[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 246 (Wednesday, December 26, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66276-66277]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-27902]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Community Living


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Public Comment Request; Inventory of Adult Protective Services 
Practices and Service Innovations

AGENCY: Administration for Community Living, HHS.

ACTION: Notice

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SUMMARY: The Administration for Community Living (ACL) is announcing an 
opportunity for the public to comment on the proposed collection of 
certain information listed above. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995 (the PRA), Federal agencies are required to publish a notice in 
the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of 
information, including each proposed extension of an existing 
collection of information, and to allow 60 days for public comment in 
response to the notice. This notice solicits comments on the 
information collection requirements relating to a new data collection 
(ICR New) effort titled ``Inventory of Adult Protective Services 
Practices and Service Innovations.''

DATES: Submit electronic comments on the collection of information by 
11:59 p.m. (EST) or written comments postmarked by February 25, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Submit electronic comments on the collection of information 
to Stephanie Whittier Eliason at [email protected]. 
Submit written comments on the collection of information to: 
Administration for Community Living, Attention: Stephanie Whittier 
Eliason, 330 C St., SW, Washington, DC 20201.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephanie Whittier Eliason at 202-795-
7467 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal 
agencies must obtain approval from the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) for each collection of information they conduct or sponsor. 
``Collection of information'' is defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(3) and 5 CFR 
1320.3(c) and includes agency requests or requirements that members of 
the public submit reports, keep records, or provide information to a 
third party. Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)) 
requires Federal agencies to provide a 60- day notice in the Federal 
Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including 
each proposed extension of an existing collection of information, 
before submitting the collection to OMB for approval. To comply with 
this requirement, ACL is publishing a notice of the proposed collection 
of information set forth in this document.

Authority:

    The Elder Justice Act of 2009 requires the Secretary of the U.S. 
Department of Health and Human Services to carry out a number of 
activities related to adult protective services (APS) (42 U.S.C. 1397m-
1), including developing and disseminating information on APS best 
practices and conducting research related to the provision of APS. 
Furthermore, the Elder Justice Coordinating Council included as its 
third recommendation for increasing federal involvement in addressing 
elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation: ``develop a national APS system 
based upon standardized data collection and a core set of service 
provision standards and best practices.''

Background

    The Administration for Community Living (ACL) in the U.S. 
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to initiate an 
Inventory of Adult Protective Services Practices and Service 
Innovations (APS Practice Survey) during January and February of 2019. 
Under a contract with ACL, the National Adult Protective Services 
Technical Assistance Resource Center (APS TARC) is conducting a 
national program evaluation of APS programs. As part of this 
evaluation, the APS Practice Survey will identify barriers to meeting 
policy mandates and practice innovations and model programs that 
address such barriers and community-

[[Page 66277]]

identified needs. It also seeks to identify practice variations in the 
way APS programs serve older adults and adults with disabilities.
    The results of the survey will serve to advance the field of APS 
and will be useful to many audiences. It will provide baseline 
information regarding the status of APS programs and services, and the 
resulting information will help states and territories compare their 
program characteristics with those of other states and territories. The 
survey will provide a context for other researchers examining APS 
programs. It will inform ACL's efforts to support the improvement of 
APS programs through activities such as innovation grants. Finally, it 
will inform the APS TARC team's efforts to develop resources to enhance 
APS programs around the country.
    This survey has been developed to gather information on APS 
practices that is not available from other sources. As part of the 
National Adult Maltreatment Reporting System (NAMRS), ACL collects 
descriptive data on state and territory agency policies through the 
Agency Component of that data collection. Therefore, the proposed 
survey will not collect any background policy or data items. As part of 
the APS Program Evaluation, the APS TARC also conducted a detailed 
examination of state APS policies through development of individual 
state policy profiles. The profiles were based exclusively on extant 
information sources obtained without additional data requests from the 
states. Information on practices gathered in this survey will 
complement, but will not duplicate, these policy profiles.
    Finally, the National Adult Protective Services Association (NAPSA) 
conducted a survey of State APS programs in 2012, and the National 
Association of State Units on Aging and Disability (NASUAD) fielded a 
survey in January 2018 intended to update findings from the NAPSA 2012 
survey. NASUAD indicated that they intend to share the results with 
their members once the survey results are compiled, and indicated that 
they would share the results with the APS TARC. Since the survey 
replicates the original NAPSA survey, the questions in it are not 
focused on APS practice. As noted, a few topics in the original survey 
overlap with the proposed instrument, but the wording and focus of the 
few questions on similar topics are different. From this analysis, we 
conclude the proposed APS Practice Survey will yield vital information 
on APS practice not available from other sources.

Proposed Collection Efforts

    The APS Practice Survey will collect state- and territory-specific 
practices for all aspects of APS casework practice, including staffing, 
intake, investigation, service planning and delivery, and quality 
assurance. Across these areas, the survey will collect information on 
practices such as community partnerships and use of assessment tools.
    The APS Practice Survey will be administered online using 
SurveyMonkey or a similar commercial survey programming tool. The 
online survey will include data validation routines to minimize errors 
or unintentional omissions and will include appropriate skip patterns 
to reduce burden. Respondents will be state and territory APS agencies, 
including APS agencies in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, 
Northern Marianas Islands, Virgin Islands, and American Samoa. No 
personally identifiable information will be collected.
    A pilot version of The APS Practice Survey was tested in nine (9) 
diverse states between July and September 2017. Following their pretest 
of the survey instrument, pilot respondents participated in focus 
groups in which they provided recommendations on data collection 
procedures, views on the availability of data being requested, and 
estimates of the burden to each state and territory for completion of 
the survey. It is assumed that nearly every state and territory will 
participate in the information collection and that time to develop a 
response will be similar to the experience of states during the pilot 
test. ACL has calculated the following burden estimates based on the 
results of the survey pilot test.
    The proposed collection of information tool may be found at https://www.acl.gov/node/790 under ``APS Evaluation.''

Estimated Program Burden

    ACL estimates the annual burden associated with this collection of 
information as follows: 56 entities will complete the information 
requested one time per respondent, and it will take an average of 3.5 
hours per respondent to complete the survey. This results in a total 
estimate of 196 burden hours.

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                                                                  Number of     Average  burden
                 Instrument                      Number of      responses per      hours per       Total burden
                                                respondents       respondent        response          hours
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APS Practice Survey.........................              56                1              3.5              196
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    With respect to the collection of information, ACL specifically 
requests comments on our burden estimates or any other aspect of this 
collection of information, including:
    (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, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used to determine burden estimates;
    (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, when appropriate, and other forms of information 
technology.
    Consideration will be given to comments and suggestions submitted 
within 60 days of this publication.
    The proposed data collection tools may be found at https://acl.gov/about-acl/public-input.

    Dated: December 17, 2018.
Mary Lazare,
Principal Deputy Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2018-27902 Filed 12-21-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4154-01-P