66276 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 246 / Wednesday, December 26, 2018 / Notices 

Data collection form Comment ACL response 

One commenter asked whether ACL intends for states 

to use the new ILS PPR for the report that will be due 

in January 2019.

ACL does not intend for states to use the new ILS PPR 

for the report that will be due in January 2019.

No change has been made. 

One commenter asked whether ACL has an update on 

the publication of the revised CIL indicators.

ACL is updating the CIL indicators and expects to complete them by the extension’s end.No change has been made. 

One commenter asked whether there are other email 

lists related to IL services policies or programs that 

ACL has that DSEs could benefit from.

ACL knows of no other email lists related to IL services 

policies or programs that DSEs could benefit from 

being added to; the commenter might benefit from information provided by ILRU, the training and technical-assistance provider.

No change has been made. 

The proposed form(s) may be found 

on the ACL website at https://www.acl.

gov/about-acl/public-input. 

Estimated Program Burden 

ACL estimates the burden of this 

collection of information as follows: 

Fifty-six jurisdictions—specifically, the 

fifty states, Puerto Rico, the District of 

Columbia, and the outlying areas—will 

each complete ILS PPRs annually, and 

it will take an estimated thirty-five 

hours per jurisdiction per ILS PPR. The 

fifty-six jurisdictions will take an 

estimated 1,960 hours per year to 

complete ILS PPRs. This burden 

estimate is based on what DSEs and 

SILCs have told ILA about how long 

filling out ILS PPRs took in previous 

reporting years. 

Respondent/data collection activity Number of 

respondents 

Responses 

per 

respondent 

Hours per 

response 

Annual 

burden hours 

SILCs and DSEs .............................................................................................. 56 1 35 1,960 

Dated: December 18, 2018. 

Mary Lazare, 

Principal Deputy Administrator. 

[FR Doc. 2018–27900 Filed 12–21–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4154–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Administration for Community Living 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Proposed Collection; Public 

Comment Request; Inventory of Adult 

Protective Services Practices and 

Service Innovations 

AGENCY: Administration for Community 

Living, HHS. 

ACTION: Notice 

SUMMARY: The Administration for 

Community Living (ACL) is announcing 

an opportunity for the public to 

comment on the proposed collection of 

certain information listed above. Under 

the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(the PRA), Federal agencies are required 

to publish a notice in the Federal 

Register concerning each proposed 

collection of information, including 

each proposed extension of an existing 

collection of information, and to allow 

60 days for public comment in response 

to the notice. This notice solicits 

comments on the information collection 

requirements relating to a new data 

collection (ICR New) effort titled 

‘‘Inventory of Adult Protective Services 

Practices and Service Innovations.’’ 

DATES: Submit electronic comments on 

the collection of information by 11:59 

p.m. (EST) or written comments 

postmarked by February 25, 2019. 

ADDRESSES: Submit electronic 

comments on the collection of 

information to Stephanie Whittier 

Eliason at stephanie.whittiereliason@

acl.hhs.gov. Submit written comments 

on the collection of information to: 

Administration for Community Living, 

Attention: Stephanie Whittier Eliason, 

330 C St., SW, Washington, DC 20201. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Stephanie Whittier Eliason at 202–795– 

7467 or stephanie.whittiereliason@

acl.hhs.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the 

PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501–3520), Federal 

agencies must obtain approval from the 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) for each collection of 

information they conduct or sponsor. 

‘‘Collection of information’’ is defined 

in 44 U.S.C. 3502(3) and 5 CFR 

1320.3(c) and includes agency requests 

or requirements that members of the 

public submit reports, keep records, or 

provide information to a third party. 

Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA (44 

U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)) requires Federal 

agencies to provide a 60- day notice in 

the Federal Register concerning each 

proposed collection of information, 

including each proposed extension of an 

existing collection of information, 

before submitting the collection to OMB 

for approval. To comply with this 

requirement, ACL is publishing a notice 

of the proposed collection of 

information set forth in this document. 

Authority: 

The Elder Justice Act of 2009 requires 

the Secretary of the U.S. Department of 

Health and Human Services to carry out 

a number of activities related to adult 

protective services (APS) (42 U.S.C. 

1397m–1), including developing and 

disseminating information on APS best 

practices and conducting research 

related to the provision of APS. 

Furthermore, the Elder Justice 

Coordinating Council included as its 

third recommendation for increasing 

federal involvement in addressing elder 

abuse, neglect, and exploitation: 

‘‘develop a national APS system based 

upon standardized data collection and a 

core set of service provision standards 

and best practices.’’ 

Background 

The Administration for Community 

Living (ACL) in the U.S. Department of 

Health and Human Services (HHS) 

plans to initiate an Inventory of Adult 

Protective Services Practices and 

Service Innovations (APS Practice 

Survey) during January and February of 

2019. Under a contract with ACL, the 

National Adult Protective Services 

Technical Assistance Resource Center 

(APS TARC) is conducting a national 

program evaluation of APS programs. 

