[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 63 (Tuesday, April 1, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17367-17369]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-6620]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request

    Periodically, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 
Administration (SAMHSA) will publish a summary of information 
collection requests under OMB review, in compliance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). To request a copy of these 
documents, call the SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer on (240) 276-1243.

Project: The National Cross-Site Evaluation of Safe Schools/Healthy 
Students (SS/HS) Initiative Grants--In Use Without Approval

    The Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative is a 
collaborative grant program supported by three Federal departments--the 
U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, and Justice. 
The program is authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education 
Act of 1965, as amended, and the Higher Education Act of 1965, Title 
IV, Part A, Subpart 2 (National Programs), Section 4121 (Federal 
Activities), and 42 U.S.C., Section 290hh (Children and Violence).
    This initiative, instituted by Congress following the murderous 
assaults at Columbine High School in Colorado, is designed to provide 
Local Educational Agencies (LEAs), including school districts and 
multidistrict regional consortia, with funding to simultaneously 
improve school safety, improve student access to mental health 
services, reduce violence and substance use, and strengthen both school 
relationships with the larger community and early childhood preparation 
for learning. Collectively, Congress expects these changes to be 
reflected in improved school climate.
    Local Education Agencies (LEAs) serve as the primary applicants for 
SS/HS grants, in partnership with the local mental health system, the 
local law enforcement agency, and the local juvenile justice agency. 
Other community partners often involved in these grants include public 
and private social services agencies, businesses, civic organizations, 
the faith community, and private citizens. As a result of these 
partnerships, comprehensive plans are developed, implemented, 
evaluated, and sustained with the goals of promoting the healthy 
development of children and youth, fostering their resilience in the 
face of adversity, and preventing violence.
    From FY-1999 through FY-2004, grants of $1 million to $3 million 
annually for 3 years were awarded to 190 LEAs, for a total of $916 
million. In FY-2005, 40 new SS/HS grants were awarded; in FY-2006, an 
additional 19 grants were awarded; and in FY-2007, an additional 27 
grants will be awarded. These grants are providing support for rural, 
tribal, suburban, and urban communities that include diverse racial and 
ethnic groups across the country.
    In compliance with the Government Performance and Results Act 
(GPRA) of 1993, grantees are required to collect and report data that 
measure the results of the programs implemented with this grant. 
Specifically, grantees are required to collect and report information 
on the following GPRA indicators:
    1. The percentage of SS/HS grant sites that experience a decrease 
in the number of violent incidents at schools.
    2. The percentage of SS/HS grant sites that experience a decrease 
in substance use.
    3. The percentage of SS/HS grant sites that improve school 
attendance.
    4. The percentage of SS/HS grant sites that increase mental health 
services to students and families.
    As authorized by 42 U.S.C. 290hh, item (f), SAMHSA has begun a 
national evaluation of the Safe School/Healthy Students (SS/HS) 
projects. In addition to GPRA measures, a Federal Evaluation Work Group 
of the national evaluation, comprising Federal officials representing 
the U.S. Departments of Education, and Health and Human Services, has 
determined that information is also required to address four 
overarching questions:
    1. Do conditions and resources in the pre-grant environment 
facilitate or impede the implementation of the SS/HS Initiative at both 
the local education agency (LEA) and school levels?
    2. Do SS/HS activities lead to the intended system changes 
(comprehensive policies, enhanced services, and improved coordination)?
    3. Do system changes (near-term outcomes) associated with the SS/HS 
Initiative lead to improvements in long-term outcomes (reduction in 
substance use and violence, increased access to mental health services, 
and improvement in attendance and school climate)?

