2012-15389. Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Title: State Court Improvement Program.

OMB No.: 0970-0307.

Description: From the funds appropriated for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program (PSSF), $10 million is reserved annually for each of three grants to facilitate the State Court Improvement Program (CIP) to facilitate court improvement in the handling of child abuse and neglect cases.

The Court Improvement Program (CIP) is composed of three grants, the basic, data, and training grants, governed by two separate Program Instructions (PIs). The training and data grants are governed by the “new grant” PI and the basic grant is governed by the “basic grant” PI. Current PIs require separate applications and program assessment reports for each grant. Every State applies for at least two of the grants annually and most States apply for all three. As many of the application requirements are the same for all three grants, this results in duplicative work and high degrees of repetition for State courts applying for more than one CIP grant.

The purpose of this Program Instruction is to streamline and simplify the application and reporting processes by consolidating the PIs into one single PI and requiring one single, consolidated application package and program assessment report per State court annually. These revisions will satisfy statutory programmatic requirements and reduce both the number of required responses and associated total burden hours for State courts. This new PI also describes programmatic and fiscal provisions and reporting requirements for the grants, specifies the application submittal and approval procedures for the grants for fiscal years 2012 through 2015, and identifies technical resources for use by State courts during the course of the grants. The agency uses the information received to ensure compliance with the statute and provide training and technical assistance to the grantees.

Respondents: State Courts.

Annual Burden Estimates

Instrument	Number of respondents	Number of responses per respondent	Average burden hours per response	Total burden hours
Application	52	1	92	4,784
Annual Reports	52	1	86	4,472

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 9,256.

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, 370 L'Enfant Promenade SW., Washington, DC 20447, Attn: ACF 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, Fax: [phone], email: [e-mail], Attn: Desk Officer for the Administration for Children and Families.

Robert Sargis,

Reports Clearance Officer.