[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 74 (Tuesday, April 20, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20498-20499]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-08025]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Data Collection for the 
Engaging Fathers and Paternal Relatives: A Continuous Quality 
Improvement Approach in the Child Welfare System Project (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 Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within 
the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is proposing to 
conduct data collection activities for the Engaging Fathers and 
Paternal Relatives: A Continuous Quality Improvement Approach in the 
Child Welfare System (Fathers and Continuous Learning in Child Welfare 
[FCL]) Project. This evaluation is a descriptive study of child welfare 
agencies' use of a continuous quality improvement process called the 
Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) to implement strategies to 
improve father and paternal relative engagement in the child welfare 
system. The project is designed to examine the use of the BSC 
methodology to strengthen fathers' and paternal relatives' engagement 
with children involved in child welfare and to add to the evidence base 
on engagement strategies for fathers and paternal relatives in child 
welfare.

DATES: Comments due within 60 days of publication. In compliance with 
the requirements 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

[[Page 20499]]

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 FCL evaluation has three equally important aims. 
The first is to describe promising strategies for engaging fathers and 
paternal relatives in the child welfare system. The second is to assess 
the promise of the BSC as a continuous quality improvement framework 
for addressing challenges in the child welfare system, including 
whether and to what extent the BSC has potential, and if so, how it may 
be applied to other child welfare challenges. The third is to assess 
the extent to which agencies experienced a shift in organizational 
culture in terms of the importance of father engagement.
    The descriptive evaluation will build on the findings of the pilot 
study conducted under the umbrella generic: Formative Data Collections 
for ACF Program Support (OMB #0970-0531). (Site selection for the pilot 
study was conducted under the umbrella generic: Formative Data 
Collections for ACF Research (OMB #0970-0356.) It will focus on 
organizational changes and network supports for father and paternal 
relative engagement, changes in staff attitudes and skills for engaging 
fathers and paternal relatives, and father and paternal relative 
engagement outcomes. This evaluation will explore the implementation of 
father and paternal relative engagement strategies by examining process 
outcomes. By examining process outcomes, the evaluation is designed to 
indicate whether strategies developed in the BSC are likely to lead to 
placement stability and permanency outcomes.
    Data collection will take place with stakeholders in as many as 
five child welfare agencies implementing the BSC. Data collection 
activities include discussions with participating agency staff and key 
partners during site visits, focus groups with fathers and paternal 
relatives with relatively recent experience with the focal child 
welfare agencies, and web surveys of participating agency staff.
    Respondents: Child welfare agency leaders, child welfare agency 
program staff and key partner staff involved in implementing the 
engagement strategies, and father and paternal relative clients of the 
agencies. Program staff may include senior leaders, managers, and 
frontline staff.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
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                                                    Number of
                                   Number of      responses per     Avg. burden
          Instrument              respondents       respondent     per response    Total burden    Annual burden
                                  (total over      (total over      (in hours)      (in hours)      (in hours)
                                request period)  request period)
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Interview topic guide.........              180                1             1.5             270              90
Father and paternal relative                 72                1             1.5             108              36
 focus group protocol.........
Staff survey..................               90                2            0.33              59              20
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    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 146.
    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] and Sec. 426. [42 U.S.C. 
626].

Mary B. Jones,
ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.
[FR Doc. 2021-08025 Filed 4-19-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-73-P