[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 145 (Monday, July 29, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Page 49029]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-19071]


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

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    Title: DHHS/ACF Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) 
Evaluation 12-Month Survey.
    OMB No.: New collection.
    Description: The Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) 
Evaluation is the most ambitious, comprehensive effort to learn what 
works in this area to date and is explicitly designed to build on past 
research by rigorously testing a wide variety of approaches to 
promoting employment retention and advancement for a range of 
populations. The project, conceived and sponsored by the Administration 
for Children and Families (ACF) of the U.S. Department of Health and 
Human Services (HHS), seeks to ``conduct a multi-site evaluation that 
studies the net impact and cost-benefits of programs designed to help 
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients, former TANF 
recipients, or families at-risk of needing TANF benefits retain and 
advance in employment.'' The ERA Evaluation involves up to 15 random 
assignment experiments in eight states, testing a diverse set of 
strategies designed to promote stable employment and/or career 
advancement for current and former welfare recipients and/or career 
advancement for current and former welfare recipients and other low-
income parents. Over the next several years, the ERA project will 
generate a wealth of rigorous data on the implementation, effects, and 
costs of these alternative approaches. The data collected will be used 
for the following purposes:
     To study ERA's impacts on employment, earnings, 
participation, educational attainment and income;
     To collect data on a wider range of outcome measures than 
is available through welfare or UI records in order to understand how 
individuals were affected by ERA; job retention and job quality; 
educational attainment; interactions with an knowledge of the ERA 
program; household composition; income; and childcare, transportation, 
and health coverage;
     To supplement research on the implementation of ERA across 
sites;
     To conduct non-experimental analyses to explain 
participation decisions and provide a descriptive picture of the 
circumstances of low-wage workers;
     To obtain participation information important to the 
evaluation's benefit-cost component; and
     To obtain contact information for possible future follow-
up, information that will be important to achieving high response rates 
for the 36-month survey.
    Respondents: The respondents of the 12-month survey are Temporary 
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) applicants, current and former 
TANF recipients, or individuals in families at-risk of needing TANF 
benefits (working poor and hard-to-employ) from eight states 
participating in the ERA Evaluation: California, Oregon, New York, 
Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, South Carolina, and Texas. Survey 
respondents can be grouped according to three program clusters: 
advancement projects; placement and retention (hard-to-employ) 
projects; and mixed goal projects. All three program clusters will 
receive the 12-month core survey. The placement and retention (hard-to-
employ) participants will also receive the hard-to-employ survey 
module. Survey participants will be administered a telephone survey 
(for those individuals who cannot be reached by phone, staff at the 
survey firm will attempt to contact them in person) approximately 12 
months after random assignment. Approximately 6,250 participants will 
complete the core survey only and 1,800 participants will complete the 
core plus hard-to-employ module survey.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                           Number of
              Instrument                   Number of     responses per    Average burden  hours    Total burden
                                          respondents     respondent          per response             hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12-Month Survey (Core Only)...........           3,125               1  37 minutes or .6166             1,927.08
                                                                         hours.
12-Month Survey (Core plus Hard-to-                900               1  45 minutes or .75 hours.          675.00
 Employ Module).
                                                                                                 ---------------
    Estimated Total Annual Burden       ..............  ..............  ........................        2,602.08
     Hours.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: Desk Officer for ACF.

    Dated: July 24, 2002.
Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 02-19071 Filed 7-26-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-M