[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 4 (Friday, January 5, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 787-788]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-00006]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Submission for Office of Management and Budget Review; Home-Based 
Child Care Toolkit for Nurturing School-Age Children Study (New 
Collection)

AGENCY: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration 
for Children and Families, United States Department of Health and Human 
Services.

ACTION: Request for public comments.

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SUMMARY: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of 
Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) at the U.S. Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS) is proposing to collect information to 
examine a toolkit of new measures designed to assess and strengthen the 
quality of child care, the Home-Based Child Care Toolkit for Nurturing 
School-Age Children (HBCC-NSAC Toolkit). This study aims to build 
evidence about the English version of the HBCC-NSAC Toolkit for use by/
with providers caring for children in a residential setting (i.e., 
home-based child care [HBCC]).

DATES: Comments due within 30 days of publication. Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) must make a decision about the collection of 
information between 30 and 60 days after publication of this document 
in the Federal Register. Therefore, a comment is best assured of having 
its full effect if OMB receives it within 30 days of publication.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--
Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function. You can 
also obtain copies of the proposed collection of information by 
emailing [email protected]. Identify all requests by the 
title of the information collection.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Description: The HBCC-NSAC Toolkit is designed for home-based 
providers who regularly care for at least 1 school-age child who is not 
their own. The purpose of the HBCC-NSAC Toolkit is to help home-based 
providers identify their caregiving strengths and areas for growth. The 
HBCC-NSAC Toolkit consists of a self-administered provider 
questionnaire (composed of multiple newly developed measures) and a 
family communication questionnaire (composed of 1 communication tool). 
For validation purposes, the study will include the provider 
questionnaire from the HBCC-NSAC Toolkit with additional items from 
existing measures and a separate family survey with child and family 
background information items and items from an existing measure. A 
subset of providers will be observed with an existing observation 
measure. Study participants will include home-based providers who can 
complete the provider questionnaire in English. They must currently 
care for at least 1 school-age child (age 5 and in kindergarten, or 
ages 6 through 12) in a home for at least 10 hours per week and for at 
least 8 weeks in the past year. These providers may also care for 
younger children (ages birth through 5 and not yet in kindergarten). 
Families (a parent or guardian of school-age children receiving care in 
the HBCC setting) who can complete the family survey in English will 
also be included in the study. The study will be based on a purposive 
sample of home-based providers in at least 10 geographic locations to 
maximize variation in the sample. OPRE proposes to collect survey and 
observational data from home-based providers who are licensed or 
regulated by states to provide child care and early education (CCEE) 
and providers who are unlicensed or legally exempt from state 
regulations for CCEE. Study participants may or may not participate in 
the child care subsidy program. The data collection activities are 
designed to provide critical information that is needed to analyze the 
reliability and validity of the HBCC-NSAC Toolkit's provider 
questionnaire. The resulting data will help ACF understand if the HBCC-
NSAC Toolkit's provider questionnaire can be used to support home-based 
providers in identifying and reflecting on their

[[Page 788]]

caregiving strengths and areas for growth.
    Respondents: Home-based providers; families of the children cared 
for by the providers.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
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                                                                         Number of
                                                      Number of        responses per      Average       Total/
                   Instrument                        respondents     respondent (total   burden per     annual
                                                     (total over        over request      response    burden (in
                                                   request period)        period)        (in hours)     hours)
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1. Community organization onboarding call.......                 30                  1            1           30
2. Provider telephone script and recruitment                    204                  1         0.33           67
 information collection.........................
3. Provider telephone script and recruitment                    150                  1          .42           63
 information collection including observations..
4. Observation scheduling call..................                 60                  1          .17           10
5. HBCC-NSAC Toolkit provider questionnaire.....                150                  1          .83          125
6. HBCC-NSAC Toolkit family questionnaire.......                166                  1         0.25           42
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    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 337.
    Authority: 42 U.S.C. 9858.

Mary B. Jones,
ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.
[FR Doc. 2024-00006 Filed 1-4-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-23-P