[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 113 (Friday, June 13, 2025)] [Notices] [Pages 25049-25050] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2025-10835] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Administration for Children and Families Submission for Office of Management and Budget Review; Regional Partnership Grants National Cross-Site Evaluation and Evaluation Technical Assistance (Office of Management and Budget #0970-0527) AGENCY: Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ACTION: Request for public comments. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The Children's Bureau (CB), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Administration for Children, Youth and Families (ACYF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is requesting an extension with changes to the approved information collection: Regional Partnership Grants (RPG) National Cross-Site Evaluation and Evaluation Technical Assistance (Office of Management and Budget (OMB) #0970- 0527). The proposed information collection will be used in a national cross-site evaluation of the seventh cohort of CB's RPG. The cross-site evaluation will use a survey, interviews, focus groups, and data on participant enrollment, services, and outcomes. DATES: Comments due July 14, 2025. OMB must decide 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 emailed requests by the title of the information collection. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Description: The Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006 (Pub. L. 109-288) amended section 437 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 629g[f]) and authorized HHS, ACF, ACYF, and CB to fund discretionary grants to improve safety, well-being, and permanency outcomes for children at risk of or in out-of-home placement because of their caregiver's substance misuse. In response, HHS launched a competitive grants program called ``Targeted Grants to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for, Children Affected by Methamphetamine and Other Substance Abuse,'' which is also known as the RPG program. Reauthorized in 2011 and again most recently by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (Pub. L. 115-123) in 2018, these grants are designed to support partnerships between child welfare agencies, substance use disorder treatment organizations, and other social services systems, and thereby improve the well-being, permanency, and safety outcomes of children and families. Under six prior rounds of RPG, CB has issued 109 grants to organizations such as child welfare or substance use treatment providers or family court systems to develop interagency collaborations and integration of programs, activities, and services designed to increase well-being, improve permanency, and enhance the safety of children who are in an out-of-home placement or at risk of being placed in out-of-home care as a result of a parent's or caretaker's substance misuse. In 2022, CB awarded 18 grants to a seventh cohort (RPG7). The current request is for data collection activities associated with the 18 RPG7 grantees. Data collection for the first three cohorts was approved under OMB Control Numbers 0970-0353 and 0970-0444. Data collection for the fourth, fifth, and sixth cohorts were approved under this OMB Control Number (0970-0527). The RPG cross-site evaluation will extend the understanding about how RPG programs and services may improve outcomes for children and families. First, the cross-site evaluation will assess the coordination of partners' service systems with an emphasis on the partnership between the child welfare and substance use treatment agencies, to add to the research base about how these agencies can collaborate to address the needs of children and families affected by substance misuse (partnerships analysis). Second, the evaluation will describe the experiences of adult participants enrolled in RPG services, such as their motivations for enrollment and how the services they received improved outcomes related to recovery and child welfare involvement (participant experiences analysis). Third, the evaluation will summarize supports within the partnership that can help improve and sustain RPG services, such as using data for service improvement, identifying a lead organization, and securing funding sources after grant funding ends (sustainability analysis). Fourth, the evaluation will describe the characteristics of participants served by RPG programs, the types of services provided to families, the dosage of each type of service received by families, and the level of participant engagement with the services provided (enrollment and services analysis). Finally, the evaluation will assess the outcomes of children and adults served through the RPG program, such as child behavioral problems, adult depressive symptoms, or adult substance use and treatment (outcomes and impacts analysis). For the seventh cohort, CB is requesting an extension of most of the currently approved information collections (most recently approved in April 2022) with no changes, the removal of two approved data collections, and the addition of three new instruments. This will allow CB to continue obtaining participant data from grantees that they collect for their local evaluations and for directly collecting additional data from grantees and their partners and providers for the cross-site evaluation. Specifically, this request:Removes the currently approved semi-annual progress reports, as they are now covered under a separate OMB package (0970- 0490) and removes the partnership survey, which will not be administered to the RPG7 grantees. Adds data collection of interviews and focus groups with participants enrolled in RPG services to allow the cross-site evaluation to describe [[Page 25050]] participants' experiences receiving services. Makes minor wording changes to the data collection materials to comply with the recent Executive Orders. These edits were added to the request after the first public comment period, which was published in the Federal Register notice on December 31, 2024 (89 FR 107145). Continues approval of all other information collections approved under this OMB control number (Currently approved instruments available here: https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAICList?ref_nbr=202302-0970-003). Overall, this request includes following data collection activities: (1) site visits with grantees, (2) individual interviews and focus groups with participants enrolled in RPG services, (3) a web- based survey about sustainability planning, (4) enrollment and services data provided by grantees, and (5) outcomes and impacts data provided by grantees. Respondents: Respondents include grantee staff or contractors (such as local evaluators) and partner staff from the 18 RPG7 grantees, and 64 adult participants enrolled in RPG services. Specific types of respondents and the expected number per data collection effort are noted in the burden table below. Annual Burden Estimates ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of Average burden Total number of responses per hours per Total annual Data collection activity respondents respondent (each response (in burden hours year) hours) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Site Visit and Key Informant Data Collection ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Program director individual interview...... 18 0.33 2 12 Program manager/supervisor individual 18 0.33 1 6 interviews................................ Frontline staff interviews................. 36 0.33 1 12 Partner representative interviews.......... 54 0.33 1 18 Individual interviews with participants 16 0.33 2 11 enrolled in RPG services.................. Focus groups with participants enrolled in 48 0.33 1.5 24 RPG services.............................. Sustainability survey...................... 126 0.33 0.33 14 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Enrollment, client, and service data ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Case enrollment data....................... 54 33 0.25 446 Case closure............................... 54 33 0.02 36 Case closure-prenatal...................... 18 10 0.02 4 Service log entries........................ 108 1,560 0.03 5,054 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Outcome and impact data ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Administrative Data ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Obtain access to administrative data \a\... 9 0.33 220 330 Report administrative data................. 18 2 81 2,916 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Standardized instruments ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Enter data into local database \a\......... 18 100 1.25 1,125 Review records and submit.................. 18 2 25 900 Data entry for comparison study sites (14 14 100 1.25 875 sites) \a\................................ -------------------------------------------------------------------- Estimated Totals....................... ............... ................ ............... 11,783 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \a\ Data are used for site-level evaluations conducted by the grantees. To account for added data preparation steps needed to share data with the cross-site evaluation, burden hour estimates assume that only half of this burden is part of the cross-site evaluation. Authority: The Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006 (Pub. L. 109-288) created the competitive RPG program. The September 30, 2011, passage of the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act (Pub. L. 112-34) extended funding for the RPG program from federal fiscal year (FFY) 2012 to FFY 2016. In 2018, the President signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (Pub. L. 115-123) into law, reauthorizing the RPG program through FFY 2021 and adding a focus on opioid abuse. In 2025, the RPG program was reauthorized through FFY 2029 (Pub. L. 118-258). Mary C. Jones, ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer. [FR Doc. 2025-10835 Filed 6-12-25; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4184-01-P