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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 227 (Monday, November 25, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 92941-92943]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-27505]

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families

Proposed Information Collection Activity: Services Provided to 
Unaccompanied Children (Office of Management and Budget #: 0970-0553)

AGENCY: Office of Refugee Resettlement, Administration for Children and 
Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

ACTION: Request for public comments.

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SUMMARY: The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), Administration for 
Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human 
Services, is inviting public comments on the proposed information 
collection, including proposed changes. The request consists of several 
forms that will allow the Unaccompanied Children (UC) Bureau to 
continue providing statutorily mandated services to unaccompanied 
children in ORR care.

DATES: Comments due January 24, 2025. 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 in this notice.

ADDRESSES: You can obtain copies of the proposed collection of 
information and submit comments by emailing [email protected]. 
Identify all requests by the title of the information collection.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Description: ORR has undertaken a reorganization of its information 
collections to promote operational efficiency. The reorganization will 
result in more collections that contain fewer forms under a single 
Office of Management and Budget number. This information collection 
currently contains 22 unique forms (33 including alternative versions). 
Under the reorganization, ORR proposes to discontinue the use of six 
forms; transfer 10 forms to new information collections associated with 
Assessments and Home Studies/Post-Release Services; and revise five 
existing forms.
    The UC Bureau is requesting to discontinue the use of six forms 
created for the UC Path case management system, which was never 
implemented. Except where indicated below, the UC Path versions of 
these forms contain features and/or logic not replicated in the UC 
Portal, and have never been used, thus maintaining these forms is 
unnecessary. These forms include:
     Long Term Foster Care Travel Request (Form S-14)--UC Path 
version only. UC Bureau plans to revise and continue using the UC 
Portal version.
     Home Study/Post-Release Service (HS/PRS) Provider Entity 
(Form S-21A).
     Home Study/Post-Release Service (HS/PRS) Subcontractor 
Entity (Form S-21B).
     Home Study/Post-Release Service (HS/PRS) Primary Provider 
Profile (Form S-21C).
     Home Study/Post-Release Service (HS/PRS) Subcontractor 
Profile (Form S-21D).

[[Page 92942]]

     Sponsor Application (Form S-24).
    Additionally, the following forms currently approved under this 
collection will be transferred to two new information collections 
proposed separately. The proposed new collections will encompass forms 
pertaining to Assessments and Home Study/Post-Release Services (HS/
PRS). These forms include:

 Assessments Information Collection
    [cir] Sponsor Assessment (Form S-5)
    [cir] Adult Contact Profile (Form S-7)
    [cir] Initial Intakes Assessment (Form S-8)
    [cir] Assessment for Risk (Form S-9)
    [cir] UC Assessment (Form S-11)
    [cir] UC Case Review (Form S-12)
    [cir] Individual Service Plan (Form S-13)
 Home Study/Post-Release Services Information Collection
    [cir] Home Study Assessment (Form S-6)
    [cir] Post-Release Service (PRS) Referral (Form S-19)
    [cir] Post-Release Service (PRS) Report (Form S-22)
    [cir] Home Study Referral (Form S-26)

