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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 250 (Tuesday, December 31, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 107144-107145]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-31132]

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families

Proposed Information Collection Activity; 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, 
Department of Health and Human Services.

ACTION: Request for public comments.

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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 March 3, 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 
above.

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: The Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006 
(Public Law 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 (Public Law 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 satisfaction with services 
received (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 cohort seven, 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:

[[Page 107145]]

     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 which for the first time will 
allow the cross-site evaluation to include participants' own voices to 
describe their experiences receiving services.
     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
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                                                                     Number of    Average burden
                                                   Total number    responses per     hours per     Total annual
            Data collection activity              of respondents    respondent     response (in    burden hours
                                                                    (each year)       hours)
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                                  Site Visit and Key Informant Data Collection
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Program director individual interview...........              18            0.33               2              12
Program manager/supervisor individual interviews              18            0.33               1               6
Frontline staff interviews......................              36            0.33               1              12
Partner representative interviews...............              54            0.33               1              18
Individual interviews with participants enrolled              16            0.33               2              11
 in RPG services................................
Focus groups with participants enrolled in RPG                48            0.33             1.5              24
 services.......................................
Sustainability survey...........................             126            0.33            0.33              14
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                                      Enrollment, client, and service data
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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
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                                             Outcome and impact data
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                                               Administrative Data
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Obtain access to administrative data \a\........               9            0.33             220             330
Report administrative data......................              18               2              81           2,916
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                                            Standardized instruments
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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 sites)              14             100            1.25             875
 \a\............................................
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Estimated Totals............................  ..............  ..............  ..............          11,783
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\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.

    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: The Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006 
(Public Law 109-288) created the competitive RPG program. The September 
30, 2011, passage of the Child and Family Services Improvement and 
Innovation Act (Public Law 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 (Public Law 115-123) into law, 
reauthorizing the RPG program through FFY 2021 and adding a focus on 
opioid abuse.

Mary C. Jones,
ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.
[FR Doc. 2024-31132 Filed 12-30-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-P
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