As part of this evaluation, the APS 

Practice Survey will identify barriers to 

meeting policy mandates and practice 

innovations and model programs that 

address such barriers and communityVerDate Sep<11>2014 20:07 Dec 21, 2018 Jkt 247001 PO 00000 Frm 00040 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 E:\FR\FM\26DEN1.SGM 26DEN1

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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 246 / Wednesday, December 26, 2018 / Notices 66277 

identified needs. It also seeks to identify 

practice variations in the way APS 

programs serve older adults and adults 

with disabilities. 

The results of the survey will serve to 

advance the field of APS and will be 

useful to many audiences. It will 

provide baseline information regarding 

the status of APS programs and services, 

and the resulting information will help 

states and territories compare their 

program characteristics with those of 

other states and territories. The survey 

will provide a context for other 

researchers examining APS programs. It 

will inform ACL’s efforts to support the 

improvement of APS programs through 

activities such as innovation grants. 

Finally, it will inform the APS TARC 

team’s efforts to develop resources to 

enhance APS programs around the 

country. 

This survey has been developed to 

gather information on APS practices 

that is not available from other sources. 

As part of the National Adult 

Maltreatment Reporting System 

(NAMRS), ACL collects descriptive data 

on state and territory agency policies 

through the Agency Component of that 

data collection. Therefore, the proposed 

survey will not collect any background 

policy or data items. As part of the APS 

Program Evaluation, the APS TARC also 

conducted a detailed examination of 

state APS policies through development 

of individual state policy profiles. The 

profiles were based exclusively on 

extant information sources obtained 

without additional data requests from 

the states. Information on practices 

gathered in this survey will 

complement, but will not duplicate, 

these policy profiles. 

Finally, the National Adult Protective 

Services Association (NAPSA) 

conducted a survey of State APS 

programs in 2012, and the National 

Association of State Units on Aging and 

Disability (NASUAD) fielded a survey in 

January 2018 intended to update 

findings from the NAPSA 2012 survey. 

NASUAD indicated that they intend to 

share the results with their members 

once the survey results are compiled, 

and indicated that they would share the 

results with the APS TARC. Since the 

survey replicates the original NAPSA 

survey, the questions in it are not 

focused on APS practice. As noted, a 

few topics in the original survey overlap 

with the proposed instrument, but the 

wording and focus of the few questions 

on similar topics are different. From this 

analysis, we conclude the proposed APS 

Practice Survey will yield vital 

information on APS practice not 

available from other sources. 

Proposed Collection Efforts 

The APS Practice Survey will collect 

state- and territory-specific practices for 

all aspects of APS casework practice, 

including staffing, intake, investigation, 

service planning and delivery, and 

quality assurance. Across these areas, 

the survey will collect information on 

practices such as community 

partnerships and use of assessment 

tools. 

The APS Practice Survey will be 

administered online using 

SurveyMonkey or a similar commercial 

survey programming tool. The online 

survey will include data validation 

routines to minimize errors or 

unintentional omissions and will 

include appropriate skip patterns to 

reduce burden. Respondents will be 

state and territory APS agencies, 

including APS agencies in the District of 

Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern 

Marianas Islands, Virgin Islands, and 

American Samoa. No personally 

identifiable information will be 

collected. 

A pilot version of The APS Practice 

Survey was tested in nine (9) diverse 

states between July and September 

2017. Following their pretest of the 

survey instrument, pilot respondents 

participated in focus groups in which 

they provided recommendations on data 

collection procedures, views on the 

availability of data being requested, and 

estimates of the burden to each state and 

territory for completion of the survey. It 

is assumed that nearly every state and 

territory will participate in the 

information collection and that time to 

develop a response will be similar to the 

experience of states during the pilot test. 

ACL has calculated the following 

burden estimates based on the results of 

the survey pilot test. 

The proposed collection of 

information tool may be found at 

https://www.acl.gov/node/790 under 

‘‘APS Evaluation.’’ 

Estimated Program Burden 

ACL estimates the annual burden 

associated with this collection of 

information as follows: 56 entities will 

complete the information requested one 

time per respondent, and it will take an 

average of 3.5 hours per respondent to 

complete the survey. This results in a 

total estimate of 196 burden hours. 

Instrument Number of 

respondents 

Number of 

responses per 

respondent 

Average 

burden 

hours per 

response 

Total burden 

hours 

APS Practice Survey ....................................................................................... 56 1 3.5 196 

With respect to the collection of 

information, ACL specifically requests 

comments on our burden estimates or 

any other aspect of this collection of 

information, including: 

(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 used to determine burden 

estimates; 

(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 

respondents, including through the use 

of automated collection techniques, 

when appropriate, and other forms of 

information technology. 

Consideration will be given to 

comments and suggestions submitted 

within 60 days of this publication. 

The proposed data collection tools 

may be found at https://acl.gov/aboutacl/public-input. 

Dated: December 17, 2018. 

Mary Lazare, 

Principal Deputy Administrator. 

[FR Doc. 2018–27902 Filed 12–21–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4154–01–P 


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