SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Description: This notice is to invite public comments on OCS's proposal to revise the Beneficiary Survey, introduce a survey of grant recipients and their partners, and to continue to use the Beneficiary Report with no changes. This revision request would extend approval of information collection activities for an additional 3 years.

The DDDRP beneficiary survey was developed to examine diaper need and outcomes for beneficiaries served by DDDRP. It was piloted under the Formative Data Collections for ACF Program Support umbrella generic (OMB #: 0970-0531) with the first three cohorts of DDDRP grant recipients. To continue to learn about the people who receive grant services and the extent to which they achieve expected short-term outcomes, the updated proposed survey includes two versions: An enrollment version and a follow-up version.

• The Enrollment Version of the Beneficiary Survey is a revised version of the current Beneficiary Survey. This version will continue to collect demographic data on the children served and caregivers enrolling in the program; information about the employment, education, and income of caregivers; and indicators of diaper need. The survey has been revised to also include contact information for the caregiver, early learning environment participation of children, and diaper-related health. The survey has also been revised to remove several items that proved to be not informative enough to ( printed page 58905) warrant participant burden or that are inconsistent with administration priorities, including the size diaper each child wears, the language the caregiver speaks, and whether the caregiver is a single parent.
• The Follow up Version of the Beneficiary Survey is a new wave of collection for the survey, but it reduces the number of demographic items to focus on repeated measurement of employment, education, income, early learning environment participation, diaper need, and diaper health. It continues to collect contact information to ensure accurate individual-level linking of data across the two waves.

The DDDRP beneficiary report is a report submitted by grant recipients every 6 months that includes information on beneficiary characteristics and outcomes collected by grant recipient partners from beneficiaries. There are no changes proposed to this report.

Finally, the Organizational Survey is a new tool OCS has developed to capture baseline and follow-up data from grant recipients and partners to understand the extent to which participation in the DDDRP has improved organizational capacity to serve beneficiaries. It is based on findings from a recent implementation study that indicated what skills, capacities and knowledge previous DDDRP grant recipients and partners needed to have/develop to be successful.

Information collection materials will be translated into Spanish and may be translated into additional languages if necessary, based on beneficiaries enrolled by grant recipients. ACF acknowledges that English is the official language and authoritative version of all federal information and will note this on the translated material.

Respondents: Respondents for the Beneficiary Survey are the caregivers enrolling their family members with diaper needs in DDDRP services. Respondents for the Beneficiary Report are the grant recipients and their partners who collect and compile the data, as well as the beneficiaries who provide information about their characteristics and outcomes. Respondents to the Organizational Survey are staff at grant recipient and partner organizations most familiar with the execution of the grant.

Annual Burden Estimates

The estimated burden for the currently approved information collection activities is 8,178.89 hours. The estimated burden of this revised information collection is 5,185.83 hours, a 36 percent reduction in burden. OCS made several changes to survey instruments and fielding to reduce overall burden:

• Beneficiary Survey—Enrollment Version: OCS identified items in the Beneficiary Survey that were not informative enough for the evaluation to warrant participant burden or consistent with administration priorities. Specifically, OCS removed 6 currently approved survey questions. OCS also identified opportunities to program the Beneficiary Survey with new skip patterns, looping and pre-population of questions to reduce time needed to answer items. These changes led to a reduced burden estimate of up to 9 minutes per respondent (reduced from 10 minutes per respondent in the prior information collection). Additionally, OCS reduced the overall number of beneficiaries who will participate in the survey. In this revised request, OCS will only collect Beneficiary Survey data from beneficiaries who enroll during a defined 1-year period during the grant recipient's program.
• Beneficiary Report—Grant Recipients: OCS reduced the overall number of grant recipients who will need to collect information from beneficiaries and fill out the beneficiary reports, based on upcoming planned funding competitions.
• Beneficiary Report—Partners: OCS reduced the number of potential partners anticipated based on current reporting practices for grant recipients and new programmatic recommendations to collaborate with four or fewer partners. Previously, grant recipients were allowed to partner with as many organizations as desired.
• Beneficiary Report—Beneficiaries: OCS anticipates that fewer beneficiaries will need to provide information for the Beneficiary Report compared to the prior information collection as there are fewer grant recipients operating during this information collection period overall.

Comments: 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.

Authority: Section 1110, Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. 1310.

91 FR 58904