[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 196 (Wednesday, October 10, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50936-50938]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-22020]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Children's Bureau; Proposed Information Collection Activity; 
Comment Request

AGENCY: Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of 
Health and Human Services.

    Title: RPG National Cross-Site Evaluation and Evaluation Technical 
Assistance.
    OMB No.: New Collection.
    Description: The Children's Bureau (CB) 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. 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. Under three prior rounds of RPG, the 
Children's Bureau has issued 74 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. In 2017, CB 
awarded grants to a fourth cohort of 17 grantees and in 2018 they plan 
to award 10 grants to a fifth cohort.
    The RPG cross-site evaluation will extend our understanding of what 
types of programs and services grantees provided to participants, how 
grantees leveraged their partnerships to coordinate services for 
children and families, and what the outcomes were for children and 
families enrolled in RPG programs. First, the cross-site evaluation 
will describe the characteristics of participants served by RPG 
programs, the types of services provided to families, the dosage of 
each

[[Page 50937]]

type of service received by families, and the level of participant 
engagement with the services provided. Second, the cross-site will 
assess the coordination of partners' service systems (e.g., shared 
participant data, joint staff training) to better understand how 
partners' collaborative effort affects the array of services offered to 
families. The cross-site evaluation will also focus more deeply on the 
partnership between the child welfare and substance use disorder (SUD) 
treatment agencies, to add to the research base about how these 
agencies can collaborate to address the needs of children and families 
affected by SUD. Finally, the evaluation will assess the outcomes of 
children and adults served through the RPG 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 subcontractor, WRMA 
Inc.
    The RPG Cross-Site Evaluation will include the following data 
collection activities:
    1. Site visits and key informant interviews. The cross-site 
evaluation team will visit up to 21 sites to better understand the 
partnership and coordination between the child welfare and SUD 
treatment agencies. The remaining six grantees will participate in 
telephone interviews to gather similar information about their design 
and implementation. The site visits and phone interviews will focus on 
the RPG planning process; how and why particular services were 
selected; the ability of the child welfare, substance use disorder 
treatment, and other service systems to collaborate and support quality 
implementation of the RPG services; challenges experienced; and the 
potential for sustaining the collaborations and services after RPG 
funding ends.
    2. Partner survey. To describe the interagency collaboration within 
RPG sites, grantees and their partners will participate in an online 
survey once during the grant period. One person from each organization 
knowledgeable about the RPG program will be invited to participate in 
the survey. The survey will collect information about communication and 
service coordination among partners. The survey will also collect 
information on characteristics of strong partnerships (e.g., data 
sharing agreements, colocation of staff, referral procedures, and 
cross-staff training).
    3. Semi-annual progress reports. The semi-annual progress reports 
will be used to obtain updated information from grantee project 
directors about their program operations and partnerships, including 
any changes from prior periods. The CB has tailored the semi-annual 
progress reports to collect information on grantees' programs and other 
services grantees implement, the target population for the RPG program, 
and grantees' perceived successes and challenges to implementation.
    4. Enrollment, client, and service data. To document participant 
characteristics and their enrollment in RPG services, all grantees will 
provide data on family characteristics, and enrollment of and services 
provided to RPG families. These data include demographic information on 
family members, dates of entry into and exit from RPG services, and 
information on RPG service dosage. These data will be submitted on an 
ongoing basis by staff at the grantee organizations into an information 
system developed by the cross-site evaluation team.
    5. Outcome and impact data. To measure participant outcomes, all 
grantees will collect self-administered standardized instruments from 
RPG adults. The standardized instruments used in RPG collect 
information on child well-being, adult and family functioning, and 
adult substance use. Grantees will share the responses on these self-
report instruments with the cross-site evaluation team. Grantees will 
also obtain administrative data on a common set of child welfare and 
substance use disorder treatment data elements.
    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 Federal Register Notice covers the following data 
collection activities: (1) The site visits with grantees; (2) the web-
based survey of grantee partners (3) the semi-annual progress reports; 
(4) enrollment and service data provided by grantees; and (6) outcome 
and impact 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 60-Day Federal Register Notice. Burden for 
all components is annualized over three years.

                              RPG Cross-Site Evaluation Annualized Burden Estimates
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                                                     Number of    Average burden
                                   Total number    responses per     hours per       Estimated     Total annual
    Data collection activity      of respondents    respondent     response (in    total burden    burden hours
                                                    (each year)       hours)           hours
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                                  Site Visit and Key Informant Data Collection
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Program director in-person                    21             .33               2              42              14
 interview......................
Program manager/supervisor in-                21             .33               1              21               7
 person interview...............
Partner representative                        63             .33               1              63              21
 interviews.....................
Frontline staff interview.......              42             .33               1              42              14
Program director/manager phone                12             .33               1             4.0              12
 interview......................

[[Page 50938]]

 
Partner survey..................             135             .33            0.42            56.3            18.8
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                                       Enrollment, client and service data
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Semi-annual progress reports....              27               2            16.5           2,673             891
Case enrollment data............              81              43            0.25         2,612.3           870.8
Case closure....................              81              43           0.017           174.2            58.1
Case closure--prenatal..........              81              33           0.017           133.7            44.6
Service log entries.............             162           2,288            0.03          37,065          12,355
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                                             Outcome and impact data
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Administrative Data:
    Obtain access to                          27               1            42.6         3,450.6          1150.2
     administrative data........
    Report administrative data..              27               2             144          23,328           7,776
Standardized instruments:
    Review and adopt reporting                27             .33               8             216              72
     templates..................
    Data entry for standardized               27             130            1.25        13,162.5         4,387.5
     instruments................
Review records and submit.......              27               2              25           4,050           1,350
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Data entry for comparison study               22             130            1.25          10,725           3,575
 sites (22 grantees)............
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    Estimated Total Burden Hours  ..............  ..............  ..............          97,827          32,609
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    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 Planning, Research and 
Evaluation, 330 C Street SW, Washington, DC 20201, 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 function 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 within 60 days 
of this publication.

Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018-22020 Filed 10-9-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4184-29-P