    Finally, the UC Bureau plans to keep the following forms in this 
information collection and make revisions as noted below. These forms 
are completed by foster parents or case managers or clinicians at care 
provider facilities to request approval for a child to travel outside 
the local community with their foster parent; to update the child's 
biographic information and admit them into the program; to authorize 
and document the child's contact with others outside the program; to 
document outreach performed on the child's behalf by care providers; 
and, to capture high-level milestones in the child's case. These forms 
are documentary in nature and a critical component of the child's case 
file. ORR funded care providers must always remain compliant with ORR 
and state licensing requirements per the Unaccompanied Children Program 
Foundational Rule, 45 CFR 410.1302(a); proposed revisions that remove 
or simplify form fields attesting to or documenting program compliance 
do not exempt programs from satisfying these requirements. The 
following revisions are currently proposed for each form:
     Foster Care Travel Request (Form S-14):
    [cir] Remove ``Long-term'' from the form's title to clarify this 
form may be used for children in all foster care settings.
    [cir] Add ``physical location of the child'' field to the UC Basic 
Information section, consistent with changes made to the UC Case Status 
(S-27) form; this field will auto-populate data from the UC Portal 
Discharge Tab.
    [cir] Clarify that the name of the individual with whom the child 
is traveling must be an adult.
    [cir] Remove Personal Vehicle information section from the form to 
align UC travel request data collection with domestic child welfare 
practices.
    [cir] Add Health Safety Travel Plan section to the form to document 
how the child's health conditions, if applicable, may be effectively 
managed while traveling with their foster family, and plan for how the 
foster family will handle any health-related emergencies which may 
occur during travel.
    [cir] Simplify the Travel Request Approval section by removing the 
following fields:
    [ssquf] Reason Travel Request is being submitted to ORR/DCS for 
approval:
    [ssquf] Is the travel request in accordance with state guidelines?
    [ssquf] Purpose of travel and trip summary:
    [ssquf] Are there any identified safety concerns in this child's 
background?
    [ssquf] Is there any indication of flight risk?
    [cir] Add a summary approval field with an open text comment space 
for approving officials to document their rationale for denial.
    [cir] Adjust the burden estimate to account for an increase in the 
number of care provider facilities completing the form (form now used 
for children in all foster care settings, not just long-term foster 
care) and number of children placed in ORR care, and to reflect a 
decrease in the overall number of fields the respondent will need to 
complete. The annual number of respondents increased from 30 to 138, 
the annual number of responses per response increased from 8 to 178, 
and the average burden hours per response decreased from 0.33 hours to 
0.25 hours.
     Admission (Form S-18):
    [cir] Replace ``UAC'' with ``UC'' throughout the form to conform 
with UC Bureau standard terminology as established in UC Program 
Foundational Rule, 45 CFR 410.
    [cir] Add ``Nonbinary'' to dropdown menu options for Gender.
    [cir] Add ``physical location of the child'' filed to the UC Basic 
Information section, consistent with changes made to the UC Case Status 
(S-27) form; this field will auto-populate data from the UC Portal 
Discharge Tab.
    [cir] Adjust the burden estimate to account for an increase in the 
number of care provider facilities and number of children placed in ORR 
care. The annual number of respondents increased from 216 to 300 and 
the annual number of responses per response increased from 278 to 327.
     UC Authorized/Restricted Call List and Call Log (Form S-
20):
    [cir] Replace ``UAC'' with ``UC'' throughout the form to conform 
with UC Bureau standard terminology as established in UC Bureau 
Foundational Rule.
    [cir] Add ``Call Supervision Required?'' field to the Authorized 
Contacts List; content will auto-populate on the call logs display tab 
and reference the corresponding field in the Family/Friend contact 
profile. When entering this data, respondents will select from a ``Yes/
No'' dropdown menu to indicate if contact between the child and named 
individual must be supervised by care provider staff.
    [cir] Add the following fields to the UC Call Log to support data 
tracking related to UC Bureau Policy Guide Section 3.3.10 Calls, 
Visitation, Mail and Email:
    [ssquf] ``Call Duration'' with an open text field for the care 
provider staff to document the length of the call.
    [ssquf] ``Supervision Required?'' which will auto-populate ``Yes'' 
or ``No'' based on the corresponding field in the contact profile.
    [ssquf] ``Supervised By:'' with an open text field for the care 
provider to identify which staff member supervised the call.
    [ssquf] Call Method with dropdown options to specify if the contact 
was made by phone or video call.
    [cir] Adjust the burden estimate to account for an increase in the 
number of care provider facilities and number of children placed in ORR 
care, as well as revisions to policies on phone calls in UC Bureau 
Policy Guide Section 3.3.10-Calls, Visitation, Mail and Email. The 
annual number of respondents increased from 216 to 300 and the annual 
number of responses per response increased from 6,981 to 15,711.
     Case Manager Call Log and Case Notes (Form S-23):
    [cir] Replace ``UAC'' with ``UC'' throughout the form to conform 
with UC Bureau standard terminology as established in UC Program 
Foundational Rule.
    [cir] Adjust the burden estimate to account for an increase in the 
number of care provider facilities and number of children placed in ORR 
care. The annual number of respondents increased from 216 to 300 and 
the annual number of responses per response decreased from 8,426 to 
8,183.
     UC Case Status (Form S-27):
    [cir] Assigned a tracking number to the form (S-27).
    [cir] Add ``Physical Location of the Child'' Field to the UC Basic 
Information Section. This will auto-populate with data sourced from the 
UC

[[Page 92943]]

Portal Discharge Tab, presented as an appendix to the form.
    [cir] Add ``Concurrent Planning: Additional Potential Sponsors'' 
segment to Family Reunification Section with the following fields 
(which will auto-populate from the Sponsor Assessment (Form S-5, 
currently approved under this information collection):
    [ssquf] Potential Sponsor Name.
    [ssquf] Relationship to Child.
    [ssquf] Sponsor Category.
    [cir] Split the ``Know Your Rights Presentation and Legal 
Screening'' into two distinct fields to capture the completion date for 
each more accurately, acknowledging that they typically are not 
completed on the same day.
    [cir] Add ``Back-Up Case Manager'' segment to Case Manager 
Information Section to designate an alternative Case Manager who may 
take actions on behalf of the primary Case Manager when they are 
unavailable. The corresponding fields mirror those for primary case 
manager and will either be system-generated or auto-populate with user 
account data already entered the system. The fields include:
    [ssquf] Back-up Case Manager Name.
    [ssquf] Back-up Case Manager Email Address.
    [ssquf] Back-up Case Manager Phone Number.
    [ssquf] Back-up Case Manager Organization.
    [ssquf] Assigned on (MM/DD/YYYY).
    [cir] Adjust the burden estimate to account for an increase in the 
number of care provider facilities and number of children placed in ORR 
care, as well as the addition of the above listed new segments and 
fields. The annual number of respondents increased from 216 to 300, the 
annual number of responses per respondent increased from 278 to 327, 
and the average burden hours per response increased from 0.08 hours to 
0.25 hours.
    Respondents: ORR grantee and contractor staff.
    Annual Burden Estimates:

                                     Annual Burden Estimate for Respondents
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                                                                     Number of    Average burden
                      Form                         Annual number   responses per     hours per     Annual total
                                                  of respondents    respondent       response      burden hours
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Foster Care Travel Req. Form (S-14).............             138             178            0.25           6,141
Admission (S-18)................................             300             327            0.33          32,373
UC Authorized/Restricted Call List and Call Log              300          15,711            0.08         377,064
 (S-20).........................................
Case Manager Call Log and Case Notes (S-23).....             300           8,183            0.08         196,392
UC Case Status (S-27)...........................             300             327            0.25          24,525
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Estimated Annual Burden Hours Total.........  ..............  ..............  ..............         636,495
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    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: 6 U.S.C. 279; 8 U.S.C. 1232.

Mary C. Jones,
ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.
[FR Doc. 2024-27505 Filed 11-22-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-45-P
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