[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 182 (Thursday, September 19, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57641-57643]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-22774]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request

    Proposed Projects:
    The President signed the Child and Family Services Improvement and 
Innovation Act (Pub. L. 112-34) into law on September 30, 2011. This 
act includes a targeted grants program (section 437(f) of the Social 
Security Act), which directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
(HHS) to reserve a specified portion for Regional Partnership Grants, 
designed to improve the well-being of children affected by parental 
substance abuse. On September 28, 2012, CB/ACYF awarded new 5-year RPG 
grants to 17 partnerships in 15 states. The overall objective of the 
Cross-Site Evaluation and Technical Assistance project (the RPG Cross-
Site Evaluation) is to plan, develop, and implement a rigorous national 
cross-site evaluation of the RPG Grant Program, provide legislatively-
mandated performance measurement, and furnish evaluation-related 
technical assistance to the grantees in order to improve the quality 
and rigor of their local evaluations. The project will evaluate the 
programs and activities conducted through the RPG Grant Program.
    Title: RPG National Cross-Site Evaluation and Evaluation Technical 
Assistance.
    OMB No.: New collection.
    Description: The Children's Bureau within the Administration for 
Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human 
Services seeks approval to collect information for the Regional 
Partnership Grants to Increase the Well-being of and to Improve 
Permanency Outcomes for Children Affected by Substance Abuse (known as 
the Regional Partnership Grants Program or ``RPG'') Cross-Site 
Evaluation and Evaluation-Related Technical Assistance project. Under 
RPG, the Children's Bureau has issued 17 grants to organizations such 
as child welfare or substance abuse treatment providers or family court 
systems to develop interagency collaborations and integration of 
programs, activities, and services designed to increase well-being, 
improve permanency, and enhance the safety of children who are in an 
out-of-home placement or are at risk of being placed in out-of-home 
care as a result of a parent's or caretaker's substance abuse. The 
Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act (Pub. L. 112-
34) includes a targeted grants program (section 437(f) of the Social 
Security Act) that directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
to reserve a specified portion of the appropriation for these Regional 
Partnership Grants, to be used to improve the well-being of children 
affected by substance abuse. The overall objective of the Cross-Site 
Evaluation and Technical Assistance project (the RPG Cross-Site 
Evaluation) is to plan, develop, and implement a rigorous national 
cross-site evaluation of the RPG Grant Program, provide legislatively-
mandated performance measurement, and furnish evaluation-related 
technical assistance to the grantees in order to improve the quality 
and rigor of their local evaluations. The project will evaluate the 
programs and activities conducted through the RPG Grant Program. The 
evaluation is being undertaken by the Children's Bureau and its 
contractor Mathematica Policy Research. The evaluation is being 
implemented by Mathematica Policy Research and its subcontractors, 
Walter R. McDonald & Associates and Synergy Enterprises.
    The RPG Cross-Site Evaluation will include the following 
components:
    1. Implementation and Partnership Study. The RPG cross-site 
implementation and partnership study will contribute to building the 
knowledge base about effective implementation strategies by examining 
the process of implementation in the 17 RPG projects, with a focus on 
factors shown in the research literature to be associated with quality 
implementation of evidence-based programs. This component of the study 
will describe the RPG projects' target populations, selected 
interventions and their fit with the target populations, inputs to 
implementation, and actual services provided (including dosage, 
duration, content, adherence to curricula, and participant 
responsiveness). It will examine the key attributes of the regional 
partnerships that grantees develop (for example, partnerships among 
child welfare and substance abuse treatment providers, social services, 
and the courts). It will describe the characteristics and roles of the 
partner organizations, the extent of coordination and collaboration, 
and their potential to sustain the partnerships after the grant ends. 
Key data collection activities of the implementation and partnership 
study are: (1) Conducting site visits during which researchers will 
interview RPG program directors, managers, supervisors, and frontline 
staff who work directly with families; (2) administering a survey to 
frontline staff involved in providing direct services to children, 
adults, and families; (3) asking grantees to provide information about 
implementation and their partnerships as part of their federally 
required semi-

