[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 77 (Thursday, April 21, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23501-23503]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-09215]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request

    In compliance with Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 concerning opportunity for public comment on proposed 
collections of information, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health 
Services Administration (SAMHSA) will publish periodic summaries of 
proposed projects. To request more information on the proposed projects 
or to obtain a copy of the information collection plans, call the 
SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer on (240) 276-1243.
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collections of 
information are 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) ways to enhance 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.

Proposed Project: Now Is the Time (NITT)--Project AWARE (Advancing 
Wellness and Resilience in Education) Evaluation--New

    SAMHSA is conducting a national evaluation of the Now is the Time 
(NITT) initiative, which includes separate programs--NITT Project AWARE 
(Advancing Wellness and Resilience in Education)--State Educational 
Agency (SEA), Healthy Transitions (HT), and two Minority Fellowship 
Programs (Youth and Addiction Counselors). These programs are united by 
their focus on capacity building, system change, and workforce 
development.
    NITT--Project AWARE, which is the focus of this data collection, 
represents a response to the third and fourth components of President 
Obama's NITT Initiative: Making schools safer and focusing on access to 
mental health services. The goal of NITT--Project AWARE is to develop a 
comprehensive, coordinated, and integrated program for advancing 
wellness and resilience in educational settings for school-aged youth.
    SAMHSA awarded NITT--Project AWARE grants to 20 SEAs. Each SEA 
proposed partnerships between at least three high-need Local 
Educational Agencies (LEAs) to develop a coordinated and integrated 
plan of services and strategies to address the Project NITT--Project 
AWARE-SEA goals and objectives. Project AWARE grantees will plan and 
implement activities designed to increase the capacity of SEAs in three 
areas: (1) Increase mental health awareness among school-aged (K-12) 
youth; (2) train those who work with school-aged children to identify 
and respond to mental health issues in children and young adults; and 
(3) connect children, youth, and families with mental health services. 
The intention is to encourage cross-system collaboration and use 
evidence-based strategies to address mental health needs.
    The Project AWARE evaluation will examine the process and outcomes 
of activities by SEA grantees and their LEA and school partners. It 
will evaluate the capacity of SEAs to effectively involve family and 
youth, provide a culturally and linguistically competent and family-
centered mental health service array, and implement a process for 
identifying need and delivering services that is informed by data and 
coordinated across child-serving agencies. Evaluation questions have 
been developed to understand grantee context, planning, implementation, 
outputs, and outcomes across each of the NITT priority areas. Data 
collection efforts that will support the evaluation are described 
below.
    AWARE Planning and Implementation Activities Inventory (AWARE 
Activities Inventory), to capture information about all activities 
supported by Project AWARE resources during the grant period. The 
inventory will be reviewed and updated on an annual basis at the SEA 
level with the grant project director, at the LEA level with the grant 
program coordinators,

