2018-14486. Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Title: Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood performance measures and additional data collection (part of the Fatherhood and Marriage Local Evaluation and Cross-Site (FaMLE Cross-Site) Project)—Extension.

OMB No.: 0970-0460.

Description

Background

For decades various organizations and agencies have been developing and operating programs to strengthen families through healthy marriage and relationship education and responsible fatherhood programming. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), has had administrative responsibility for federal funding of such programs since 2006 through the Healthy Marriage (HM) and Responsible Fatherhood (RF) Grant Programs. The authorizing legislation for the programs may be found in Section 403(a)(2) of the Social Security Act [1].

Extension of Current Approval

The Offices of Family Assistance (OFA) and Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are proposing to extend performance measure and other data collection activities, in service to the HM and RF programs. This data collection is part of the Fatherhood and Marriage Local Evaluation and Cross-Site (FaMLE Cross-Site) project, whose purpose is to support high quality data collection, strengthen local evaluations, and conduct cross-site analysis for the Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage grantees.

ACF is requesting comment on the following data collection, which has been ongoing under OMB #0970-0460 since 2016. There are no changes proposed to the information collection, we are only requesting an extension to continue data collection with the current grantees for another three years.

Performance measures. ACF is proposing to extend collection of a set of performance measures that are collected by all grantees. These measures collect standardized information in the following areas:

• Applicant characteristics;
• Program operations (including program characteristics and service delivery); and
• Participant outcomes:

○ Entrance survey, with four versions: (1)Healthy Marriage Program Pre-Program Survey for Adult-Focused Programs; (2) Healthy Marriage Program Pre-Program Survey for Youth-Focused Programs; (3) Responsible Fatherhood Program Pre-Program Survey for Community-Based-Fathers; and (4)Responsible Fatherhood Program Pre-Program Survey for Incarcerated Fathers.

○ Exit survey, with four versions: (1) Healthy Marriage Program Post-Program Survey for Adult-Focused Programs; (2) Healthy Marriage Program Post-Program Survey for Youth-Focused Programs; (3) Responsible Fatherhood Program Post-Program Survey for Community-Based-Fathers; and (4) Responsible Fatherhood Program Post-Program Survey for Incarcerated Fathers.

These measures were developed per extensive review of the research literature and grantees' past measures.

Grantees are required to submit data on these standardized measures on a regular basis (e.g., quarterly). In addition to the performance measures mention above, ACF proposes to extend collection for these data submissions:

• Semi-annual Performance Progress Report (PPR), with two versions: (1) Performance Progress Report for Healthy Marriage Programs, and (2) Performance Progress Report for Responsible Fatherhood Programs; and
• Quarterly Performance Report (QPR), with two versions: (1) Quarterly Performance Progress Report for Healthy Marriage Programs, and (2)Quarterly Performance Progress Report for Responsible Fatherhood Programs.

A management information system has been implemented which improves efficiency and the quality of data, and makes reporting easier.

Additional data collection. We also seek to extend the approval to collect information from a sub-set of grantees on how they designed and implemented their programs (information on outcomes associated with programs will also be assessed), per the following protocols:

• Staff interview protocol on program design (will be collected from about half of all grantees);
• Staff interview protocols on program implementation (will be collected from about 20 grantees); and
• Program participant focus group protocol (will be conducted with about 20 grantees).

Respondents: Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage Program grantees (e.g., grantee staff) and program applicants and participants—participants are called “clients.”

Annual Burden Estimates

Instrument	Respondent	Total number of respondents	Annual number of respondents	Number of responses per respondent	Average burden hours per response	Annual burden hours
Data Collection by Grantees
(DCS, or Data Collected by Sites)
Instrument DCS-1: Applicant characteristics	Program applicants	265,838	88,613	1	0.25	22,153
	Program staff	360	360	246	0.10	8,856
Instrument DCS-2:Grantee program operations	Program staff	120	120	1	0.75	90
Instrument DCS-3: Service receipt in MIS	Program staff	239,493	79,831	15	0.033	39,916
Instrument DCS-4:Entrance and Exit Surveys	Program clients (Entrance Survey; 4 versions)	239,493	79,831	1	0.42	33,529
	Program clients (Exit Survey; 4 versions)	132,087	44,029	1	0.42	18,492
	Program staff (Entrance and Exit surveys on paper)	60	20	1,285	0.30	7,710
Instrument DCS-5: Semi-annual report	Program staff (2 versions)	120	120	2	3	720
Instrument DCS-6: Quarterly performance report	Program staff (2 versions)	120	120	2	1	240
Data Collection by the Contractor
(DCI, or Data collected by the Contractor Itself)
Instrument DCI-1: Topic guide on program design	Program staff	60	20	1	1	20
Instrument DCI-2: Topic guide on program implementation	Program staff	300	100	1	1	100
Instrument DCI-3: Focus group protocol	Program clients	801	267	1	1.50	401

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 132,227

Additional Information: Copies of the proposed collection may be obtained by writing to the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, 330 C Street SW, Washington, DC 20201, Attn: OPRE Reports Clearance Officer. All requests should be identified by the title of the information collection. Email address: [e-mail].

OMB Comment: OMB is required to make a decision concerning 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. Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent directly to the following: Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project, Email: [e-mail], Attn: Desk Officer for the Administration for Children and Families.

Reference

[1] http://www.ssa.gov/​OP_​Home/​ssact/​title04/​0403.htm.

Mary B. Jones,

ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.