[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 166 (Tuesday, August 26, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Page 50333]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-19562]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request 
Proposed Projects

    Title: Regional Partnership Grant (RPG) Program Data Collection.
    OMB No.: New Collection.
    Description: On September 30, 2007, the Administration for Children 
and Families (ACF), Children's Bureau, awarded multi-year grants to 53 
regional partnership grantees (RPG5) to improve the safety, permanency 
and well-being of children affected by methamphetamine or other 
substance abuse who have been removed or are at-risk of removal from 
their homes. The Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006, the 
authorizing legislation for the RPG program, required that a set of 
performance indicators be established to periodically assess the 
grantees' progress on achieving outcomes. The legislation mandated that 
these performance indicators be developed through a consultative 
process involving ACS, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 
Administration (SAMHSA), and representatives of the State or Tribal 
agencies who are members of the regional partnerships.
    The final set of RPG performance indicators was approved by ACS and 
disseminated to the funded grantees in January 2008. It includes a 
total of 23 indicators across four outcome domains: Child/youth (9 
indicators), adult (7 indicators), family/relationship (5 indicators), 
and regional partnership/service capacity (2 indicators). It also 
includes a core set of child and adult demographic elements that will 
provide important context needed to properly analyze, explain and 
understand the outcomes. No other national data collection measures 
these critical child, adult, family, and RPG outcomes specifically for 
these children and families. The data also will have significant 
implications for policy and program development for child well-being 
programs nationwide.
    To minimize reporting burden, many of the data elements are already 
being collected by counties and States in order to report Federally 
mandated data for the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting 
System (AFCARS), the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) and the National 
Outcome Measures (NOMs); in addition, all States voluntarily submit 
data for the Federal National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System 
(NCANDS). Therefore, most child welfare data elements included in the 
RPG performance measures can be found in a State's automated case 
management system, which is often a Federally funded Statewide 
Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS). If the State 
elects to implement a SACWIS, the system is expected to be a 
comprehensive automated case management tool that meets the needs of 
all staff involved in foster care and adoption case management. A 
SACWIS is required to support reporting of data to AFCARS semi-
annually, and annually to NCANDS. AFCARS reports information on all 
children in foster care, while NCANDS reports information on State 
child maltreatment reports. TEDS admission and discharge data are 
collected by State substance abuse agencies according to their own 
information systems for monitoring substance abuse treatment admissions 
and transmitted monthly or quarterly to the SAMHSA contractor.
    As a result of prior Federal government reporting requirements, 
States are already collecting several data elements needed by the RPGs. 
The RPGs can download information from these existing systems to obtain 
data to monitor their program outcomes, thereby reducing the amount of 
primary data collection needed.
    Beginning in year two, grantees will submit a data file with their 
required indicator data, according to their final set of indicators, 
every six months.
    Respondents: RPG Grantees.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
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                                                                     Number of    Average burden
                   Instrument                        Number of     responses per     hours per     Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent       response          hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
State, local, or Tribal Government..............              31               2          175.50          10,881
Private Sector..................................              22               2          175.50           7,722
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 18,603.
    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: August 18, 2008.
Janean Chambers,
Reports Clearance, Officer.
 [FR Doc. E8-19562 Filed 8-25-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-P