Submission for OMB Review: Comment Request, 72679-72680 [2013-28861]

Download as PDF Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 232 / Tuesday, December 3, 2013 / Notices LeRoy Richardson, Chief, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific Integrity, Office of the Associate Director for Science, Office of the Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [FR Doc. 2013–28855 Filed 12–2–13; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4163–18–P DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Administration for Children and Families emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with NOTICES Submission for OMB Review: Comment Request Title: RPG National Cross-Site Evaluation and Evaluation Technical Assistance. OMB No.: New Collection. Description: The Children’s Bureau within the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seeks approval to collect information for the Regional Partnership Grants to Increase the Well-being of and to Improve Permanency Outcomes for Children Affected by Substance Abuse (known as the Regional Partnership Grants Program or ‘‘RPG’’) Cross-Site Evaluation and Evaluation-Related Technical Assistance project. Under RPG, the Children’s Bureau has issued 17 grants to organizations such as child welfare or substance abuse 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-ofhome placement or are at risk of being placed in out-of-home care as a result of a parent’s or caretaker’s substance abuse. The Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act (Pub. L. 112–34) includes a targeted grants program (section 437(f) of the Social Security Act) that directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to reserve a specified portion of the appropriation for these Regional Partnership Grants, to be used to improve the well-being of children affected by substance abuse. The overall objective of the Cross-Site Evaluation and Technical Assistance project (the RPG Cross-Site Evaluation) is to plan, develop, and implement a rigorous national cross-site evaluation of the RPG Grant Program, provide legislativelymandated performance measurement, and furnish evaluation-related technical assistance to the grantees in order to improve the quality and rigor of their local evaluations. The project will VerDate Mar<15>2010 17:36 Dec 02, 2013 Jkt 232001 evaluate the programs and activities conducted through the RPG Grant Program. The evaluation is being undertaken by the Children’s Bureau and its contractor Mathematica Policy Research. The evaluation is being implemented by Mathematica Policy Research and its subcontractors, Walter R. McDonald & Associates and Synergy Enterprises. The RPG Cross-Site Evaluation will include the following components: 1. Implementation and Partnership Study. The RPG cross-site implementation and partnership study will contribute to building the knowledge base about effective implementation strategies by examining the process of implementation in the 17 RPG projects, with a focus on factors shown in the research literature to be associated with quality implementation of evidence-based programs. This component of the study will describe the RPG projects’ target populations, selected interventions and their fit with the target populations, inputs to implementation, and actual services provided (including dosage, duration, content, adherence to curricula, and participant responsiveness). It will examine the key attributes of the regional partnerships that grantees develop (for example, partnerships among child welfare and substance abuse treatment providers, social services, and the courts). It will describe the characteristics and roles of the partner organizations, the extent of coordination and collaboration, and their potential to sustain the partnerships after the grant ends. Key data collection activities of the implementation and partnership study are: (1) Conducting site visits during which researchers will interview RPG program directors, managers, supervisors, and frontline staff who work directly with families; (2) administering a survey to frontline staff involved in providing direct services to children, adults, and families; (3) asking grantees to provide information about implementation and their partnerships as part of their federally required semiannual progress reports; (4) obtaining service use data from grantees, enrollment date and demographics of enrollees, exit date and reason, and service participation, to be entered into a web-based system developed and operated by Mathematica Policy Research and its subcontractors; and (5) administering a survey to representatives of the partner organizations. 2. Outcomes Study. The goal of the outcomes study is to describe the changes that occur in children and PO 00000 Frm 00054 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 72679 families who participate in the RPG programs. This study will describe participant outcomes in five domains: (1) Child well-being, (2) family functioning/stability, (3) adult recovery from substance use, (4) child permanency, and (5) child safety. Two main types of outcome data will be used—both of which are being collected by RPG grantees: (1) Administrative child welfare and adult substance abuse treatment records and (2) standardized instruments administered to the parents and/or caregivers. The Children’s Bureau is requiring grantees to obtain and report specified administrative records, and to use a prescribed set of standardized instruments. Grantees will provide these data to the Cross-Site Evaluation team twice a year by uploading them to a data system developed and operated by Mathematica Policy Research and its subcontractors. 