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and at the school level with coordinators in each participating school. 
The questionnaires will guide review and input of additional 
information as needed for all activities captured in the AWARE 
Activities Inventory and conducted under Project AWARE. Each 
questionnaire will be conducted annually to review and update the AWARE 
Activities Inventory with 20 SEA-level respondents, 62 LEA-level 
respondents, and 432 school-level respondents.
    SEA Collaborative Partner Survey (SEA-CPS), to collect information 
about collaborative processes and partnerships at the state level to 
examine the networks involved in successful information sharing and 
collaborations across child-serving agencies and the families and youth 
they serve. SAMHSA estimates that there will be 24 collaborative 
partner respondents at each SEA grantee who will complete the annual 
SEA-CPS.
    Local Educational Agency Collaborative Partner Survey (LEA-CPS), to 
collect information about collaborative processes and partnerships at 
the local level to examine the networks involved in successful 
information sharing and collaborations across child-serving agencies 
and the families and youth they serve. The survey will be administered 
twice during the grant period, with 15 respondents in each of the 62 
LEAs.
    Collaborative Partner Interview Guide, to collect qualitative 
information about collaborative processes and partner roles. 
Approximately 160 core staff (8 SEA-level collaborative partners in 
each SEA grantee) are expected to participate in annual in-person and 
telephone interviews.
    School Information Systems Data Abstraction Protocol, to capture 
information from existing school information systems about student 
socio-demographics, school climate, and school safety. The data 
abstraction protocol will detail the procedure through which the 
national evaluation team will abstract data from each LEA or school 
information system. These data will be requested annually to cover 
school-level measures from the 2014-2015 through 2018-2019 school 
years. School-level information will be collected at the school level 
for all sample schools (N = 432), but the number of respondents is 
calculated based on whether the school information systems are 
consistent across SEAs and/or LEAs, or whether they vary from school to 
school. Based on preliminary discussions with the grantees, SAMHSA 
estimates that five SEA grantees will be able to provide data for all 
sample schools in the SEA (N = 5 SEA respondents), the data will be 
provided from LEAs in ten of the SEA grantees (N = 30 LEA respondents), 
and the remaining five SEA grantees will have school information 
systems and surveys that differ at the school level (N = 90 school 
respondents). Therefore 125 respondents will provide the secondary data 
that covers the 432 sample schools.
    Teacher Mental Health Literacy Survey, to assess the mental health 
literacy and associated knowledge and skills of teachers in selected 
schools participating in Project AWARE activities. This survey will be 
administered twice to a random sample of teachers in selected schools 
in partner LEAs, stratified by school type and size. An average sample 
size of approximately 24 teachers will be selected from each of the 432 
schools selected to participate in the school-level coordinator 
questionnaire data collection.
    Existing Teacher and Student Survey Data Abstraction Protocols, to 
compile information from existing surveys to examine school climate and 
safety. The data abstraction protocol will be customized for each SEA 
based on the specific data collected by each state. Data from existing 
teacher and student surveys in selected schools (N = 432) participating 
in the national evaluation will be provided to the national evaluation 
on an annual basis. The number of respondents is calculated based on 
whether the existing student and teacher surveys are consistent across 
SEAs and/or LEAs, or whether they vary from school to school. Based on 
preliminary discussions with the grantees, SAMHSA estimates that 125 
respondents will provide the secondary student and teacher survey data 
that covers the 432 sample schools.
    Student Focus Groups Protocol, to collect qualitative information 
about student perceptions of school climate; ability to identify signs 
of mental, behavioral, or emotional health issues; and student 
knowledge of school- and community-level service access. The evaluation 
team will conduct these focus groups during site visits conducted in 
2016 and 2019. The guided discussion protocol will focus on 
participants' general knowledge of available resources, programs to 
support AWARE activities, and overall perceptions of school climate and 
safety. The focus groups will be conducted with approximately 8-10 
students in each of four schools from one LEA associated with each SEA 
grantee, for a total of no more than 800 students participating in 
focus groups at each of the two site visits. Each focus group will last 
approximately one and a half hours.

                                             Annualized Burden Hours
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                                     Number of     Responses per   Total  number     Hours per     Total burden
           Instrument               respondents     respondent     of  responses     response          hours
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SEA leadership questionnaire....              20               1              20               1              20
LEA coordinator questionnaire...              62               1              62               1              62
School coordinator questionnaire             432               1             432               1             432
SEA-Collaborative Partner Survey             480               1             480             0.5             240
LEA-Collaborative Partner Survey             930               1             930             0.5             465
Collaborative partner interviews             160               1             160               1             160
Teacher mental health literacy            10,368               1          10,368             0.5           5,184
 survey.........................
Student focus groups............             800               1             800             1.5           1,200
School information systems data              125               1             125             1.5             188
 abstraction....................
Student survey data abstraction.             125               1             125             1.5             188
Teacher school climate and                   125               1             125             1.5             188
 school safety survey...........
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    TOTAL.......................      \a\ 13,377  ..............          13,627  ..............           8,327
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* This is an unduplicated count of total respondents.


[[Page 23503]]

    Send comments to Summer King, SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer, 
5600 Fishers Lane, Room 15E57-B, Rockville, Maryland 20857, OR email a 
copy to [email protected]. Written comments should be received 
by June 20, 2016.

Summer King,
Statistician.
[FR Doc. 2016-09215 Filed 4-20-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4162-20-P