[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 200 (Tuesday, October 16, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63317-63318]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-25359]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Extension of a Currently Approved Information Collection; Comment 
Request Proposed Projects

    Title: Cross-Site Evaluation of Children's Bureau's Child Welfare 
Technical Assistance Implementation Centers and National Child Welfare 
Resource Centers.
    OMB No.: 0970-0377.
    Background and Brief Description: The Cross-Site Evaluation of the 
Child Welfare Implementation Centers (ICs) and National Resource 
Centers (NRCs) is sponsored by the Children's Bureau, Administration 
for Children and Families, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human 
Services and involves the conduct of a multi-year cross-site evaluation 
that examines the service provision of the ICs' and NRCs' and the 
relation of their training and technical assistance activities to 
organizational and systems change in State and Tribal child welfare 
systems. Additionally, the evaluation examines the degree to which 
networking, collaboration, information sharing, adherence to common 
principles, and common messaging occurs across members of the 
Children's Bureau Training and Technical Assistance (T/TA) Network, 
which is designed to improve child welfare systems and to support 
States and Tribes in achieving sustainable, systemic change that 
results in greater safety, permanency, and well-being for children, 
youth, and families. The Children's Bureau desires to assess the 
quality and effectiveness of the technical assistance it supports, and 
several of these programs and projects are required to be evaluated, 
including those funded under Section 105 of The Child Abuse Prevention 
and Treatment Act, as amended [42 U.S.C. 5106]. The Children's Bureau 
T/TA Network is currently comprised of providers funded entirely or 
partially by the Children's Bureau through grants, contracts, and 
interagency agreements.
    The cross-site evaluation uses a mixed-method, longitudinal 
approach to examine the ICs (funded in FY 2009) and the NRCs (funded in 
FY 2010). Data collection methods that already have been employed are a 
longitudinal telephone survey of State and Tribal child welfare 
directors (or their designees), a web-based survey of State and Tribal 
T/TA recipients, and aggregation of outputs from a web-based technical 
assistance tracking system (OneNet) that will continue to be used by 
the ICs and NRCs. A web-based survey also has been administered to 
members of the T/TA Network to assess their communication, 
coordination, and how they function as part of the Network. Data 
collected through these instruments are being used by the Children's 
Bureau to evaluate the technical assistance delivered to State, local, 
Tribal, and other publicly administered or publicly supported child 
welfare agencies and family and juvenile courts. Extension of the 
follow-up data collection instruments beyond the June 30, 2013 
expiration date is necessary so that the Children's Bureau can assess 
the extent to which the ICs and NRCs fulfill their key objectives and 
determine the outcomes of the T/TA provided by the ICs and NRCs from 
the perspective of States and Tribes, incorporating service utilization 
data from OneNet into these analyses.
    Respondents: Respondents to two of the survey instruments will be 
State and Tribal governments. Respondents to the third survey will be 
private institutions, including universities, not-for-profit 
organizations, and private companies. Private institutions, including 
universities and not-for-profit organizations will be respondents to 
the forms in the OneNet tracking system.

[[Page 63318]]



                                             Annual Burden Estimates
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                     Number of    Average burden
                   Instrument                        Number of     responses per     hours per     Total annual
                                                    respondents     respondent       response      burden hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Agency Results Survey...........................           74               1              1.0            74.00
T/TA Activity Survey............................          160               3              0.25          120.00
Web-Based Network Survey........................           15               1              0.25            3.75
OneNet Form: General T/TA Event.................           17              11.8            0.25           50.00
OneNet Form: T/TA Request.......................           13              12.31           0.40           64.00
OneNet Form: T/TA Assessment and Work Plan......           13               6.2            0.28           22.568
OneNet Form: T/TA Activity......................           12             160              0.30          576.00
OneNet Form: Implementation Project Application.            5               1.7            0.40            3.4
OneNet Form: Implementation Project Assessment              5               4.6            0.28            6.44
 and Work Plan..................................
OneNet Form: Implementation Project T/TA                    5             600              0.30          900
 Activity.......................................
OneNet Form: Implementation Project Monthly                 5              36              0.17           30.60
 Report.........................................
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours:........  ..............  ..............  ..............        1850.76
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Overall, the estimated burden hours have decreased by 284 hours 
from the original submission (the estimated total annual burden hours 
were 2135.12). This difference is explained in part due to plans for 
fewer Network member organizations to complete subsequent surveys. 
Additional data fields have been added to four of the OneNet forms at 
the request of respondents, and a few questions on survey instruments 
have been removed or revised. These minor changes did not increase the 
total annual burden hours.
    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. Email 
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. 2012-25359 Filed 10-15-12; 8:45 am]
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