025.
Use this for formal legal and research references to the published document.
91 FR 55596
Web Citation
Suggested Web Citation
Use this when citing the archival web version of the document.
“Submission for Office of Management and Budget Review; National and State Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSSCAW): Site Recruitment and Baseline Data Collection,” thefederalregister.org (August 28, 2026), https://thefederalregister.org/documents/2026-17545/submission-for-office-of-management-and-budget-review-national-and-state-survey-of-child-and-adolescent-well-being-nssca.
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202608-0970-007
42 U.S.C. 628b