3. Impact Study. The goal of the impact study is to assess the impact of the RPG interventions on child, adult, and family outcomes by comparing outcomes for people enrolled in RPG services to those in comparison groups, such as people who do not receive RPG services or receive only a subset of the services. The impact study will use demographic and outcome data on both program (treatment) and comparison groups from a subset of grantees with appropriate local evaluation designs such as randomized controlled trials or strong quasi-experimental designs; 7 of the 17 grantees have such designs. Sitespecific impacts will be estimated for these seven grantees. Aggregated impact estimates will be created by pooling impact estimates across appropriate sites to obtain a more powerful summary of the effectiveness of RPG interventions. In addition to conducting local evaluations and participating in the RPG Cross-Site Evaluation, the RPG grantees are legislatively required to report performance indicators aligned with their proposed program strategies and activities. A key strategy of the RPG Cross-Site Evaluation is to minimize burden on the grantees by ensuring that the cross-site evaluation, which includes all grantees in a study that collects data to report on implementation, the partnerships, and participant characteristics and outcomes, fully meets the need for performance reporting. Thus, rather than collecting separate evaluation and performance indicator data, the grantees need only participate in the cross-site evaluation. In addition, using the standardized instruments that the Children’s Bureau has specified will ensure that grantees have valid and E:\FR\FM\03DEN1.SGM 03DEN1 72680 Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 232 / Tuesday, December 3, 2013 / Notices reliable data on child and family outcomes for their local evaluations. The inclusion of an impact study conducted on a subset of grantees with rigorous designs will also provide the Children’s Bureau, Congress, grantees, providers, and researchers with information about the effectiveness of RPG programs. A 60-Day Federal Register Notice was published for this study on September 19, 2013. This 30-Day Federal Register Notice covers the following data collection activities: (1) The site visits with grantees; (2) the web-based survey of frontline staff who provide direct services to children, adults, and families, and their supervisors; (3) the semi-annual progress reports; (4) enrollment and service data provided by grantees; (5) the web-based survey of grantee partners; and (6) outcome data provided by grantees. Respondents. Respondents include grantee staff or contractors (such as local evaluators) and partner staff. Specific types of respondents and the expected number per data collection effort are noted in the burden table below. Annual burden estimates. The following instruments are proposed for public comment under this 30-Day Federal Register Notice. Burden for all components is annualized over three years. RPG CROSS-SITE EVALUATION ANNUALIZED BURDEN ESTIMATES Total number of respondents Data collection activity Number of responses per respondent (each year) Average burden hours per response (in hours) Estimated total burden hours Total annual burden hours Implementation and Partnership Study Program director individual interview ................................... Program manager/supervisor group interview ..................... Program manager/supervisor individual interviews ............. Frontline staff individual interviews ...................................... Semi-annual progress reports ............................................. Case enrollment data ........................................................... Service log entries ............................................................... Staff survey .......................................................................... Partner survey ...................................................................... 17 153 102 102 17 51 102 340 340 .67 .67 .67 .67 2 30 780 .67 .67 2 2 1 1 16.5 0.25 .05 0.42 0.33 68 612 204 204 1,683 1,147.5 11,934 283.2 226.8 22.6 204 68 68 561 382.5 3,978 94.4 75.6 17 17 1 2 42.6 144 2,175 14,688 725 4,896 17 17 17 .33 2 2 8 112.5 100 136 11,475 10,200 45.33 3,825 3,400 Data Entry for Outcomes Study Administrative Data. Obtain access to administrative data ........................... Report administrative data ............................................ Standardized instruments. Review and adopt reporting templates ......................... Enter data into local database ...................................... Review records and submit .......................................... Additional Data Entry for Impact Study 7 2 36.1 1,519 506.3 Estimated Total Burden Hours ..................................... emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with NOTICES Data entry for comparison study sites (7 grantees) ............ ........................ ........................ ........................ ........................ 18,852 In compliance with the requirements of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Children’s Bureau within the Administration for Children and Families is soliciting public comment on the specific aspects of the information collection described above. Copies of the proposed collection of information can be obtained and comments may be forwarded by writing to Administration for Children and Families, Office of Administration, Office of Information, Service, 370 L’Enfant Promenade SW., Washington DC 20447, Attn: ACF Reports Clearance Officer. Email address: infocollection@ acf.hhs.gov. All requests should be identified by the title of the information collection. OMB is required to make a decision concerning the collection of information between 30 and 60 days after VerDate Mar<15>2010 17:36 Dec 02, 2013 Jkt 232001 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. Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent directly to the following: Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project, Email: OIRASUBMISSION@OMB.EoP.GOV, Attn: Desk Officer for the Administration of Children and Families. Dated: November 27, 2013. Robert Sargis, Reports Clearance Officer. [FR Doc. 2013–28861 Filed 12–2–13; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4184–01–P PO 00000 Frm 00055 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Health Resources and Services Administration National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program; List of Petitions Received Health Resources and Services Administration, HHS. ACTION: Notice. AGENCY: The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is publishing this notice of petitions received under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (the Program), as required by Section 2112(b)(2) of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act, as amended. While the Secretary of Health and Human Services is named as the respondent in all proceedings brought by the filing of SUMMARY: E:\FR\FM\03DEN1.SGM 03DEN1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 232 (Tuesday, December 3, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72679-72680]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-28861]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Submission for OMB Review: Comment Request

    Title: RPG National Cross-Site Evaluation and Evaluation Technical 
Assistance.
