[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 27 (Thursday, February 8, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5631-5633]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-02494]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families

[OMB NO.: 0970-0460]


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request; 
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)--Extension

Description

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].

Extension of Current Approval

    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 
to extend performance measure and other data collection activities, in 
service to the HM and RF programs. This data collection is part of the 
Fatherhood and Marriage Local Evaluation and Cross-site (FaMLE Cross-
site) project, whose purpose is to support high quality data 
collection, strengthen local evaluations, and conduct cross-site 
analysis for the Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage grantees. 
ACF is requesting comment on the following data collection, which has 
been ongoing under OMB #0970-0460 since 2016. There are no changes 
proposed to the information collection, we are only requesting an 
extension to continue data collection with the current grantees through 
2020.
    Performance measures. ACF is proposing to extend collection of a 
set of performance measures that are collected by all grantees. These 
measures collect standardized information in the following areas:
     Applicant characteristics;
     Program operations (including program characteristics and 
service delivery); and
     Participant outcomes:
    [cir] Entrance survey, with four versions: (1) Healthy Marriage 
Program Pre-Program Survey for Adult-Focused Programs; (2) Healthy 
Marriage Program Pre-Program Survey for Youth-Focused Programs; (3) 
Responsible Fatherhood

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Program Pre-Program Survey for Community-Based-Fathers; and (4) 
Responsible Fatherhood Program Pre-Program Survey for Incarcerated 
Fathers.
    [cir] Exit survey, with four versions: (1) Healthy Marriage Program 
Post-Program Survey for Adult-Focused Programs; (2) Healthy Marriage 
Program Post-Program Survey for Youth-Focused Programs; (3) Responsible 
Fatherhood Program Post-Program Survey for Community-Based-Fathers; and 
(4) Responsible Fatherhood Program Post-Program Survey for Incarcerated 
Fathers.
    These measures were developed per extensive review of the research 
literature and grantees' past measures.
    Grantees are required to submit data on these standardized measures 
on a regular basis (e.g., quarterly). In addition to the performance 
measures mention above, ACF proposes to extend collection for these 
data submissions:
     Semi-annual Performance Progress Report (PPR), with two 
versions: (1) Performance Progress Report for Healthy Marriage 
Programs, and (2) Performance Progress Report for Responsible 
Fatherhood Programs; and
     Quarterly Performance Report (QPR), with two versions: (1) 
Quarterly Performance Progress Report for Healthy Marriage Programs, 
and (2) Quarterly Performance Progress Report for Responsible 
Fatherhood Programs.
    A management information system has been implemented which improves 
efficiency and the quality of data, and makes reporting easier.
    Additional data collection. We also seek to extend the approval to 
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), per the following protocols:
     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).
    Respondents: Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage Program 
grantees (e.g., grantee staff) and program applicants and 
participants--participants are called ``clients.''

                                                                 Annual Burden Estimates
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                             Number of    Average burden
                Instrument                           Respondent            Total number    Annual number   responses per     hours per     Annual burden
                                                                          of respondents  of respondents    respondent       response          hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                              Data Collection by Grantees (DCS, or Data Collected by Sites)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Instrument DCS-1: Applicant                 Program applicants..........         265,838          87,504               1            0.25          21,876
 characteristics.                           Program staff...............             360             360             243            0.10           8,750
Instrument DCS-2: Grantee program           Program staff...............             120             120               1            0.75              90
 operations.
Instrument DCS-3: Service receipt in MIS..  Program staff...............           1,540           1,540             156            0.50          39,916
Instrument DCS-4: Entrance and Exit         Program clients (Entrance            239,493          79,831               1            0.42          33,529
 Surveys.                                    Survey; 4 versions).
                                            Program clients (Exit                132,087          44,029               1            0.42          18,492
                                             Survey; 4 versions).
                                            Program staff (Entrance and               60              20           1,285            0.30           7,712
                                             Exit surveys on paper).
Instrument DCS-5: Semi-annual report......  Program staff (2 versions)..             120             120               2               3             720
Instrument DCS-6: Quarterly performance     Program staff (2 versions)..             120             120               2               1             240
 report.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   Data Collection by the Contractor (DCI, or Data collected by the Contractor Itself)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Instrument DCI-1: Topic guide on program    Program staff...............              60              20               1               1              20
 design.
Instrument DCI-2: Topic guide on program    Program staff...............             300             100               1               1             100
 implementation.
Instrument DCI-3: Focus group protocol....  Program clients.............             801             267               1            1.50             401
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 131,846.
    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, 330 C Street SW, Washington, DC 
20201, Attn: OPRE 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

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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.

Mary Jones,
ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018-02494 Filed 2-7-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4184-35-P