[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 72 (Thursday, April 14, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22169-22171]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-08011]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food and Nutrition Service


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request--Rapid Cycle Evaluation of Operational Improvements in 
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment & Training 
(E&T) Programs

AGENCY: Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), USDA.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this 
notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment 
on the proposed information collection. This is a new collection for 
the contract Rapid Cycle Evaluation of Operational Improvements in 
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment & Training 
Programs (SNAP E&T RCE). The purpose of SNAP E&T RCE is to test small-
scale interventions in SNAP E&T operations or service delivery using 
rapid cycle evaluation (RCE).

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before June 13, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to: Mehreen Ismail, Food and Nutrition 
Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1320 Braddock Place, 5th 
Floor, Alexandria, VA 22314. Comments may also be submitted via email 
to [email protected]. Comments will also be accepted through the 
Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to https://www.regulations.gov, and 
follow the online instructions for submitting comments electronically. 
All responses to this notice will be summarized and included in the 
request for Office of Management and Budget approval. All comments will 
be a matter of public record.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of this information collection should be directed to Mehreen 
Ismail at 703-305-2960.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Comments are invited 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, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions 
that were used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity 
of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden 
of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including 
use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other 
technological collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology.
    Title: Rapid Cycle Evaluation of Operational Improvements in 
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment & Training 
Programs (SNAP E&T RCE).
    Form Number: N/A.
    OMB Number: 0584-NEW.
    Expiration Date: Not Yet Determined.
    Type of Request: New Collection.
    Abstract: In addition to providing nutrition assistance benefits to 
millions of low-income individuals experiencing economic hardship, the 
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides work supports 
through Employment and Training (E&T)

[[Page 22170]]

