E8-18788. Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Title: Evaluation of the Improving Child Welfare Outcome through Systems of Care Grant Program.

OMB No.: 0970-0288.

Description: The 1994 Amendments to the Social Security Act (SSA) authorize the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to review State child and family service programs to ensure conformance with the requirements in titles IV-B and IV-E of SSA. Under the Final Rule, which took effect March 25, 2000, States are assessed for substantial conformity with certain Federal requirements for child-welfare services. The Child and Family Service Reviews (CFSR), administered by the Children's Bureau, are designed to ensure conformity with Federal child-welfare requirements and, ultimately, to help States improve child welfare services and outcomes, specifically safety, permanency and well-being outcomes for child-welfare-involved children and their families. States determined not to have achieved substantial conformity in any of the areas assessed are required to develop and implement Program Improvement Plans (PIP) addressing the areas of nonconformity.

The Systems of Care grant cluster, from which these data are proposed to be collected, is designed to encourage public child-welfare agencies to address the issues identified in their State's CPSR. The data collected from these demonstration sites will allow the Children's Bureau to test whether this approach can help States reach the goals stated in their PIP and explore how child-welfare can benefit from being part of a system of care. Data will be collected via interviews, forms completed by project staff, surveys, focus groups and case-file reviews. Data also will be collected to determine the extent to which the Technical Assistance (TA) provided, brokered or contracted by the TA and Evaluation Center is meeting the needs of the grantees, and how.

Respondents: Systems of Care Project Directors (members of the Systems of Care collaborative may include representatives from mental health, juvenile justice, education, health, among others); child-welfare agency supervisors and caseworkers; partner agency caseworkers; and families who have been involved with the child-welfare system.

Annual Burden Estimates

Instrument	Affected public	Number of respondents	Number of responses per respondent	Average burden hours per response	Total burden hours
Stakeholder Survey	Individuals/Households	20	1	.5	10
	Private Sector	60	1	.5	30
	State/Local/Tribal	190	1	.5	95
Child-Welfare Agency Survey	State/Local/Tribal	600	1	1	600
Supervisor Interviews	State/Local/Tribal	90	1	1	90
Stakeholder Interviews	Individuals/Households	10	1	1	10
	Private Sector	30	1	1	30
	State/Local/Tribal	50	1	1	50
Project Director Interviews	State/Local/Tribal	23	1	1	23
Focus Group with Family Members	Individuals/Households	102	1	1.5	153
Parent Partner Interviews	State/Local/Tribal	24	1	1	24
Child-Welfare Agency and Partner agency group interviews	Private Sector State/Local/ Tribal	80 200	1 1	1.5 1.5	120 300
Community Description Form	State/Local/Tribal	9	1	2.5	23
Organizational Structure Form for Case Study Sites	State/Local/Tribal	3	1	2	6
Organizational Structure Form for Non-Case Study Sites	State/Local/Tribal	20	1	1	20
Collaborative Membership Form	State/Local/Tribal	23	1	1.5	35
Training and Technical Assistance Quality Assurance Assessment	State/Local/Tribal	23	1	1	23
Training and Technical	Individuals/Households	2	12	.25	6
	State/Local/Tribal	8	12	.25	24
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours:					1672

Additional Information:

Copies of the proposed collection may be obtained by writing to the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Administration, Office of Information Services, 370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW., Washington, DC 20447, Attn: ACE Reports Clearance Officer. All requests should be identified by the title of the information collection. E-mail 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, Fax: [phone], Attn: Desk Officer for the Administration for Children and Families.

Dated: August 7, 2008.

Robert Sargis,

Reports Clearance, Officer.