[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 232 (Tuesday, December 3, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72679-72680]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-28861]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Submission for OMB Review: Comment Request

    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-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; 7 of the 17 grantees have such designs. Site-
specific impacts will be estimated for these seven 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

[[Page 72680]]

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.
    A 60-Day Federal Register Notice was published for this study on 
September 19, 2013. This 30-Day Federal Register 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. The following instruments are proposed for 
public comment under this 30-Day Federal Register Notice. Burden for 
all components is annualized over three years.

                              RPG Cross-Site Evaluation Annualized Burden Estimates
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Number of        Average
                                   Total number    responses per   burden hours      Estimated     Total annual
    Data collection activity      of respondents    respondent     per response    total burden    burden hours
                                                    (each year)     (in hours)         hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                      Implementation and Partnership Study
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Program director individual                   17             .67               2              68            22.6
 interview......................
Program manager/supervisor group             153             .67               2             612             204
 interview......................
Program manager/supervisor                   102             .67               1             204              68
 individual interviews..........
Frontline staff individual                   102             .67               1             204              68
 interviews.....................
Semi-annual progress reports....              17               2            16.5           1,683             561
Case enrollment data............              51              30            0.25         1,147.5           382.5
Service log entries.............             102             780             .05          11,934           3,978
Staff survey....................             340             .67            0.42           283.2            94.4
Partner survey..................             340             .67            0.33           226.8            75.6
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                          Data Entry for Outcomes Study
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Administrative Data.............
    Obtain access to                          17               1            42.6           2,175             725
     administrative data........
    Report administrative data..              17               2             144          14,688           4,896
Standardized instruments........
    Review and adopt reporting                17             .33               8             136           45.33
     templates..................
    Enter data into local                     17               2           112.5          11,475           3,825
     database...................
    Review records and submit...              17               2             100          10,200           3,400
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                     Additional Data Entry for Impact Study
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Data entry for comparison study                7               2            36.1           1,519           506.3
 sites (7 grantees).............
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Estimated Total Burden Hours  ..............  ..............  ..............  ..............          18,852
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In compliance with the requirements of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Children's Bureau within 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 Administration for Children and 
Families, Office of Administration, Office of Information, Service, 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.
    OMB is required to make a decision concerning the collection of 
information between 30 and 60 days after publication of this document 
in the Federal Register. Therefore, a comment is best assured of having 
its full effect if OMB receives it within 30 days of publication. 
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent directly to the following: Office of 
Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project, Email: 
[email protected], Attn: Desk Officer for the Administration 
of Children and Families.

    Dated: November 27, 2013.
Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2013-28861 Filed 12-2-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-P