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    4. Overall, does the SS/HS Initiative meet the Federal Government's 
expectations of achieving improvements in long-term outcomes (reduction 
in substance use and violence, increased access to mental health 
services, and improvement in attendance and school climate)?
    The SS/HS National Evaluation Team (NET) proposes seven (7) data 
collection instruments for use with various audiences and at various 
times to provide systematic, rigorous answers to these questions. These 
instruments are listed below and discussed:
    1. A Year 1 Site Visit protocol.
    2. Project-Level Survey.
    3. School-Level Survey.
    4. Staff School Climate Survey.
    5. Group Interview.
    6. Project Director Interview.
    7. Partnership Inventory.
    With the exception of the Staff School Climate Survey, these 
instruments are currently in use without approval.
    1. Year 1 Site Visit Protocol. The NET will conduct a Year 1 site 
visit to all SS/HS grantees in their first year of funding. The Year 1 
Site Visit is designed to clarify and expand upon information presented 
in the grant application. The Site Visit Guide includes a set of 
questions for each of five general topical areas:
    1. Planning for the SS/HS project.
    2. Current status of project implementation.
    3. Enhancing interagency services.
    4. Update on the SS/HS school-community partnership structure, 
composition, and functioning including the current status of required 
partners (i.e., education, mental health, law enforcement, and juvenile 
justice).
    5. Local evaluation status.
    2. Project-Level Survey is to be administered annually to collect 
project-level information provided by the local project director, in 
consultation with the local evaluator and other key staff. This Web-
based instrument will (1) collect data and project level assessments on 
technical assistance and near-term outcomes, and (2) collect data and 
project-level assessments on the penetration of SS/HS-related 
activities among the targeted population(s) and on the sustainability 
of the activities beyond the grant period. The survey contains 114 
multiple-choice questions covering seven topical areas:
    1. The relationship between the local education agency (LEA) and 
schools.
    2. Technical assistance and training.
    3. Comprehensive policies and interventions.
    4. Evidence-based interventions.
    5. Enhanced service integration.
    6. Improved coordination.
    7. Sustainability.
    This survey will generate standardized cross-site measures for the 
required data.
    3. School-Level Survey, also administered annually, is a Web-based 
survey completed by the SS/HS coordinator at each school, identified by 
the local project director. Its main purpose is to collect information 
describing system changes at the level of the individual schools 
included in the grant (e.g., involvement of the grant partners in 
activities and adoption of comprehensive safety policies at the school 
level).
    This instrument contains 131 multiple-choice questions covering two 
main areas: (1) Organizational structure, characteristics and 
activities; and (2) the school's emphasis on and student participation 
in activities and programs. The School-Level Survey is designed 
specifically to provide an indicator as to whether and how project-
level SS/HS-related policies are consistently diffused to the 
individual schools.
    Prior to fielding Project-Level and School-Level Surveys, an e-mail 
and/or letter will be sent to project directors and SS/HS school 
coordinators to explain the purpose of the survey and provide 
information on how to complete the surveys. The e-mail and/or letter 
will provide names, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and fax 
numbers for the NET contact(s) to ensure respondents have appropriate 
contact information if they have questions or need to clarify survey-
related questions. The e-mail and/or letter will also explain the 
options available for completing and returning the survey (Web-based, 
paper, and electronic).
    Designated NET staff responsible for the two surveys will call or 
e-mail the respondents after distribution to ensure responses are 
received in a timely fashion. The NET also plans additional follow-up 
efforts to track any respondents who fail to submit their completed 
surveys after the initial follow-up.
    4. Staff School Climate Survey is planned as an annual survey to be 
completed by all staff at each school participating in the SS/HS 
program. Administration and scoring will be conducted via an existing 
infrastructure that allows immediate access to the results at school, 
district, and aggregate levels for use by local and NET evaluators. The 
major purposes of this survey are:
    1. Assess changes in school climate at the project level.
    2. Identify the extent of variation in school climate among the 
target schools of each project.
    3. Provide a basis for comparison of changes in the individual 
dimensions of school climate.
    4. Provide added value to LEAs by helping them meet Federal 
legislative requirements for assessing staff perceptions of the 
incidence, prevalence, and attitudes related to substance use and 
violence in their schools.
    Although GPRA measures monitor changes in individual outcomes among 
students, GPRA measures have been found to provide an incomplete metric 
of performance in terms of observed changes in overall ``school 
climate.'' The SS/HS National Evaluation Team proposes to adopt the 
staff version of the California Healthy Kids Survey for this purpose. 
This instrument contains 43 multiple-choice questions that are used to 
obtain school staff perceptions of student behavior and attitudes, 
school programs and policies, and the overall school climate as they 
relate to student well-being and learning. The survey deals with such 
issues as truancy, safety, harassment, substance use, school 
connectedness, and learning supports. The instrument will track changes 
in school climate in schools targeted for program services under the 
SS/HS Initiative. In the absence of the Staff School Climate Survey, 
there would be no common, cross-site measure of performance across SS/
HS initiative grantees. In practice, the Staff School Climate Survey 
will be administered electronically among approximately 106,000 local 
educational system employees. These employees will be encouraged to log 
onto a Web site during each year that their school benefits from the 
grant to answer questions concerning their perception of student 
behavior and safety at the school.
    5. Group Interview will assess the status of the following:
    1. Implementation of planned activities.
    2. The status of the SS/HS school-community partnership.
    3. Progress towards enhancing interagency services.
    4. The status of the local evaluation.
    Information will be gathered from a larger group of key informants 
than during the Year 1 site visits. In addition to the project 
director, key informants will include the local evaluator, required 
partners from each site, and representatives from other local 
organizations (e.g., alcohol and drug prevention or treatment agencies, 
after-school programs, early childhood programs). The NET will consult 
with Federal Project Officers and the local project directors in 
deciding which

