[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 215 (Thursday, November 6, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65973-65974]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-26320]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request

    Title: Proposed Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood 
performance measures and additional data collection (part of the 
Fatherhood and Marriage Local Evaluation and Cross-site (FaMLE Cross-
site) Project).
    OMB No.: New Collection.

Background

    For decades various organizations and agencies have been developing 
and operating programs to strengthen families through healthy marriage 
and relationship education and responsible fatherhood programming. The 
Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family 
Assistance (OFA), has had administrative responsibility for federal 
funding of such programs since 2006 through the Healthy Marriage (HM) 
and Responsible Fatherhood (RF) Grant Programs. The authorizing 
legislation for the programs may be found in Section 403(a)(2) of the 
Social Security Act [1]. Responsible Fatherhood grantees provide a 
comprehensive set of services designed to promote responsible 
fatherhood including activities related to promoting economic 
stability, fostering responsible parenting, and promoting healthy 
marriage. Grantees receiving funding for Healthy Marriage offer a broad 
array of services designed to promote healthy marriage.
    The federal government currently collects a set of performance 
measures from HM and RF grantees. The purpose of this previously 
approved information collection is to allow OFA and ACF to carry out 
their responsibilities for program accountability. Descriptions of the 
information collection may be found at http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewDocument?ref_nbr=201206-0970-005; all measures may be found 
at http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAICList?ref_nbr=201206-0970-005.

The Fatherhood and Marriage Local Evaluation (FaMLE) Cross-Site Project

    The Offices of Family Assistance (OFA) and Planning, Research and 
Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families 
(ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are proposing 
new data collection activities to replace existing performance measures 
as part of the Fatherhood and Marriage Local Evaluation and Cross-site 
(FaMLE Cross-site) Project. The purpose of the FaMLE Cross-site Project 
is to support high quality data collection, strengthen local 
evaluations, and conduct cross-site analysis for the Responsible 
Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage grantees.
    The FaMLE Cross-site project will answer three main research 
questions: (1) What strategies did grantees use to design well-
conceived programs? (2) What strategies did grantees use to 
successfully implement well-conceived programs? (3) What were the 
reported outcomes for participants in the programs? In order to answer 
these questions, we are considering a new set of data collection 
activities.

Current Request

    ACF is engaged in a learning agenda to increase our understanding 
of Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood programs. This means 
that we incorporate multiple opportunities and options for learning 
throughout a program's implementation that provide a range of insights 
and perspectives. These opportunities help programming constantly 
develop and advance. For example, data provide the opportunity to feed 
information back to decision-makers and leaders--both those on the 
ground and those in management--to inform program design, operation, 
and oversight.
    ACF is requesting comment on the following:
    Performance measures. ACF is proposing a new set of performance 
measures to be collected by all grantees, beginning with the next round 
of HMRF grants. These measures will collect standardized information in 
the following areas:
     Applicant characteristics;
     Program operations (including program characteristics and 
service delivery); and
     Participant outcomes (will be measured both at initiation 
of program services (pre-test) and completion (post-test)).
    These draft measures were developed per extensive review of the 
research literature and grantees' past measures.
    The next set of grantees will be required to submit data on a set 
of standardized measures covering these areas on a regular basis (e.g., 
quarterly). In addition to the performance measures mention above, ACF 
seeks comment on draft instruments for these data submissions:
     Quarterly Performance Report (QPR), and
     Semi-annual Performance Progress Report (PPR).

[[Page 65974]]

    A new management information system is being developed which would 
improve efficiency and the quality of data, and make reporting easier.
    Standardized measures and reporting in these areas will enable ACF 
to track programming outputs and outcomes across programs, and will 
allow grantees to self-monitor progress.
    Additional data collection. As an additional component of the 
learning agenda, the FaMLE Cross-Site contractor will collect 
information from a sub-set of grantees on how they designed and 
implemented their programs (information on outcomes associated with 
programs will also be assessed). This sub-set of grantees will be 
required to participate in the additional data collection noted below. 
The following protocols have been developed:
     Staff interview protocol on program design (will be 
collected from about half of all grantees);
     Staff interview protocols on program implementation (will 
be collected from about 10 grantees); and
     Program participant focus group protocol (will be 
conducted with about 10 grantees).
    ACF also seeks comment on these draft protocols.

Respondents

    The respondents to the data collection instruments include 
Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage Program grantees (e.g., 
grantee staff) and program participants.

Annual Burden Estimates

    The table below is required by law for Federal Register notices 
like this one. The federal government's Office of Management and Budget 
requires federal agencies, including ACF, to estimate how many hours it 
will take respondents to complete data collection, and to publish these 
estimates in the Federal Register. The following table provides our 
estimates.

                                                                 Annual Burden Estimates
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                             Number of        Average
                            Instrument                               Total number of    Annual number of   responses per   burden hours    Annual burden
                                                                       respondents        respondents       respondent     per response        hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Applicant characteristics (applicant burden)......................            157,500             52,500               1            0.25          13,125
Applicant characteristics (staff burden)..........................               1080                360             146            0.25          13,140
Program operations (related to program characteristics)...........                360                120               1            0.75              90
Program operations (related to service delivery)..................                432                144             257            0.50          18,504
Participant outcomes (pre-test)...................................            110,700             36,900               1            0.42          15,498
Participant outcomes (post-test)..................................             84,600             28,200               1            0.42          11,844
Data entry (for grantees that do not use new management                           144                 48             274            0.21           2,762
 information system, includes applicant characteristics and
 participant outcomes)............................................
Quarterly Performance Form (QPR)..................................                 72                 24               1               1              24
Semi-annual Performance Progress Report (PPR).....................                360                120               2             3.2             768
Staff interview protocol on program design........................                 60                 20               1               1              20
Staff interview protocol on program implementation................                300                100               1               1             100
Program participant focus group protocol..........................                200                 67               1            1.50             101
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 75,976.

    Note:  The annual number of hours shown for ``applicant 
characteristics (staff burden)'' (13,140) is slightly higher than 
the annual number of hours shown for ``applicant characteristics 
(applicant burden)'' (13,125) due to rounding up the average number 
of responses per staff to the nearest whole number (146).

How To Obtain Copies of the Data Collection Instruments

    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 
Planning, Research and Evaluation, 370 L'Enfant Promenade SW., 
Washington, DC 20447, Attn: OPRE Reports Clearance Officer. Email 
address: [email protected]. All requests should be 
identified by the title of the information collection.

Specific Areas for Comment

    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.

Reference

    [1] http://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title04/0403.htm.

Karl Koerper,
OPRE Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2014-26320 Filed 11-5-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-73-P