[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 42 (Friday, March 4, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10646-10647]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-4236]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request 
Proposed Projects

    Title: Evaluation of the Improving Child Welfare Outcome through 
Systems of Care Grant Program.

OMB No. New Collection

    Description: The 1994 Amendments to the Social Security Act (SSA) 
authorize the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to review 
State child and family service programs to ensure conformance with the 
requirements in titles IV-B and IV-E of SSA. Under the final Rule, 
which took effect March 25, 2000, States are assessed for substantial 
conformity with certain Federal requirements for child-welfare 
services. The Child and Family Service Reviews (CFSR), administered by 
the Children's Bureau, are designed to ensure conformity with Federal 
child-welfare requirements and, ultimately, to help States improve 
child-welfare services and outcomes, specifically safety, permanency 
and well-being outcomes for child-welfare-involved children and their 
families. States determined not to have achieved substantial conformity 
in any of the areas assessed are required to develop and implement 
Program Improvement Plans (PIP) addressing the areas of nonconformity.
    The Systems of Care grant cluster, from which these data are 
proposed to be collected, is designed to encourage public child-welfare 
agencies to address the issues identified in their State's CFSR. 
Although Systems of Care has shown promise in working with various at-
risk and family populations, it has not been applied to a child-welfare 
target population. The data collected from these demonstration sites 
will allow the Children's Bureau to test whether this approach can help 
States reach the goals stated in their PIP and explore how child-
welfare can benefit from being part of a system of care. Data will be 
collected via interviews, forms completed by project staff, surveys, 
focus groups and case-file reviews. Data also will be collected to 
determine the extent to which the Technical Assistance (A) provided, 
brokered or contracted by the TA and Evaluation Center is meeting the 
needs of the grantees, and how.
    Respondents: Systems of Care Project Directors (members of the 
Systems of Care collaborative may include representatives from mental 
health, juvenile justice, education, health, among others); child-
welfare agency supervisors and caseworkers; partner agency caseworkers, 
and families who have been involved with the child-welfare system.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                      Average
                                         Number of      Number of responses per    burden hours    Total burden
             Instrument                 respondents           respondent           per response        hours
                                                                                     (minutes)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stakeholder Survey..................             240  51 items..................             .29              59
Child-Welfare Agency Survey.........            1440  72 items..................             .29             501
Supervisor Interviews...............             140  5 questions...............            5                 58
Interviews with family members......             140  5 questions...............            5                 58
Stakeholder Interviews..............             140  5 questions...............            5                 58
Project Director Interviews.........              30  21 questions..............         \1\4                 42
Child-Welfare agency and Partner                 700  6 questions...............            6                420
 agency focus groups.
Community Description Form..........              20  14 items..................            2                  9
Organizational Structure Form.......              20  7 items...................            4                  9
Collaborative Membership Form.......              20  7 items...................            2                  5
Major Activities Form...............              20  7 items...................            6                 14
Policy Changes Form.................              20  7 items...................            6                 14
Other Training and Technical                      20  4 items...................            5                  7
 Assistance Form.
Training and Technical Assistance               1080  37 items..................             .56             373
 Participant Feedback Forms.
Technical Assistance Follow-up                   518  15........................             .29              38
 Survey.
                                                                                                 ---------------
    Total estimated total annual      ..............  ..........................  ..............          1,665
     burden hours.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ One hour for entire interview.


[[Page 10647]]

    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 
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: February 28, 2005.
Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 05-4236 Filed 3-3-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-M