E9-22897. Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request

Proposed Projects:

Title: Cross-Site Evaluation of Children's Bureau Child Welfare Implementation Centers and National Resource Centers.

OMB No.: New Collection.

Description: The Cross-Site Evaluation of the Child Welfare Implementation Centers (IC) and National Resource Centers (NRC) is sponsored by the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and involves the conduct of a five-year, cross-site evaluation that examines the effectiveness of the ICs' and NRCs' activities and service provision and the relation of their training and technical assistance activities to organizational and systems change in State and Tribal child welfare systems. Additionally, the evaluation will examine the degree to which networking, collaboration, information sharing, adherence to common principles, and common messaging occurs across all members of the Children's Bureau Training and Technical Assistance (T/TA) Network, which is designed to improve child welfare systems and to support States and Tribes in achieving sustainable, systemic change that results in greater safety, permanency, and well-being for children, youth, and families. The Children's Bureau desires to assess the quality and effectiveness of the technical assistance it supports, and several of these programs and projects are required to be evaluated, including those funded under Section 105 of The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, as amended [42 U.S.C. 5106] and Parts B and E of Title IV of the Social Security Act. Beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2010, the T/TA Network will comprise a group of 30 T/TA providers funded entirely or partially by the Children's Bureau through grants, contracts, and interagency agreements.

The cross-site evaluation uses a mixed-method, longitudinal approach to examine the ICs (funded in FY 2009) and a new cohort of NRCs (funded in FY 2010). Proposed data collection methods are a longitudinal telephone survey of State child welfare directors (or their designees) and Tribal Child Welfare/Social Service Directors (or their designees), a web-based survey of State and Tribal T/TA recipients, and aggregation of outputs from a web-based technical assistance tracking system (OneNet)that will be used by the five ICs and 11 NRCs. A web-based survey will be also administered to members of the T/TA Network. Data collected through these instruments will be used by the Children's Bureau to evaluate the effectiveness of technical assistance delivered to State, local, Tribal, and other publicly administered or publicly supported child welfare agencies and family and juvenile courts and the overall functioning of the T/TA Network.

Respondents: Respondents to two of the survey instruments will be State and Tribal governments. Respondents to the third survey instrument will be private institutions, including universities, not-for-profit organizations, and private companies. Private institutions, including universities and not-for-profit organizations will be respondents to the forms in the OneNet tracking system.

Annual Burden Estimates

Instrument	Number of respondents	Number of responses per respondent	Average burden hours per response	Total burden hours
Agency Results Survey	74	1	1	74
Training and Technical Assistance (T/TA) Activity Survey	600	1	0.25	150
Web-Based Network Survey	30	1	0.25	7.50
OneNet Form: Implementation Project (IP) Description	5	5.40	0.50	13.50
OneNet Form: IP Technical Assistance (TA) Activity	5	280.80	0.33	463.32
OneNet Form: Implementation Center (IC) General TA Event	5	4	0.33	6.60
OneNet Form: IP Monthly Report	5	62.40	0.17	53.04
OneNet Form: National Resource Centers (NRC) TA Intake Form	11	45	0.13	64.35
OneNet Form: NRC TA Work Plan	11	45	0.20	99
OneNet Form: NRC TA Close-Out	11	45	0.08	39.60
OneNet Form: NRC TA Activity	11	528	0.20	1,161.60
OneNet Form: NRC General TA Event	11	36	0.25	99

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 2,231.51.

In compliance with the requirements of Section 506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Administration for Children and Families is soliciting public comment on the specific aspects of the information collection described above. Copies of the proposed collection of information can be obtained and comments may be forwarded 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: ACF Reports Clearance Officer. E-mail address: [e-mail]. All requests should be identified by the title of the information collection.

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.

Dated: September 18, 2009.

Robert Sargis,

Reports Clearance Officer.