44374 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 153 / Thursday, August 12, 2021 / Notices 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Administration for Children and 

Families 

Submission for OMB Review; Data 

Collection for the Engaging Fathers 

and Paternal Relatives: A Continuous 

Quality Improvement Approach in the 

Child Welfare System Project (New 

Collection) 

AGENCY: Office of Planning, Research, 

and Evaluation, Administration for 

Children and Families, HHS. 

ACTION: Request for public comment. 

SUMMARY: The Office of Planning, 

Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within 

the Administration for Children and 

Families (ACF) is proposing to conduct 

data collection activities for the 

Engaging Fathers and Paternal Relatives: 

A Continuous Quality Improvement 

Approach in the Child Welfare System 

(FCL) Project. This evaluation is a 

descriptive study of child welfare 

agencies’ use of a continuous quality 

improvement process called the 

Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) 

to implement strategies to improve 

father and paternal relative engagement 

in the child welfare system. The project 

is designed to examine the use of the 

BSC methodology to strengthen fathers’ 

and paternal relatives’ engagement with 

children involved in child welfare and 

to add to the evidence base on 

engagement strategies for fathers and 

paternal relatives in child welfare. 

DATES: Comments due within 30 days of 

publication. OMB must make a decision 

about 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. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments and 

recommendations for the proposed 

information collection should be sent 

within 30 days of publication of this 

notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/ 

PRAMain. Find this particular 

information collection by selecting 

‘‘Currently under 30-day Review—Open 

for Public Comments’’ or by using the 

search function. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Description: The FCL evaluation has 

three equally important aims. The first 

is to describe promising strategies and 

approaches for engaging fathers and 

paternal relatives in the child welfare 

system. The second is to assess the 

promise of the BSC as a continuous 

quality improvement framework for 

addressing challenges in the child 

welfare system, including whether and 

to what extent the BSC has potential, 

and if so, how it may be applied to other 

child welfare challenges. The third is to 

assess the extent to which agencies 

experienced a shift in organizational 

culture in terms of the importance of 

father engagement. 

The descriptive evaluation will build 

on the findings of the pilot study 

conducted under the umbrella generic: 

Formative Data Collections for ACF 

Program Support (OMB #0970–0531). 

(Site selection for the pilot study was 

conducted under the umbrella generic: 

Formative Data Collections for ACF 

Research (OMB #0970–0356). It will 

focus on organizational changes and 

network supports for father and paternal 

relative engagement, changes in staff 

attitudes and skills for engaging fathers 

and paternal relatives, and father and 

paternal relative engagement outcomes. 

This evaluation will explore the 

implementation of father and paternal 

relative engagement strategies and 

approaches by examining process 

outcomes. By examining process 

outcomes, the evaluation is designed to 

indicate whether strategies and 

approaches developed in the BSC are 

likely to lead to placement stability and 

permanency outcomes. 

Data collection will take place with 

stakeholders in five child welfare 

agencies implementing the BSC 

(including one agency that had two 

separate teams participate in the earlier 

pilot study). Data collection activities 

include discussions with participating 

agency staff and key partners during site 

visits, focus groups or interviews with 

fathers and paternal relatives with 

relatively recent experience with the 

focal child welfare agencies, and web 

surveys of participating agency staff. 

Respondents: Child welfare agency 

leaders, child welfare agency program 

staff and key partner staff involved in 

implementing the engagement 

strategies; community stakeholders 

whose role has intersected with the 

child welfare agency and who have an 

interest in father and paternal relative 

engagement; and, father and paternal 

relative clients of the agencies. Program 

staff may include senior leaders, 

managers, and frontline staff. 

ANNUAL BURDEN ESTIMATES

Instrument 

Number of 

respondents 

(total over 

request 

period) 

Number of 

responses per 

respondent 

(total over 

request 

period) 

Avg. burden 

per response 

(in hours) 

Total burden 

(in hours) 

Annual burden 

(in hours) 

Interview topic guide ............................................................ 230 1 1.5 345 173 

Father and paternal relative focus group protocol .............. 72 1 1.5 108 54 

Staff survey .......................................................................... 360 2 0.333 240 120 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 347. 

Authority: 

Sec. 403. [42 U.S.C. 603] and Sec. 426. 

[42 U.S.C. 626] 

Mary B. Jones, 

ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer. 

[FR Doc. 2021–17263 Filed 8–11–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4184–73–P 


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