[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 174 (Thursday, September 9, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54684-54685]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-20371]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request

Proposed Projects

    Title: HHS/ACF/ASPE/DOL Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ 
Demonstration and Evaluation Project Follow-up Surveys.
    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 Assistance Secretary for Planning and 
Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 
(HHS), and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
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    \1\ From the Department of Health and Human Services RFP No.: 
233-01-0012.
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    The evaluation involves an experimental, random assignment design 
in five sites (four are confirmed), testing a diverse set of strategies 
to promote employment for low-income parents who face serious obstacles 
to employment. The four include: (1) Intensive care management to 
facilitate the use of evidence-based treatment for major depression 
among parents receiving Medicaid in Rhode Island; (2) job readiness 
training, worksite

[[Page 54685]]

placements, job coaching, job development and other training 
opportunities for recent parolees in New York City; (3) pre-employment 
services and transitional employment for long-term TANF participants in 
Philadelphia; and (4) home- and center-based care for low-income 
families who have young children or are expecting in Kansas and 
Missouri. The latter is a two-generation test, designed to help the 
children and their parents.
    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 follow-up surveys will be used for the 
following purposes:
     To study the extent to which different HtE approaches 
impact employment, earnings, income, welfare dependence, and the 
presence or persistence of employment barriers.
     To study how different HtE strategies impact child well-
being, when programs are directed toward parents, and when they are 
designed to target both generations.
     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; child care; 
transportation; health care; income; physical and mental health 
problems; substance abuse; domestic violence; and criminal history.
     To conduct non-experimental analyses to explain 
participation decisions and provide a descriptive picture of the 
circumstances of individuals who are hard-to-employ.
     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 additional surveys.
    Materials for the HtE baseline survey were previously submitted to 
OMB on April 29, 2003, and a revised packet for the Rhode Island site 
was submitted on April 7, 2004. Both submissions have been approved by 
OMB.
    The purpose of this submission is to introduce the five survey 
instruments that will be used to collect follow-up data in the four 
confirmed sites. These are as follows:
    1. A 6-month follow-up survey in Rhode island (Mental Health Test).
    2. A 15-month follow-up survey in Rhode island (Mental Health 
Test).
    3. A 12-month follow-up survey in new York City (Recent Parolees).
    4. A 12-month follow-up survey in Philadelphia (Transitional 
Employment for long-term TANF participants).
    b. A 12-month follow-up in Kansas and Missouri (Two-Generation 
Test).
    We believe that content for the fifth site's 12-month survey will 
be drawn from questions already included in these follow-up surveys.
    Respondents: The respondents to these follow-up surveys will be 
low-income individuals from the five states represented by the four 
sites currently participating in the HtE Project: Kansas, Missouri, New 
York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Many will be current or former 
TANF participants, and many will be current or former recipients of 
Medicaid. These populations are at heightened risk for all of the 
barriers that cause people to be hard-to-employ.
    Prior to these follow-up surveys, basic demographic information for 
all survey respondents will have been obtained wherever possible from 
the existing automated systems or brief baseline information forms. In 
the Rhode Island site, respondents will have completed a more detailed 
baseline survey, which is required to establish baseline measures of 
depression and related conditions.
    The annual burden estimates are detailed below, and the substantive 
content of each survey will be detailed in the supporting statement 
attached to the forthcoming 30-day notice.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
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                                                           Number of
              Instrument                  Number of      responses per     Average burden hours    Total burden
                                        LI>respondents     respondent          per response            hours
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6-month, Rhode Island................              734                1  38 minutes or .63 hrs..          464.87
15-month, Rhode Island...............              734                1  77 minutes or 1.28 hrs.          941.97
12-month, New York City..............              500                1  32 minutes or .53 hrs..          266.67
12-month, Philadelphia...............              750                1  25 minutes or .42 hrs..          312.5
12-month, Kansas/Missouri............              680                1  52 minutes or .87 hrs..          589.33
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    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 2,575.34.
    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 fo the 
information collection described above. Copies of hte proposed 
collection of information can be obtained and comments may be forwarded 
by writing to the Administration for Children and Families, Office of 
Administration, Office of Information Services, 370 L'Enfant Promenade, 
SW., Washington, DC 20447, Attn: ACF Reports Clearance Officer. E-mail 
address: [email protected]. 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: September 2, 2004.
Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 04-20371 Filed 9-8-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-M