[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 30 (Tuesday, February 15, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7745-7746]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-2825]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    Title: DHHS/ACF/ASPE/DOL Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ 
Demonstration and Evaluation Project Follow-up Surveys.
    OMB No.: 0970-0251.
    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 (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 up to 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 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, which 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); and
    5. A 12-month follow-up survey in Kansas and Missouri (Two 
Generation Test).

[[Page 7746]]

    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 are detailed in the supporting statement.

                                             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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Rhode Island, 6-month.................             734               1  38 minutes or .63 hrs...          464.87
Rhode Island, 15-month................             734               1  45 minutes or .75 hrs...          550.50
New York City, 12-month...............           1,000               1  32 minutes or .53 hrs...          533.33
Philadelphia, 12-month................             750               1  25 minutes or .42 hrs...          312.50
Kansas/Missouri, 12-month.............             680               1  45 minutes or .75 hrs...          510.00
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    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours. 2,371.20

Additional Information

    Copies of the proposed collection may be obtained 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. All requests 
should be identified by the title of the information collection. E-mail 
address: [email protected].

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, Attn: Desk Officer 
for ACF, E-mail address: [email protected].

    Dated: February 8, 2005
Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 05-2825 Filed 2-14-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-M