[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 233 (Friday, December 4, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67073-67074]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-32282]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request; 
Proposed Project

    Title: National Study of Child Care for Low-Income Families.
    OMB No.: New.
    Description: The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity 
Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) has intensified the need for information 
about child care for low-income families. Many policymakers, program 
operators, and others have emphasized that low-income families' access 
to adequate child care is essential to meet the broad goal set out in 
the Act--to enable families receiving public assistance to enter and 
remain in the workforce. PRWORA also consolidated a variety of Federal 
child care funds into a single block grant, the Child Care and Child 
Development Fund (CCDF), which gives the States broad discretion in 
establishing priorities for subsidy as well as levels. Faced with 
limited funding and a burgeoning need for child care, state 
policymakers are under enormous pressure to use child care funding as 
efficiently as possible. Their decision-making is hampered by lack of 
information about three important and interrelated issues: How the 
current set of policies and programs, for example including work 
requirements, child care subsidies and regulations governing child 
care, affects parents' employment and child care decisions; how 
significant shifts in welfare and other policies, as well as funding 
for child care, will affect the demand for and supply of child care at 
the community level; and the potential implications of an increased 
reliance of low-income families on family child care that may or may 
not be regulated or monitored.
    A sample of key informants at the state and community levels 
including governor's policy staff, child care and welfare agency staff, 
child care licensing and monitoring staff, child care resource and 
referral agency staff, and advocacy group members, representatives of 
private organizations such as foundations or churches, will be asked 
about state child care and subsidy policies and how these policies are 
implemented at the local level. Additionally, they will be asked about 
the effect of these policies on the supply of child care. A sample of 
low-income families using non-parental child care will be asked about 
the types and cost of care used and the factors that influenced their 
choice of child care arrangements including the availability of child 
care subsidies. A sample of low-income parents using family child care 
will be asked about their experience with this care and how this care 
has affected their ability to work and to balance work and family life. 
Additionally, parents will be asked about their household 
characteristics on a voluntary basis. The family child care providers 
used by the sample of low-income parents will be asked about their 
views on child rearing and the role of the child care provider, the 
relationship with the parents served, and, on a voluntary basis, their 
household characteristics. A sample of preschool children using family 
child care will be observed in their child care setting. Focus groups 
with family child care providers and low-income parents will be used to 
investigate how child care subsidy policy has affected the supply and 
demand for child care in their communities.
    ACF, working with Abt Associates and the National Center for 
Children in Poverty at Columbia University, will conduct the proposed 
data collection. Data will be collected at the three levels, with 
nested samples of counties within states and families and providers 
within counties. The first level is a sample of 17 states containing 25 
counties that were selected to be a nationally-representative sample of 
counties with above average poverty rates. At the family level, data 
will be collected from two samples:

[[Page 67074]]

     A random sample of 5,000 low-income families with working 
parents and at least one child under age nine for whom they use non-
parental child care, that will be selected in the 25 counties (200/
county). This sample will be used to investigate the spectrum of child 
care options available to and the choices made by low-income families 
in the 25 counties.
     A sample of 650 low-income parents who are receiving, or 
who applied for, child care subsides, and are using family child care 
at the start of the study will be used to examine the experiences of 
low-income families with this important but rarely studied mode of 
child care. A random sample (130 families/county) will be selected from 
subsidy lists and subsidy waiting lists in a subsample of five of the 
25 counties.
    At the provider level, data will be collected from the 650 family 
child care providers linked to these 650 families.
    Respondents: State, Local or Tribal Government.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
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                                                                     Number of    Average burden
                   Instrument                        Number of     responses per     hours per     Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent       response          hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
State Key Informant Interviews..................             170               2            1.00             113
Community Key Informant Interviews..............             250               2            1.00             167
Parent Focus Groups.............................             250               2             1.5             250
Provider Focus Group............................             250               2             1.5             250
Community Survey (Screener).....................          64,474               1          0.08.5           1,719
Community Survey................................           5,000               1                             833
In-Depth Study Parent Screener..................           2,172               1        0.081.25              58
In-Depth Study Parent Interview.................             650               6                           1,625
In-Depth Study Student Interview................              63               3             .33              21
In-Depth Study Family Child Care Provider
 Screener.......................................           1,458               1             .17              88
In-Depth Study Family Care In-Depth Study Care
 Provider Interview.............................             650               6             .50             650
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    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 5,774.
    In Compliance with the requirements of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Administration for Children and 
Families is soliciting public comment on the specific aspects of the 
information collection described above. Copies of the collection of 
information can be obtained and comments may be forwarded by writing to 
the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Information 
Services, 370 L'Enfant Promenade, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20447, Attn: 
ACF Reports Clearance Officer. 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 
agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of 
information; (c) the quality, utility, and clarify 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 with 
60 days of this publication

    Dated: November 30, 1998.
Bob Sargis,
Acting Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 98-32282 Filed 12-3-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-04-M