    OMB No.: New Collection.
    Description: The Children's Bureau within the Administration for 
Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human 
Services seeks approval to collect information for the Regional 
Partnership Grants to Increase the Well-being of and to Improve 
Permanency Outcomes for Children Affected by Substance Abuse (known as 
the Regional Partnership Grants Program or ``RPG'') Cross-Site 
Evaluation and Evaluation-Related Technical Assistance project. Under 
RPG, the Children's Bureau has issued 17 grants to organizations such 
as child welfare or substance abuse 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 are at risk of being placed in out-of-home 
care as a result of a parent's or caretaker's substance abuse. The 
Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act (Pub. L. 112-
34) includes a targeted grants program (section 437(f) of the Social 
Security Act) that directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
to reserve a specified portion of the appropriation for these Regional 
Partnership Grants, to be used to improve the well-being of children 
affected by substance abuse. The overall objective of the Cross-Site 
Evaluation and Technical Assistance project (the RPG Cross-Site 
Evaluation) is to plan, develop, and implement a rigorous national 
cross-site evaluation of the RPG Grant Program, provide legislatively-
mandated performance measurement, and furnish evaluation-related 
technical assistance to the grantees in order to improve the quality 
and rigor of their local evaluations. The project will evaluate the 
programs and activities conducted through the RPG Grant Program. The 
evaluation is being undertaken by the Children's Bureau and its 
contractor Mathematica Policy Research. The evaluation is being 
implemented by Mathematica Policy Research and its subcontractors, 
Walter R. McDonald & Associates and Synergy Enterprises.
    The RPG Cross-Site Evaluation will include the following 
components:
    1. Implementation and Partnership Study. The RPG cross-site 
implementation and partnership study will contribute to building the 
knowledge base about effective implementation strategies by examining 
the process of implementation in the 17 RPG projects, with a focus on 
factors shown in the research literature to be associated with quality 
implementation of evidence-based programs. This component of the study 
will describe the RPG projects' target populations, selected 
interventions and their fit with the target populations, inputs to 
implementation, and actual services provided (including dosage, 
duration, content, adherence to curricula, and participant 
responsiveness). It will examine the key attributes of the regional 
partnerships that grantees develop (for example, partnerships among 
child welfare and substance abuse treatment providers, social services, 
and the courts). It will describe the characteristics and roles of the 
partner organizations, the extent of coordination and collaboration, 
and their potential to sustain the partnerships after the grant ends. 
Key data collection activities of the implementation and partnership 
study are: (1) Conducting site visits during which researchers will 
interview RPG program directors, managers, supervisors, and frontline 
staff who work directly with families; (2) administering a survey to 
frontline staff involved in providing direct services to children, 
adults, and families; (3) asking grantees to provide information about 
implementation and their partnerships as part of their federally 
required semi-annual progress reports; (4) obtaining service use data 
from grantees, enrollment date and demographics of enrollees, exit date 
and reason, and service participation, to be entered into a web-based 
system developed and operated by Mathematica Policy Research and its 
subcontractors; and (5) administering a survey to representatives of 
the partner organizations.
    2. Outcomes Study. The goal of the outcomes study is to describe 
the changes that occur in children and families who participate in the 
RPG programs. This study will describe participant outcomes in five 
domains: (1) Child well-being, (2) family functioning/stability, (3) 
adult recovery from substance use, (4) child permanency, and (5) child 
safety. Two main types of outcome data will be used--both of which are 
being collected by RPG grantees: (1) Administrative child welfare and 
adult substance abuse treatment records and (2) standardized 
instruments administered to the parents and/or caregivers. The 
Children's Bureau is requiring grantees to obtain and report specified 
administrative records, and to use a prescribed set of standardized 
instruments. Grantees will provide these data to the Cross-Site 
Evaluation team twice a year by uploading them to a data system 
developed and operated by Mathematica Policy Research and its 
subcontractors.
