[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 42 (Thursday, March 4, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10469-10470]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-5303]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    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 State 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

[[Page 10470]]

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 
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:

X  A random sample of 5,000 low-income families with working parents 
and at least one child under age 13 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.
X  A sample of 650 low-income parents who are receiving, or who are 
eligible 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, in the case of unsubsidized families, through 
snowball sampling 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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                     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             114
Community Key Informant Interviews..............             250             .67            1.00             168
Community Survey (Screener).....................          64,474             .33            0.08           1,702
Community Survey................................           5,000             .33              .5             825
In-Depth Study Parent Screener..................           2,172             .33            0.08              57
In-Depth Study Parent Interview.................             650               2            1.25           1,625
In-Depth Study Student Interview................              63               1            .033              21
In-Depth Study Family Child Care Provider                  1,458             .33             .17              82
 Screener.......................................
In-Depth Study Family Care In-Depth Study Care               650               2             .50              65
 Provider Interview.............................
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 5,244.

Additional Information

    Copies of the proposed collection may be obtained by writing to The 
Administration for Children and Families, Office of Information 
Services, 370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW, Washington, DC 20447, Attn: ACF 
Reports Clearance Officer.

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, 725 17th Street, 
NW, Washington, DC 20503, Attn: Stuart Schapiro.

    Dated: February 26, 1999.
Bob Sargis,
Acting Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 99-5303 Filed 3-3-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-M