[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 28 (Tuesday, February 11, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7762-7763]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-02628]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families

[OMB #0970-0505]


Submission for OMB Review; Procedural Justice-Informed 
Alternatives to Contempt Demonstration Project Data Collection

AGENCY: Office of Child Support Enforcement; Administration for 
Children and Families; HHS.

ACTION: Request for public comment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), Administration 
for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human 
Services (HHS), is proposing to collect data as part of the rigorous 
evaluation of the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt 
(PJAC) demonstration.

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 Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) within 
the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is proposing a data 
collection activity as part of the Procedural Justice-Informed 
Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) Demonstration. In September 2016, OCSE 
issued grants to five state child support agencies to provide 
alternative approaches to the contempt process with the goal of 
increasing noncustodial parents' compliance with child support orders 
by building trust and confidence in the child support agency and its 
processes. OCSE also awarded a grant to support a rigorous evaluation 
of PJAC. The PJAC Demonstration is a five-year project that allows 
grantees and OCSE to learn whether incorporating principles of 
procedural justice into child support business practices increases 
reliable child support payments, reduces arrears, minimizes the need 
for continued enforcement actions and sanctions, and reduces the use of 
contempt proceedings.
    The PJAC demonstration will yield information about the efficacy of 
applying procedural justice principles via a set of alternative 
services to the current use of a civil contempt process to address 
nonpayment of child support. It will generate knowledge regarding how 
the PJAC intervention operates, the effects the alternative services 
have, and whether the benefits of this approach exceed the costs. The 
information gathered will help inform future policy decisions related 
to the contempt process within the field of child support enforcement.
    PJAC demonstration will include three interconnected evaluation 
components:
    1. Implementation Study. The implementation study will provide a 
detailed description of the PJAC intervention--how it is implemented, 
whether it was implemented as intended, participant characteristics, 
the contexts in which it is operated, how treatment differed from the 
status quo, and the implications of PJAC practices. The study will 
identify the intervention features and conditions necessary for 
effective replication or improvement of the intervention. Key elements 
of the implementation study include: A Management Information System 
(MIS) for random assignment and data collection on participant 
engagement in PJAC activities; semi-structured interviews with staff 
from child support agencies and selected partner organizations; 
separate semi-structured interviews with study participants and the 
custodial parents connected to their child support case to learn about 
their experiences with and perceptions of the child support program; 
and a staff questionnaire to gather quantitative information on the 
implementation of PJAC services and staff experiences.
    2. Impact Study. The impact study will provide rigorous estimates 
of the effectiveness of the PJAC intervention using an experimental 
research design. Noncustodial parents whose cases are being referred to 
the contempt process will be randomly assigned to either a program 
group that is offered PJAC services or to a control group that is 
offered business-as-usual services. Random assignment will require 
child support program staff to complete a brief data entry protocol. 
The impact study will rely on administrative data from state and county 
child support programs, court records, criminal justice records, and 
data from the National Directory of New Hires. Administrative records 
data will be used to estimate impacts on child support payments, 
enforcement actions, contempt proceedings, and jail stays.
    3. Benefit-Cost Study. The benefit-cost study will estimate the 
costs and benefits associated with the implementation and impact of the 
PJAC interventions. The study will examine the costs and benefits from 
the perspective of the government, noncustodial parents, custodial 
parents, and society. Pertinent benefits and costs will be added 
together to determine the net value of the program for each 
perspective. Key outcomes to be assessed include the cost of PJAC 
interventions, costs for contempt actions, child support payments from 
noncustodial parents (program and control), court costs, and jail time, 
among others. The benefit-cost study

[[Page 7763]]

will rely on the results of the impact study, analysis of participation 
data from the MIS, and results of a staff time study to quantify 
various PJAC-related costs and benefits.
    This notice is specific to the following data collection 
activities: the noncustodial parent participant interviews (these 
interview topic guides were approved under a previous submission and 
require content modification which also significantly lowers the 
collective public burden hours); the staff survey; the staff time 
study; and the custodial parent interviews. Data collection activities 
that were previously approved by OMB, following public comment, are the 
staff data entry on participant baseline information, study MIS to 
track receipt of services, staff and community partner interview topic 
guide, the participant interview topic guide, and the participant 
survey tracking letter. A participant survey has been eliminated from 
the data collection plans so the OMB-approved participant survey 
tracking letter will no longer be used.
    Respondents: Respondents include study participants, child support 
program staff at the six PJAC demonstration sites, custodial parents 
associated with study participants, and the federal Office of Child 
Support Enforcement.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                   Total number   Average burden
                   Instrument                      Total number    of responses      hours per     Total burden
                                                  of respondents  per respondent     response          hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noncustodial parent participant interview.......              60               1               1              60
Staff survey....................................              20               1              .5              10
Staff time study................................              30               1             1.5              45
Custodial parent interview......................              60               1               1              60
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 175.

    Authority: 42 U.S.C. 1315.

Mary B. Jones,
ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.
[FR Doc. 2020-02628 Filed 2-10-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-41-P