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annual progress reports; (4) obtaining service use data from grantees, 
enrollment date and demographics of enrollees, exit date and reason, 
and service participation, to be entered into a web-based system 
developed and operated by Mathematica Policy Research and its 
subcontractors; and (5) administering a survey to representatives of 
the partner organizations.
    2. Outcomes Study. The goal of the outcomes study is to describe 
the changes that occur in children and families who participate in the 
RPG programs. This study will describe participant outcomes in five 
domains: (1) Child well-being, (2) family functioning/stability, (3) 
adult recovery from substance use, (4) child permanency, and (5) child 
safety. Two main types of outcome data will be used--both of which are 
being collected by RPG grantees: (1) Administrative child welfare and 
adult substance abuse treatment records and (2) standardized 
instruments administered to the parents and/or caregivers. The 
Children's Bureau is requiring grantees to obtain and report specified 
administrative records, and to use a prescribed set of standardized 
instruments. Grantees will provide these data to the Cross-Site 
Evaluation team twice a year by uploading them to a data system 
developed and operated by Mathematica Policy Research and its 
subcontractors.
    3. Impact Study. The goal of the impact study is to assess the 
impact of the RPG interventions on child, adult, and family outcomes by 
comparing outcomes for people enrolled in RPG services to those in 
comparison groups, such as people who do not receive RPG services or 
receive only a subset of the services. The impact study will use 
demographic and outcome data on both program (treatment) and comparison 
groups from a subset of grantees with appropriate local evaluation 
designs such as randomized controlled trials or strong quasi-
experimental designs; 8 of the 17 grantees have such designs. Site-
specific impacts will be estimated for these eight grantees. Aggregated 
impact estimates will be created by pooling impact estimates across 
appropriate sites to obtain a more powerful summary of the 
effectiveness of RPG interventions.
    In addition to conducting local evaluations and participating in 
the RPG Cross-Site Evaluation, the RPG grantees are legislatively 
required to report performance indicators aligned with their proposed 
program strategies and activities. A key strategy of the RPG Cross-Site 
Evaluation is to minimize burden on the grantees by ensuring that the 
cross-site evaluation, which includes all grantees in a study that 
collects data to report on implementation, the partnerships, and 
participant characteristics and outcomes, fully meets the need for 
performance reporting. Thus, rather than collecting separate evaluation 
and performance indicator data, the grantees need only participate in 
the cross-site evaluation. In addition, using the standardized 
instruments that the Children's Bureau has specified will ensure that 
grantees have valid and reliable data on child and family outcomes for 
their local evaluations. The inclusion of an impact study conducted on 
a subset of grantees with rigorous designs will also provide the 
Children's Bureau, Congress, grantees, providers, and researchers with 
information about the effectiveness of RPG programs. This 60-Day Notice 
covers the following data collection activities: (1) The site visits 
with grantees; (2) the web-based survey of frontline staff who provide 
direct services to children, adults, and families, and their 
supervisors; (3) the semi-annual progress reports; (4) enrollment and 
service data provided by grantees; (5) the web-based survey of grantee 
partners; and (6) outcome data provided by grantees.
    Respondents: Respondents include grantee staff or contractors (such 
as local evaluators) and partner staff. Specific types of respondents 
and the expected number per data collection effort are noted in the 
burden table below.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                Number of      Average  burden
                Instrument                     Number of      responses per      hours  per       Total  burden
                                              respondents       respondent        response            hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Program director individual interview.....               17                1              1.34              22.8
Program manager/supervisor group interview              153                1              1.34             205
Program manager/supervisor individual                   102                1              0.67              68.3
 interviews...............................
Frontline staff individual interviews.....              102                1              0.67              68.3
Semi-annual progress reports..............               17                2             16.5              561
Case enrollment log.......................               51               30              0.25             382.5
Service log...............................              102              780              0.05            3978
Staff survey..............................              340                1              0.34             115.6
Partner Survey............................              340                1              0.34             115.6
Administrative data.......................               17                2             93.5            3,179
Outcome master instrument (data entry and                17                2            189               6426
 uploading)...............................
Impact master instrument (data entry and                  8                2             69               1104
 uploading)...............................
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 15,490.
    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 
Planning, Research and Evaluation, 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

[[Page 57643]]

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. 2013-22774 Filed 9-18-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-P