    3. Impact Study. The goal of the impact study is to assess the 
impact of the RPG interventions on child, adult, and family outcomes by 
comparing outcomes for people enrolled in RPG services to those in 
comparison groups, such as people who do not receive RPG services or 
receive only a subset of the services. The impact study will use 
demographic and outcome data on both program (treatment) and comparison 
groups from a subset of grantees with appropriate local evaluation 
designs such as randomized controlled trials or strong quasi-
experimental designs; 7 of the 17 grantees have such designs. Site-
specific impacts will be estimated for these seven grantees. Aggregated 
impact estimates will be created by pooling impact estimates across 
appropriate sites to obtain a more powerful summary of the 
effectiveness of RPG interventions.
    In addition to conducting local evaluations and participating in 
the RPG Cross-Site Evaluation, the RPG grantees are legislatively 
required to report performance indicators aligned with their proposed 
program strategies and activities. A key strategy of the RPG Cross-Site 
Evaluation is to minimize burden on the grantees by ensuring that the 
cross-site evaluation, which includes all grantees in a study that 
collects data to report on implementation, the partnerships, and 
participant characteristics and outcomes, fully meets the need for 
performance reporting. Thus, rather than collecting separate evaluation 
and performance indicator data, the grantees need only participate in 
the cross-site evaluation. In addition, using the standardized 
instruments that the Children's Bureau has specified will ensure that 
grantees have valid and

[[Page 72680]]

reliable data on child and family outcomes for their local evaluations. 
The inclusion of an impact study conducted on a subset of grantees with 
rigorous designs will also provide the Children's Bureau, Congress, 
grantees, providers, and researchers with information about the 
effectiveness of RPG programs.
    A 60-Day Federal Register Notice was published for this study on 
September 19, 2013. This 30-Day Federal Register Notice covers the 
following data collection activities: (1) The site visits with 
grantees; (2) the web-based survey of frontline staff who provide 
direct services to children, adults, and families, and their 
supervisors; (3) the semi-annual progress reports; (4) enrollment and 
service data provided by grantees; (5) the web-based survey of grantee 
partners; and (6) outcome data provided by grantees.
    Respondents. Respondents include grantee staff or contractors (such 
as local evaluators) and partner staff. Specific types of respondents 
and the expected number per data collection effort are noted in the 
burden table below.
    Annual burden estimates. The following instruments are proposed for 
public comment under this 30-Day Federal Register Notice. Burden for 
all components is annualized over three years.

                              RPG Cross-Site Evaluation Annualized Burden Estimates
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Number of        Average
                                   Total number    responses per   burden hours      Estimated     Total annual
    Data collection activity      of respondents    respondent     per response    total burden    burden hours
                                                    (each year)     (in hours)         hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                      Implementation and Partnership Study
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Program director individual                   17             .67               2              68            22.6
 interview......................
Program manager/supervisor group             153             .67               2             612             204
 interview......................
Program manager/supervisor                   102             .67               1             204              68
 individual interviews..........
Frontline staff individual                   102             .67               1             204              68
 interviews.....................
Semi-annual progress reports....              17               2            16.5           1,683             561
Case enrollment data............              51              30            0.25         1,147.5           382.5
Service log entries.............             102             780             .05          11,934           3,978
Staff survey....................             340             .67            0.42           283.2            94.4
Partner survey..................             340             .67            0.33           226.8            75.6
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                          Data Entry for Outcomes Study
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Administrative Data.............
    Obtain access to                          17               1            42.6           2,175             725
     administrative data........
    Report administrative data..              17               2             144          14,688           4,896
Standardized instruments........
    Review and adopt reporting                17             .33               8             136           45.33
     templates..................
    Enter data into local                     17               2           112.5          11,475           3,825
     database...................
    Review records and submit...              17               2             100          10,200           3,400
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                     Additional Data Entry for Impact Study
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Data entry for comparison study                7               2            36.1           1,519           506.3
 sites (7 grantees).............
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Estimated Total Burden Hours  ..............  ..............  ..............  ..............          18,852
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In compliance with the requirements of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Children's Bureau within the 
Administration for Children and Families is soliciting public comment 
on the specific aspects of the information collection described above. 
Copies of the proposed collection of information can be obtained and 
comments may be forwarded by writing to Administration for Children and 
Families, Office of Administration, Office of Information, Service, 370 
L'Enfant Promenade SW., Washington DC 20447, Attn: ACF Reports 
Clearance Officer. Email address: infocollection@acf.hhs.gov. All 
requests should be identified by the title of the information 
collection.
    OMB is required to make a decision concerning 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. 
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent directly to the following: Office of 
Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project, Email: 
OIRASUBMISSION@OMB.EoP.GOV, Attn: Desk Officer for the Administration 
of Children and Families.

    Dated: November 27, 2013.
Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2013-28861 Filed 12-2-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-P
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