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partners/organizations will serve as key informants in the telephone 
interviews. The intent is to conduct these group interviews as a 
semistructured exchange among participants, guided by topics and issues 
raised by the NET moderator.
    6. Project Director Interview of the local SS/HS site will follow 
the group interview. These structured interviews will be used primarily 
to assess each partner's contribution to the core elements of 
collaborative functioning. The project director interview will be 
conducted twice for each SS/HS grant, following the group telephone 
interviews of partnership members in the spring of Years 2 and 3 of the 
grant. The interviews will be structured around 11 topics, designed to 
gather information that will be used to:
    1. Update program status.
    2. Discuss strategies and activities the sites intend to implement.
    3. Explore key partners' involvement in the project.
    4. Investigate the role of the community partnership in the local 
project.
    5. Secure information regarding the site's perspective on the 
impact of the SS/HS project on students, families, and the community.
    6. Assess collaborative functioning.
    This information will be used to refine project classifications, 
examine changes in the number and types of evidence-based practices 
being implemented, and document the number and type of new service 
structures or systems sites plan to implement through the grant.
    A NET site liaison will conduct the Project Director interview by 
telephone. This interview contains a total of 31 questions, focusing on 
10 core areas of collaborative functioning. Three subset questions 
focus on the contribution rating of the partnership, examples to 
support that rating, and the level of contribution of each required 
partner. A final question assesses the overall contribution of each of 
the partners to the SS/HS project.
    7. The Partnership Inventory is a 32-item self-completion 
questionnaire e-mailed to designated representatives of local 
partnering organizations. Its purpose is to obtain a subjective 
assessment of perceptions of operating characteristics of the 
partnership process through Likert-type scaling. The first 16 items ask 
respondents to give their opinions about how the SS/HS partnership is 
functioning in their community. Items 17-26 focus on the contributions 
the respondent's organization has made to the collaborative functions 
related to SS/HS planning and implementation. The final six questions 
focus on interactions among the participating members of the 
collaboration, asking how often and how intensely the various 
organizations work together.
    The annualized burden estimates are below:

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                                                     Number of     Responses per   Average hours   Total annual
           Data collection instrument               respondents     respondent     per response   burden (hours)
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Site Visit Protocol.............................             425               1               3           1,275
Project-Level Survey............................              85               1            0.75              64
School-Level Survey.............................           2,500               1            0.75           1,875
Staff School Climate Survey.....................         106,250               1           0.117          12,431
Group Interview.................................             425               1             1.5             638
Project Director Interview......................              85               1            0.75              64
Partnership Inventory...........................             340               1            0.25              85
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................         106,675  ..............  ..............          16,431
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    Written comments and recommendations concerning the proposed 
information collection should be sent by May 1, 2008 to: SAMHSA Desk 
Officer, Human Resources and Housing Branch, Office of Management and 
Budget, New Executive Office Building, Room 10235, Washington, DC 
20503; due to potential delays in OMB's receipt and processing of mail 
sent through the U.S. Postal Service, respondents are encouraged to 
submit comments by fax to: 202-395-6974.

    Dated: March 24, 2008.
Elaine Parry,
Acting Director, Office of Program Services.
[FR Doc. E8-6620 Filed 3-31-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P