[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 180 (Tuesday, September 17, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48934-48935]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-20115]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Submission for OMB Review; Assessing the Implementation and Cost 
of High Quality Early Care and Education: Field Test (0970-0499)

AGENCY: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration 
for Children and Families, HHS.

ACTION: Request for public comment.

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SUMMARY: This information request is part of the project, Assessing the 
Implementation and Cost of High Quality Early Care and Education (ECE-
ICHQ). The project's goal is to create a technically sound and feasible 
instrument that will provide consistent, systematic measures of the 
implementation and costs of education and care in center-based settings 
that serve children from birth to age 5. The resulting measures will 
inform research, policy, and practice by improving understanding of 
variations in what centers do to support quality, their associated 
costs, and how resources for ECE may be better aligned with 
expectations for quality.

DATES: Comments due within 30 days of publication. OMB is required to 
make a decision concerning the collection of information between 30 and 
60 days after publication of this document in the Federal Register. 
Therefore, a comment is best assured of having its full effect if OMB 
receives it within 30 days of publication.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent directly to the following: Office 
of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project, Email: 
[email protected], Attn: Desk Officer for the Administration 
for Children and Families.
    Copies of the proposed collection may be obtained by emailing 
[email protected]. Alternatively, copies can also be 
obtained 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. All 
requests, emailed or written, should be identified by the title of the 
information collection.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Description: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at 
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks approval 
to collect new information to use in testing measures of the 
implementation and costs of high quality early care and education. This 
information collection is part of the project, Assessing the 
Implementation and Cost of High Quality Early Care and Education (ECE-
ICHQ). The project's goal is to create a technically sound and feasible 
instrument that will provide consistent, systematic measures of the 
implementation and costs of education and care in center-based settings 
that serve children from birth to age 5. The resulting measures will 
inform research, policy, and practice by improving understanding of 
variations in what centers do to support quality, their associated 
costs, and how resources for ECE may be better aligned with 
expectations for quality.
    The goals of the study are (1) to test and refine a data collection 
approach to gather information about implementation activities and 
costs of key functions within ECE centers and (2) to develop new 
measures of implementation and costs for use together in understanding 
ways to support quality. The study has completed two phases of data 
collection to develop the data collection tools and measures. The study 
team collected data through on-site visits to 15 centers as part of an 
initial phase of data collection to pre-test information collections 
(data collected under clearance #0970-0355). A second phase (OMB #0970-
0499) relied on remote data collection through an electronic cost 
workbook, telephone interviews, and web-based surveys to gather 
information from 30 centers in three states to develop preliminary 
measures of implementation and cost and further reduced and refined the 
data collection tools.
    This proposed new information collection is focused on a field test 
of the measures to assess the psychometric properties of the 
implementation measures and to examine the associations between 
measures of implementation, cost, and quality. The field test will 
include a mix of remote and on-site data collection.
    Respondents: ECE site administrators or center directors, program 
directors, education specialists, financial managers or accountants, 
teachers, and aides.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
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                                                                     Number of        Average
                   Instrument                        Number of    responses  per   burden  hours   Total  burden
                                                    respondents      respondent    per  response       hours
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Center recruitment call (to gain participation;
 assumes outreach to 10 centers for every 1
 center needed):
    Center director.............................             800               1             .33             264
    Umbrella organization administrator.........              75               1             .33              25
Center engagement call (to gather basic                      100               1             .50              50
 characteristics and plan steps for
 participation; assumes 20% may withdraw after
 this step).....................................

[[Page 48935]]

 
Implementation interview protocol:
    Center director.............................              80               1               3             240
    Additional center staff.....................              20               1               3              60
Electronic cost workbook........................              80               1               8             640
Staff rosters for time use survey...............              80               1             .25              20
Time-use survey.................................           1,120               1             .25             280
Classroom rosters for observations..............              80               1             .50              40
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total Burden................................  ..............  ..............  ..............           1,619
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    Authority: Social Security Act Sec.  418 as extended by the 
Continuing Appropriations Act of 2017 and the TANF Extension Act of 
2019.

Mary B. Jones,
ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.
[FR Doc. 2019-20115 Filed 9-16-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4184-23-P