[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 230 (Monday, November 30, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 76580-76581]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-26266]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request; 
Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Performance Measures and 
Additional Data Collection (New Collection)

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

ACTION: Request for public comment.

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SUMMARY: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of 
Family Assistance (OFA), has had administrative responsibility for 
federal funding of programs that strengthen families through healthy 
marriage and relationship education and responsible fatherhood 
programming since 2006 through the Healthy Marriage (HM) and 
Responsible Fatherhood (RF) Grant Programs. ACF required the 2015 
cohort of HMRF grantees--which received 5-year grants in September 
2015--to collect and report performance measures about program 
operations, services, and clients served (OMB #0970-0460). A 
performance measures data collection system called nFORM (Information, 
Family Outcomes, Reporting, and Management) was implemented with the 
2015 cohort to improve the efficiency of data collection and reporting 
and the quality of data. This system allows for streamlined and 
standardized submission of grantee performance data through regular 
progress reports and supports grantee-led and federal research 
projects. ACF will continue performance measure and other data 
collection activities for the HMRF grant program with a new cohort of 
grantees who received 5-year awards in September 2020. ACF is 
requesting comment on a new data collection to support these activities 
with the 2020 HMRF grantee cohort. ACF has made changes to the previous 
cohort's data collection instruments and performance reports for use in 
the new cohort. This new grantee cohort is expected to begin collecting 
performance measure data and reporting to ACF in April 2021.

DATES: Comments due within 60 days of publication. In compliance with 
the requirements of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995, ACF is soliciting public comment on the specific aspects 
of the information collection described above.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the proposed collection of information can be 
obtained and comments may be forwarded 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: ACF proposes to collect a set 
of performance measures from all HMRF grantees. These measures collect 
standardized information in the following areas:
     Applicant characteristics;
     Program operations;
     Service delivery; and
     Participant outcomes:
    [cir] Entrance survey, with five versions: (1) HM Program Entrance 
Survey for Adult-Focused Programs, (2) HM Program Entrance Survey for 
Youth-Focused Programs, (3) RF Program Entrance Survey for Community-
Based Fathers, (4) RF Program Entrance Survey for Community-Based 
Mothers, and (5) RF Program Entrance Survey for Reentering Fathers.
    [cir] Exit survey, with five versions: (1) HM Program Exit Survey 
for Adult-Focused Programs, (2) HM Program Exit Survey for Youth-
Focused Programs, (3) RF Program Exit Survey for Community-Based 
Fathers, (4) RF Program Exit Survey for Community-Based Mothers, and 
(5) RF Program Exit Survey for Reentering Fathers.
    The measures used by the 2015 grantee cohort were developed in 2014 
after extensive review of the research literature and grantees' past 
measures. The performance measures, data collection instruments, and 
data collection system were revised in 2020 based on a targeted 
analysis of existing measures, feedback from key stakeholders, and 
discussions with ACF staff and the 2015 cohort of grantees.
    ACF required the 2015 cohort of grantees to submit data on these 
standardized measures on a quarterly basis and proposes the same 
requirement for the 2020 cohort. In addition to the performance 
measures mentioned above, ACF proposes to repeat collection for these 
data submissions:
     Semi-annual Performance Progress Report (PPR), with two 
versions: (1) Performance Progress Report for HM

[[Page 76581]]

Programs, and (2) Performance Progress Report for RF Programs; and
     Quarterly Performance Report (QPR), with two versions: (1) 
Quarterly Performance Progress Report for HM Programs, and (2) 
Quarterly Performance Progress Report for RF Programs.
    Grantees in the new cohort will also be required to engage in 
continuous quality improvement (CQI) planning and implementation using 
a proposed CQI plan template developed by ACF. The estimated burden for 
completing and updating this template is included in the table below.
    Respondents: Respondents include HM and RF grantee staff and 
program applicants and participants (participants are called 
``clients'').

                                                                 Annual Burden Estimates
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                                                                                                       Number of
                                                                             Number of                 responses
                                                                            respondents     Annual        per        Average       Total        Annual
                 Instrument                            Respondent              (total     number of    respondent   burden per   burden (in   burden (in
                                                                                over     respondents  (total over    response      hours)       hours)
                                                                              request                    request    (in hours)
                                                                              period)                   period)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: Applicant Characteristics...............  Program applicants...........      273,839       91,280            1         0.25       68,460       22,820
                                             Program staff................          408          408          224         0.10       27,384        9,128
2: Program Operations......................  Program staff................          136          136           12         0.32       526.32       175.44
3: Service Delivery Data...................  Program staff................        2,040        2,040          126         0.50      128,706       42,902
4: Entrance and Exit Surveys...............  Program clients (entrance)...      257,409       85,803            1         0.42   108,111.78    36,037.26
                                             Program clients (exit).......      169,965       56,655            1         0.42       71,385       23,795
                                             Program staff (entrance and             32           32        1,169         0.10       11,220        3,740
                                              exit on paper).
5: Semi-annual Performance Progress Report   Program staff................          136          136            6            3        2,448          816
 (PPR).
6: Quarterly Performance Report (QPR)......  Program staff................          136          136            6            1          816          272
7: CQI Plan................................  Program staff................          136          136            3            4        1,632          544
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 140,230.
    Comments: The Department specifically requests comments on (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; (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 submitted 
within 60 days of this publication.

    Authority: Sec. 403. [42 U.S.C. 603].

Mary B. Jones,
ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.
[FR Doc. 2020-26266 Filed 11-27-20; 8:45 am]
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