[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 105 (Monday, June 1, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33160-33162]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-11685]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Community Living


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB 
Review; Public Comment Request; University Centers of Excellence in 
Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service Annual 
Report [OMB# 0985-0030]

AGENCY: Administration for Community Living, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Administration for Community Living (ACL) is announcing 
that the proposed collection of information listed above has been 
submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and 
clearance as required under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This 
30-Day notice collects comments on the information collection 
requirements related to the Proposed Revision and solicits comments on 
the information collection requirements related to the University 
Centers of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) Education, 
Research and Service final 5-year report.

DATES: Submit written comments on the collection of information by July 
1, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Submit electronic comments on the collection of information 
by:
    (a) Email to: [email protected], Attn: OMB Desk Officer 
for ACL;
    (b) fax to 202.395.5806, Attn: OMB Desk Officer for ACL; or
    (c) by mail to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, 
OMB, New Executive Office Bldg., 725 17th St. NW, Rm. 10235, 
Washington, DC 20503, Attn: OMB Desk Officer for ACL.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Pamela O'Brien, Administration for 
Community Living, Washington, and DC 20201, (202)795-7417.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Developmental Disabilities Assistance 
and Bill of Rights Act of 2000 (DD Act of 2000) directs the Secretary 
of Health and Human Services to develop and implement a system of 
program accountability to monitor the grantees funded under the DD Act 
of 2000. The program accountability system shall include the National 
Network of University Centers for Excellence in Developmental 
Disabilities (UCEDD) Education, Research, and Service.
    The DD Act of 2000 states that the UCEDD Annual Report should 
contain information on progress made in achieving the projected goals 
of the Center for the previous year.
    Reporting on the extent to which the goals were achieved; a 
description of the strategies that contributed to achieving the goals; 
the extent to which the goals were not achieved, a description of 
factors that impeded the achievement;

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and an accounting of the manner in which funds paid to the Center under 
this subtitle for a fiscal year were expended. Information on proposed 
revisions to the goals and a description of successful efforts to 
leverage funds, other than funds made available under the DD Act of 
2000.
    In addition, the DD Act of 2000 states those grantees must also 
report on data collected regarding:
    (1) Consumer satisfaction with the advocacy;
    (2) capacity building;
    (3) systemic change activities initiated by the UCEDD;
    (4) the extent to which the UCEDD's advocacy, capacity building, 
and systemic change activities provided results through improvements; 
and
    (5) the extent to which collaboration was achieved in the areas of 
advocacy, capacity building, and systemic change.
    The UCEDD program is a discretionary grant program that supports 
states and territories in the operation and administration of a 
national network of UCEDDs. UCEDDS are interdisciplinary education, 
research, and public service units of universities, public or not-for-
profit entities associated with universities that engage in core 
functions. Currently, UCEDDs engage in four broad tasks: conducting 
interdisciplinary training, promoting community service programs 
including technical assistance, conducting research, and disseminating 
information to the field. They address areas of emphasis such as, 
quality assurance, education and early intervention, child care, 
health, employment, housing, transportation, recreation, and other 
services available or offered to individuals living in the community, 
including formal and informal community supports, that affect their 
quality of life.
    UCEDD accomplishments include:
     Directing exemplary interdisciplinary training programs 
where faculty and trainees represent a variety of disciplines which 
expand opportunities for students to learn different perspectives from 
professionals serving individuals with intellectual and developmental 
disabilities and their families;
     providing community services and technical assistance to 
individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, family 
members, professionals, paraprofessionals, systems, support service 
organizations, volunteers among others; and
     contributing to the development of new knowledge through 
research and information dissemination including field testing models 
of service delivery and evaluating existing innovative practices to 
disseminate to the field.

Comments in Response to the 60-Day Federal Register Notice

    A 60-day Federal Register Notice published on March 4, 2020 in 85 
FR 12787-12788, ACL received five public comments from the comment 
period. Following are the public comments and ACL's responses, and the 
updated proposed data collection tools may be found on the ACL website 
for review at: https://www.acl.gov/about-acl/public-input.