programs that help SNAP participants gain skills and find work. State 
agencies are required to operate an E&T program and have considerable 
flexibility to determine the services they offer and populations they 
serve. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service 
(FNS) seeks to ensure the quality of the services and activities 
offered through SNAP E&T programs by investing resources and providing 
technical assistance to help States build capacity, create more robust 
services, and increase engagement in their programs.
    The Rapid Cycle Evaluation of Operational Improvements in SNAP E&T 
Programs (SNAP E&T RCE) evaluation will use rapid cycle evaluation 
(RCE) to test small-scale interventions in SNAP E&T operations or 
service delivery to determine their effectiveness in improving program 
engagement and service take-up. RCE is an approach that involves cycles 
of identifying, testing, and refining small-scale, low-cost operational 
interventions to determine their effectiveness. SNAP E&T RCE has 
partnered with eight sites to identify the main challenges their SNAP 
E&T programs face: (1) Colorado Department of Human Services, (2) 
Connecticut: Community Colleges, (3) District of Columbia Department of 
Human Services, (4) Kansas Division of Children and Families, (5) 
Minnesota Department of Human Services, (6) Minnesota: Hennepin County 
Department of Human Services, (7) Massachusetts Department of 
Transitional Assistance, and (8) Rhode Island Department of Human 
Services. Objectives for this study include: (a) Describing how RCE can 
be used to improve SNAP E&T operations, service delivery and program 
outcomes; (b) designing and implementing RCEs to obtain impact 
estimates of small-scale interventions on SNAP E&T outcomes; (c) 
conducting an implementation evaluation; (d) assessing the scalability 
of small-scale interventions to SNAP E&T operations and services 
delivery to other SNAP E&T programs; and (e) determining and 
documenting the costs associated with implementing and maintaining 
small-scale interventions.
    The SNAP E&T RCE team is using the Learn, Innovate, and Improve 
(LI\2\) framework to collaborate with sites, identify the challenges 
they want to address, and eventually design and test the interventions. 
The Learn phase focuses on assessing sites' needs and readiness to make 
changes, which informs development of solutions or strategies--the 
focus of the Innovate phase. The challenges the eight sites identified 
through the Learn phase generally involve recruitment and outreach or 
participant engagement and receipt of services. The SNAP E&T RCE team 
worked with each site to co-create an intervention addressing one of 
these challenges through the Innovate phase. Examples of interventions 
the sites plan to test include sending text messages and emails to 
participants to encourage enrollment in SNAP E&T or attendance at 
appointments or activities, using assessments of work readiness to 
improve participant referrals, or enhancing case management.
    After identifying challenges in each site and designing 
interventions for addressing them, the SNAP E&T RCE team will work with 
each site to define operational plans for implementing the 
interventions and testing, refining, and retesting selected strategies 
in the Improve phase. Most interventions will be evaluated using 
randomized control trials in which individuals eligible for the 
intervention will be randomly assigned to a treatment group that 
receives the intervention or a control group that does not. The control 
group will be offered the existing approach to recruiting, outreach, 
and engagement, depending on the focus of intervention. Once 
interventions have been successfully piloted to ensure they operate 
smoothly for the site, the SNAP E&T RCE team will provide technical 
assistance to sites while they implement the intervention for a period 
of about three to four months.
    The study will gather data from administrative records, State and 
local SNAP administrators, and SNAP participants to evaluate the 
interventions' effectiveness in improving recruitment and program 
engagement. Where appropriate, the study will create a system for 
enrollment into the evaluation and random assignment. Data collected in 
this system may include demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, 
contact information, and the collection of service use data. The study 
will conduct a 10-minute participant survey among a total of 4,000 
participants in four of the eight sites. The participant survey will be 
used to collect information on barriers to engaging with services and 
seeking employment, program satisfaction, and reasons for engagement 
decisions for both individuals who engaged in the E&T program and those 
who either never engaged or disengaged.
    The study will also collect data for the implementation evaluation 
across all eight sites using a combination of semi-structured 
interviews with administrators, focus groups with participants, and 
staff characteristics questionnaires with frontline intervention staff. 
In addition, the study will conduct in-depth interviews with 
participants in four of the eight sites. Data collected from 
administrators and staff will be used to describe how the interventions 
were implemented, assess the fidelity of the implementation and costs 
of the intervention, and identify implications for future application 
of similar types of changes. Additional data collected from 
participants will provide context to the administrative data and survey 
responses related to participant decisions, satisfaction, and barriers, 
as well as give a voice to participant backgrounds and experiences.
    Affected Public: Members of the public affected by the data 
collection include Individuals and Households and State, Local, and 
Tribal Governments from eight sites. Respondent groups identified 
include: (1) Individuals eligible for SNAP E&T participation; (2) 
directors and managers from State and local government agencies 
supporting the SNAP E&T programs; and (3) staff from State and local 
government agencies providing direct services to SNAP E&T participants.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: The estimated total number of 
respondents and nonrespondents is 91,910, including 73,566 respondents 
and 18,344 non-respondents. The sample includes 91,528 individuals, 135 
State program staff, and 247 local program staff. As part of the site 
interventions, FNS will contact 91,528 SNAP participants across all 
eight sites, out of whom 18,306 will be non-respondents.
    As part of data collection activities for the evaluation, FNS will 
contact approximately 4,000 SNAP participants to conduct the 
participant survey, 2,000 of whom will have also received the 
intervention offered to the treatment group and 2,000 in the control 
group who did not receive the intervention. We expect that 80 percent 
of the 4,000 individuals contacted will complete the participant survey 
(800 will be non-respondents). Among individuals participating in the 
site interventions, FNS will recontact a total of 800 individuals to 
participate in focus groups (160 will be focus group respondents and 
640 will be considered non-respondents). Among individuals 
participating in the site interventions, 240 individuals will also be 
recontacted for in-depth-interviews (including 60 respondents and 180 
non-respondents). FNS will also contact 382 SNAP program staff for 
administrative data requests, semi-structured interviews,

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and a staff characteristics survey; of the 382 contacted, 135 will be 
State staff and 247 will be local staff.
    Estimated Number of Responses per Respondent: SNAP participants 
will be asked to participate in an intervention (which includes several 
possible notifications), as well as a possible in-depth interview, 
survey (which includes several possible notifications), and focus group 
for an average total of 3.40 responses across all instruments or 
activities. State and local program staff will respond to a semi-
structured interview, administrate data request, or a brief 
questionnaire for a total of 1.63 responses each.
    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 249,401.
    Estimated Time per Response: The estimated time of response for 
respondents varies from 1 minute to 8 hours depending on the respondent 
group, with an average estimated time of 0.062 hours (3.72 minutes).
    Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: The total estimated 
burden on respondents and non-respondents is 17,254 hours (1,035,235 
minutes). The total burden on respondents, excluding nonrespondents, is 
15,458 hours (927,458 minutes).

Cynthia Long,
Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service.
[FR Doc. 2022-08011 Filed 4-13-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-30-P