[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 231 (Tuesday, December 1, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 77218-77219]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-26514]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Community Living


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
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 
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 survey previously ran a 60-day FRN in 83 FR 66276 on 12/
26/2018. As required under the PRA we are providing the public an 
opportunity to comment on any changes or updates applied to this IC 
since the 2018 publication. We are requesting an abbreviated public 
comment period for additional 30-days prior to publication of a 30-day 
FRN and submittal to OMB.
    Any changes to the survey from the initial 60-day FRN publication 
are incorporated into the revised version of the survey. This notice 
solicits comments on any revisions since the initial publication in 
2018. This is a new information collection 0985-New Inventory of Adult 
Protective Services Practices and Service Innovations.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information must be submitted 
electronically by 11:59 p.m. (EST) or postmarked by December 31, 2020.

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

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephanie Whittier Eliason, 
Administration for Community Living, Washington, DC 20201, Phone: (202) 
795-7467, Email: [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 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.
    With respect to the following collection of information, ACL 
invites comments on our burden estimates or any other aspect of this 
collection of information, including:
    (1) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for 
the proper performance of ACL's functions, including whether the 
information will have practical utility;
    (2) the accuracy of ACL's estimate of the burden of the proposed 
collection of information, including the validity of the methodology 
and assumptions used to determine burden estimates;
    (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
    (4) 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.

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) in early 2021. 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-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 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.

[[Page 77219]]

    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 to its members, which are not APS programs, in January 2018 
intended to update findings from the NAPSA 2012 survey. Since the 
survey replicates the original NAPSA survey, the questions in it are 
not focused on APS practice and are not directed at the same 
respondents as the proposed survey. 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 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.
    To review and comment on the proposed data collection, please visit 
the ACL public input site at https://www.acl.gov/about-acl/public-input.

Estimated Program Burden

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

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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             3.50              196
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    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 196.

    Dated: November 25, 2020.
Lance Robertson,
Administrator and Assistant Secretary for Aging.
[FR Doc. 2020-26514 Filed 11-30-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4154-01-P