[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 129 (Wednesday, July 6, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39402-39403]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-16789]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request

    Title: Regional Partnership Grant (RPG) Program Data Collection.
    OMB No.: 0970-0353.

Description

    On September 30, 2007, the Administration for Children and Families 
(ACF) Children's Bureau awarded multi-year grants to 53 regional 
partnerships grantees (RPGs) 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 home. 
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' 
outcomes. The legislation mandated that these performance indicators be 
developed through a consultative process involving ACF, 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 legislation also requires the Secretary of 
the Department of Health and Human services to submit annually to 
Congress a report that includes the performance indicators established 
under this grant program.
    The final set of RPG performance indicators was approved by ACF 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

[[Page 39403]]

families. The data also will have significant implications for policy 
and program development for child well-being programs nationwide.
    The purpose of this request is to obtain OMB approval for an 
extension of the original three year request which was approved on 
March 31, 2009. Forty-three of the original 53 grantees were awarded 
for a five-year grant period, thus necessitating an extension of the 
original request in order to continue data collection for the remainder 
of the grant period. The first submission of RPG grantee data to the 
RPG data collection system ocurred in December, 2008, and every six 
months thereafter. Data collection will be conducted for the fifth year 
of the grant period, ending September 30, 2012, with data submission by 
January 2013. Data collection may be extended for one year until 
January 2014 should grantees request and be granted no-cost extensions.
    To minimize grantee data collection and 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). 
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 RPG lead agency or their state or local partners are able to 
download information from these existing State child welfare and 
substance abuse treatment data systems to obtain data to monitor their 
RPG program outcomes, thereby reducing the amount of primary data 
collection needed.
    Respondents: RPG Grantees.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                     Number of    Average burden
                   Instrument                        Number of     responses per     hours per     Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent       response          hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
State, local, and Tribal Government.............              26               2          175.50           9,126
Private Sector..................................              17               2          175.50           5,967
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours.........  ..............  ..............  ..............          15,093
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    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.

Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2011-16789 Filed 7-5-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-P