[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 223 (Tuesday, November 21, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 81085-81086]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-25720]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Healthy Marriage and 
Responsible Fatherhood Performance Measures and Additional Data 
Collection (Office of Management and Budget #0970-0566)

AGENCY: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration 
for Children and Families, 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 
Family Assistance (OFA), is requesting an extension with changes to its 
approved collection and reporting of performance measures about program 
operations, services, and clients served through the Healthy Marriage 
(HM) and Responsible Fatherhood (RF) grant programs. In an effort to 
gain a greater understanding of how HMRF programs influence program 
participants and staff at an individual level, ACF proposes to add one 
open field to the quarterly narrative reports to capture information 
about the experiences of HMRF participants and/or staff. ACF is 
requesting to extend approval, with the implementation of this change, 
for 3 years.

DATES: Comments due within 60 days of publication. In compliance with 
the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, ACF is 
soliciting public comment on the specific aspects of the information 
collection described above.

ADDRESSES: You can obtain copies of the proposed collection of 
information and submit comments by emailing 
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#1b544b495e72757d74787477777e786f7274755b7a787d35737368357c746d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a2edf2f0e7cbccc4cdc1cdcecec7c1d6cbcdcce2c3c1c48ccacad18cc5cdd4">[email protected]</span></a>. Identify all requests by the title of 
the information collection.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Description: ACF proposes to continue collecting a set of Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB)-approved performance measures from all HMRF 
award recipients.
    The HMRF performance measures collect standardized information in 
the following areas:
    <bullet> Applicant characteristics;
    <bullet> Program operations;
    <bullet> Service delivery; and
    <bullet> Participant outcomes:
    [cir] Entrance survey, with five versions: (1) HM Program Entrance 
Survey for Adult-Focused Programs; (2) HM Program Entrance Survey for 
Youth-Focused Programs; (3) RF Program Entrance Survey for Community-
Based Fathers; (4) RF Program Entrance Survey for Community-Based 
Mothers; and (5) RF Program Entrance Survey for Reentering Fathers.
    [cir] Exit survey, with five versions: (1) HM Program Exit Survey 
for Adult-Focused Programs; (2) HM Program Exit Survey for Youth-
Focused Programs; (3) RF Program Exit Survey for Community-Based 
Fathers; (4) RF Program Exit Survey for Community-Based Mothers; and 
(5) RF Program Exit Survey for Reentering Fathers.
    The measures were developed in 2014 after extensive review of the 
research literature and recipients' past measures. They were revised in 
2020 based on a targeted analysis of existing measures, feedback from 
key audiences, and discussions with ACF staff and the 2015 cohort of 
recipients. OMB approved these revised measures in 2021 and has 
approved a handful of non-substantive changes since then.
    ACF also proposes to continue the OMB-approved quarterly reporting 
on the following measures, with minor changes as described:
    <bullet> Semi-annual Performance Progress Report (PPR), with two 
versions: (1) Performance Progress Report for HM Programs, and (2) 
Performance Progress Report for RF Programs; and
    <bullet> Quarterly Performance Report (QPR), with two versions: (1) 
Quarterly Performance Progress Report for HM Programs, and (2) 
Quarterly Performance Progress Report for RF Programs. ACF proposes to 
add a new text box to the QPRs to gather qualitative narratives of the 
experiences of HMRF participants and/or staff. This information will 
help build ACF's understanding of how HMRF programs influence program 
participants and staff at an individual level.
    ACF provides recipients with a web-based performance measures data 
collection system called nFORM 2.0 (Information, Family Outcomes, 
Reporting, and Management) to improve the efficiency of data collection 
and reporting and the quality of data. This system allows for 
streamlined and standardized submission of recipient performance data 
through regular progress reports and supports recipient-led and federal 
research projects.
    ACF also proposes to continue the OMB-approved requirement for 
recipients to document their continuous quality improvement (CQI) 
planning and implementation using a CQI plan template that is completed 
outside of the nFORM system.
    Respondents: Respondents include HM and RF award recipient staff 
and program applicants and participants (participants are called 
``clients'').
    Annual Burden Estimates: The estimated number of respondents for 
each instrument has been adjusted to reflect experiences in the field 
to date. There is no change to the average estimated time per response 
of any instrument.

[[Page 81086]]



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                                                                                             Number of
                                                                             Number of     responses per
                                                                            respondents     respondent      Avg. burden    Total burden    Annual burden
               Instrument                           Respondent              (total over     (total over    per response     (in hours)      (in hours)
                                                                              request         request       (in hours)
                                                                              period)         period)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: Applicant Characteristics...........  Program applicants.............         150,000               1            0.25          37,500          12,500
                                         Program staff..................             330             455            0.10          15,015           5,005
2: Program Operations..................  Program staff..................             110              12            0.32             422             141
3: Service Delivery Data...............  Program staff..................           1,650              86            0.50          70,950          23,650
4: Entrance and Exit Surveys...........  Program clients (entrance).....         141,498               1            0.42          59,429          19,810
                                         Program clients (exit).........          94,734               1            0.42          39,788          13,263
                                         Program staff (entrance and                 220             351            0.10           7,722           2,574
                                          exit on paper).
5: Semi-annual Performance Progress      Program staff..................             110               6               3           1,980             660
 Report (PPR).
6: Quarterly Performance Report (QPR)..  Program staff..................             110               6               1             660             220
7: CQI Plan............................  Program staff..................             110               3               4           1,320             440
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 78,263.
    Comments: The Department specifically requests comments 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; (c) 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 or other forms of information technology. 
Consideration will be given to comments and suggestions submitted 
within 60 days of this publication.
    Authority: Sec. 403. [42 U.S.C. 603].

Mary B. Jones,
ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.
[FR Doc. 2023-25720 Filed 11-20-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-73-P


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