Public Comment #1

    (a) Based upon experiences where the estimated number of hours was 
very substantially less than the number of UCEDD hours invested in 
reporting, the estimated number of hours to adapt to and maintain the 
revised system seems quite low. For example, grantees' internal data 
collection methods will require substantial revision. All faculty, 
staff and trainees will need training in their new documentation 
responsibilities. Each year, training will be repeated for new faculty, 
staff, and trainees.
    (b) The information published in the Federal Register estimates 
that data collection will take 143 hours. This has not been the IOD's 
experience. The IOD estimates that over 1,000 hours are spent annually 
entering data and creating IOD reports for ACL and AIDD. Although the 
work required is significant, we appreciate. Despite these recent 
improvements, an assessment of the proposed changes to the reporting 
requirements of the PPR predicts a net increase in effort in order to 
be in compliance.
    (c) Our current estimated time burden for data collection, entry, 
cleaning and analysis as well as report writing annually is 1,200 hours 
for the PPR. This does not include writing the 5-year report. We 
estimate that it would take us an additional 40-60 hours to write the 
5-year report, increasing the total estimated time burden for 5-year 
reporting years to almost 1,300 hours.
    (d) Furthermore, reporting of the intermediate outcomes for 
Research, in particular, will be onerous for researchers who already 
have substantial reporting and publication requirements specified in 
their grants and contracts. This requirement seems redundant with the 
required reporting of publications.

ACL Response #1

    ACL has reviewed and accepts your recommendations. The estimated 
burden hours will be corrected in the 30-day FRN public call for 
comments. In response to the concern about reporting intermediate 
research outcomes, the 5-year report language will be amended to 
require a research impact statement replacing the case example 
requirement. ACL will use the impact statement for communication, 
collaboration, and other purposes.

Comment #2

    The following paragraph from Part (1.a.) Detailed Work Plan 
Progress Report (annual report) seems to refer to future activities 
(e.g., ``individuals who will work'') and therefore is very confusing 
as an aspect of a report on progress in a past year.

Response #2

    ACL reviewed and will delete the confusing paragraph in Part (1.a.) 
from the work plan progress report.

Comment #3

    (a) AUCD would need to overhaul NIRS to ask all required questions 
and to provide single-year and cumulative reports summarizing the data. 
They would need a way to track issues encountered by grantees as they 
try to input the data into NIRS, and develop FAQs to respond to the 
issues.
    (b) Additionally, as we begin to think about the IOD's 5-year 
report, significant cost and time savings could be realized if an 
intuitive and efficient structure for the 5-year report could be built 
into NIRS.
    (c) Recommend building the 5-year report into the NIRS system to 
ease reporting burden of our and other UCEDDs' having to create our own 
templates for reporting.
    (d) Currently, evaluation and demographic information of 
participants in all core functions must be manually entered into NIRS 
after completion. This is time consuming and leaves room for missing 
data and error data. Building electronic forms that would allow UCEDDs 
to collect their evaluation data directly in NIRS would be very helpful 
in reducing data error and time spend on data entry. Recommend 
development of customizable e-forms within NIRS by AUCD to support 
UCEDDs in collecting their evaluation within NIRS.

Response #3

    The UCEDD Resource Center at AUCD will meet this need.

Comment #4

    Overall, the proposed questions (especially those to be answered in 
narrative form) do help to highlight significant outcomes, and the 
extent to which each UCEDD has successfully

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performed its core functions, independent of project-specific outcomes.
    We do have some concerns regarding (1.b.1). Discuss CAC involvement 
in evaluating UCEDD activities, and in the development and review of 
the final program progress report.
    At every CAC meeting, we provide updates on the UCEDDs activities, 
where CAC members are encouraged to comment and make suggestions. An 
in-depth annual report is provided at our full-day in person CAC 
meeting every November. If that coincides with a five-year renewal 
application earlier that year, then a 5-year cumulative report is 
shared.
    Previously, there has been no requirement for CAC members to be 
directly involved in the development of this report. Essentially, this 
is a technical report, aggregating 5- years' worth of NIRS data with 
additional narrative and impact statements. As such, we feel it is both 
burdensome and somewhat irrelevant to involve the CAC in the 
development of a report that is submitted to AoD. Rather than ask about 
CAC involvement in the development, perhaps it would be more beneficial 
and direct to require that CAC members be surveyed about their 
experiences and satisfaction with the structure and function of their 
respective CACs over the preceding 5 years.

Response #4

    Regarding Part (1.b1): ACL reviewed and accepts your recommendation 
to delete the requirement for CAC involvement in the development of the 
final five-year report.

Comment # 5

    Recommend ensuring enough time is allocated between the year 5 
annual report due date and the due date of the overall 5-year report.

Response # 5

    The year 5 annual report is due July 30 and the 5-year closeout 
report is due 90 days after the end of the grant period or September 30 
for time allocation.

Estimated Program Burden

    ACL estimates the burden associated with this collection of 
information as follows:

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                                               Number of       Responses per       Hours per      Annual burden
    Respondent/data collection activity       respondents        respondent         response          hours
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UCEDD Annual Report.......................              67                  1            1,462           97,954
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    Dated: May 21, 2020.
Mary Lazare,
Principal Deputy Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2020-11685 Filed 5-29-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4154-01-P