[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 96 (Thursday, May 18, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Page 28872]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-4636]



[[Page 28872]]

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    Title: The Office of Community Services (OCS) Evaluation 
Initiative.
    OMB No.: New Collection.
    Description: This questionnaire is part of a contract that 
addresses evaluation strategies for three programs administered by OCS: 
Community Economic Development (CED), Rural Community Facilities (RF), 
and Job Opportunities for Low-Income Individuals (JOLI). The 
legislative requirement for two of these programs, i.e., the RF and CED 
programs, is in Title IV of the Community Opportunities, 
Accountability, and Training and Educational Services Act (COATS Human 
Services Reauthorization Act) of Oct. 27, 1998, Pub. L. 105-285, sec. 
680(b) as amended. This legislative directive states that ``The 
Secretary shall require all activities receiving assistance under this 
section to be evaluated for their effectiveness. Funding for such 
evaluations shall be provided as a stated percentage of the assistance 
or through a separate grant awarded by the Secretary specifically for 
the purposes of evaluation of a particular activity or group of 
activities.''
    Under Title V, Section 505, of the Family Support Act of 1988, 
Public Law 100-485, sec. 505(f), JOLI was initially a demonstration 
program that required local evaluations of each project. When JOLI was 
reauthorized in 1996 (Pub. L. 104-193--Aug. 22, 1996), it no longer had 
demonstration status and evaluation requirements. As a result, a formal 
evaluation for the JOLI program has not been conducted since the 1996 
Public Law reauthorization. At this time, OCS is interested in a formal 
evaluation to assess the JOLI program.
    OCS has chosen to evaluate all three of these programs through a 
separate contract awarded by the Secretary using the Office of 
Management and Budget's (OMB) Performance Assessment Rating Tool (PART) 
in order to critically review the overall design and effectiveness of 
each program in its totality. The evaluation initiative contract 
provides the central office with the mechanism to ensure that all 
programs evaluated will have consistent data that is in agreement with 
the direction of OMB and provides the Secretary with information on 
program efficiency and effectiveness.
    The evaluation survey's primary purpose is to document and 
systematically evaluate the program performance of these OCS 
discretionary grants programs in qualitative and quantitative terms. 
Thus it will assess each of the three OCS discretionary grants 
programs--CED, RF and JOLI--using qualitative and quantitative 
evaluation methods that capture key information about program and 
grantee-level performance in four general areas: (1) Program purpose 
and design; (2) strategic planning; (3) program management; and (4) 
program results. The evaluation activities will build on the initial 
year's findings and methods, with the goal of expanding data collection 
and analysis to improve the validity and generalizability of findings.
    The questions will be administered online.
    Respondents: Active CED and JOLI grantees with grants awarded from 
2001 through 2004.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
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                                                                  Number of     Average  burden
                 Instruments                     Number of      responses per      hours per       Total burden
                                                respondents       respondent        response          hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Questionnaire from OCS-CED and JOLI Grantees             172                1              1.5              258
 in the U.S.................................
                                             -------------------------------------------------------------------
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours.....  ...............  ...............  ...............             258
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    Additional Information: Copies of the proposed collection may be 
obtained from 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 is required to make a decison concerning the collection of 
information between 30 and 760 days after pubication 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: May 12, 2006.
Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 06-4636 Filed 5-17-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-M