[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 85 (Thursday, May 1, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24071-24072]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-9292]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request

Proposed Projects

    Title: Mentoring Children of Prisoners Service Delivery 
Demonstration Project Data Collection.
    OMB No.: New Collection.
    Description: The Promoting Safe and Stable Families Amendments, as 
reauthorized (2006), amended Title IV-B of the Social Security Act (42 
U.S.C. 629-629e) providing funding for a service delivery demonstration 
project for the Mentoring Children of Prisoners (MCP) program. Grantees 
shall identify children of prisoners not being served by the grant 
program, provide families of identified children with a voucher for 
mentoring services and a list of quality mentoring programs, and 
monitor the delivery of mentoring services provided.

[[Page 24072]]

The Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) of the Administration for 
Children and Families (ACF), United States Department of Health and 
Human Services, administers the MCP program.
    The MCP program provides children of prisoners with caring adult 
mentors, supporting one-to-one mentoring relationships. Research in 
other populations has shown that such relationships can lead to 
reductions in risk behaviors and improvements in academic, behavioral, 
and psychological outcomes in children and youth. Although the MCP 
program was developed based on research documenting the efficacy of 
mentoring as a general intervention strategy, it is not yet known if 
this particular intervention yields positive outcomes for the children 
of prisoners population. Little is known about how mentoring 
relationships work for these youth and how effective mentoring 
relationships for children of prisoners differ from effective mentoring 
relationships for other youth. In addition, little is known about 
children of prisoners in general and thus a survey of MCP program youth 
has the potential to provide important data about this relatively 
unstudied population.
    The evaluation and data collection proposed in this notice are to 
fulfill the statutory requirement under Section 8, subsection h(l) of 
the Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006, as amended, that 
the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services evaluate 
outcomes of the MCP service delivery demonstration project and report 
to Congress on the findings. The information collected will also be 
used for accountability monitoring, management improvement, and 
research.
    Data collection will ensure that grantees know that mentoring 
relationships are meeting the established milestones and that mentoring 
activities are faithful to characteristics established by research as 
essential to success. Data collected will allow ACF to compare the MCP 
service delivery demonstration project with the MCP grant program. Data 
collected will also support grantees as they carry out ongoing 
responsibilities and manage information for internal use.
    Respondents: Public, faith-based and community organizations 
applying to and implementing the MCP service delivery demonstration 
project.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
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                                                                    Number of     Average burden
                   Instrument                       Number of     responses per     hours per      Total burden
                                                   respondents     respondent        response          hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Child Application..............................           4,200               1               .5           2,100
Program Application............................             325               1              2               650
MentorPRO Basic:
    Mentoring Practices and Relationship Data..             250             120               .5          15,000
    Baseline Youth Survey......................           3,000               1               .5           1,500
    Follow-up Youth Survey.....................           2,000               1               .5           1,000
    Relationship Quality Survey................           2,250               1               .5           1,125
    Program Survey.............................             250               1               .5             125
    Mentor Survey..............................           2,000               1               .5           1,000
    Payment Information........................               1              52              2               104
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 22,604.
    In compliance with the requirements of Section 506(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: April 23, 2008.
Janean Chambers,
Reports Clearance Officer.
 [FR Doc. E8-9292 Filed 4-30-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-M