[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 30 (Thursday, February 13, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7380-7381]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-3446]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request

    Proposed Projects:
    Title: DHHS/ACF/ASPE Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ
    OMB No.: New Collection
    Description: The Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ 
Demonstration and Evaluation Project (HtE) is the most ambitious, 
comprehensive effort to learn what works in this area to date and is 
explicitly designed to build on previous and ongoing research by 
rigorously testing a wide variety of approaches to promote employment 
and improve family functioning and child well-being. The HtE project 
will ``conduct a multi-site evaluation that studies the implementation 
issues, program design, net impact and benefit-costs of selected 
programs'' \1\ designed to help Temporary Assistance for Needy Families 
(TANF) recipients, former TANF recipients, or low income parents who 
are hard-to-employ. The project is sponsored by the Office of Planning, 
Research and Evaluation (OPRE) of the Administration for Children and 
Families (ACF), the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and 
Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 
(HHS), and the U.S. Department of Labor. The evaluation involves an 
experimental, random assignment design in 6 sites, testing a diverse 
set of strategies to promote employment for low-income parents who face 
serious obstacles to employment, including physical and mental health 
problems, substance abuse, human capital deficiencies, and situational 
barriers. At least two of the sites included in the evaluation will 
feature ``two generation'' models, serving both parents and their 
children. Over the next several years, the HtE project will generate a 
wealth of rigorous data on implementation, effects, and costs of these 
alternative approaches. The data collected will be used for the 
following purposes:
    [sbull] To study the extent to which different HtE approaches 
impact employment, earnings, income, welfare dependence, and the 
presence or persistence of employment barriers;
    [sbull] To collect data on a wider range of outcome measures than 
is available through Welfare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Social Security, 
the Criminal Justice System or Unemployment Insurance records in order 
to understand the family circumstances and attributes and situations 
that contribute to the difficulties in finding employment; job 
retention and job quality; educational attainment; interactions with 
and knowledge of the HtE program; household composition; childcare; 
transportation; health care; income; physical and mental health 
problems; substance abuse; domestic violence; and criminal history.
    [sbull] To conduct non-experimental analyses to explain 
participation decisions and provide a descriptive picture of the 
circumstances of individuals who are hard-to-employ;
    [sbull] To obtain participation information important to the 
evaluation's benefit-cost component;
    [sbull] And to obtain contact information for possible future 
follow-up, information that will be important to achieving high 
response rates for the 42-month survey.
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    \1\ From the Department of Health and Human Services RFP No.: 
233-01-0012.
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    Respondents: The respondents of the baseline survey are Temporary 
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients, former TANF 
recipients, or low-income individuals who are hard-to-employ from six 
states likely to be participating in the HtE Project: California, 
Georgia, Kansas, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Survey 
respondents can be grouped according to 4 target populations: prisoners 
with children; low-income mothers with mental health problems; 
populations connected to the TANF system; and programs working with 
two-generations (parents and their children). Prior to random 
assignment, basic demographic information for all survey respondents 
will be obtained wherever possible from the program's automated system. 
In addition, all survey respondents will receive a core set of 
questions that will be administered by Audio-Computer Assisted Self 
Interview (ACASI-Core). In the site operating a program aimed

[[Page 7381]]

specifically at ex-offenders, an additional supplementary module will 
be administered by Audio-CASI. Similarly, an additional supplementary 
module will be administered by Audio-CASI in the site operating a 
program aimed at survey respondents with mental health problems. 
Finally, in the two-generation sites (two of the six sites), survey 
respondents will complete a two-generation survey administered by a 
Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI). Approximately 12,000 
respondents will complete the core survey, 2,000 will complete the 
criminal justice module, 2,000 will complete the mental health module, 
and 4,000 will complete the two-generation CAPI survey.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
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                                                           Number of
              Instrument                   Number of     responses per   Average  burden  hours    Total burden
                                          respondents     respondent          per  response            hours
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Audio-CASI Core.......................          12,000               1  10 minutes or .17 hrs...        2,000
Criminal Justice Module...............           2,000               1  10 minutes or .17 hrs...          333.33
Mental Health Module..................           2,000               1  10 minutes or .17 hrs...          333.33
Two Generation........................           4,000               1  30 minutes or .5 hrs....        2,000
                                       -----------------
    Estimated Total Annual Burden       ..............  ..............  ........................        4,666.66
     Hours.
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    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 proposed 
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, SW., Washington, DC 
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 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.

    Dated: February 6, 2003.
Gerald L. Fralick,
Director, Office of Information Systems.
[FR Doc. 03-3446 Filed 2-12-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-M