This ICR is
approved on the following conditions: 1) ACF will report within the
next 30 days whether any previous PRA violations were incurred for
this study and, if so, in what ICB this was reported; 2) because
this study is based on a purposive sample and is exploratory in
nature, ACF agrees it will not generalize results to the wider
population of foster youth programs; 3) any adaptations made to the
instruments will be of a non-substantive nature; 4) in sites where
study participants have not aged out of the foster care system at
final follow-up, study results will not be interpreted as outcomes
for children who have aged out of the system but, rather, as
something along the lines of outcomes that would suggest favorable
behavior change when participants eventually do age out of the
system; 5) the same privacy protections and process used for
obtaining informed consent for children in this study will be used
for children who are selected to participate in the focus groups;
6) ACF will not collect any information from the additional fifth
study site until this change to the study design has been reported
to and approved by the agency which issued the Confidentiality
Certificate for the original ICR.
Inventory as of this Action
Requested
Previously Approved
12/31/2009
36 Months From Approved
12/31/2006
569
0
4,500
780
0
3,800
0
0
0
The Foster Care Independence Act of
1999 mandates evaluations of promising Independent Living Programs
(ILP) administered by state and local child welfare agencies. ACF
proposes an evaluation of four ILP programs over a five year period
using a randomized experimental design. Data will be collected from
foster youth (aged 14-21 years) and their caseworkers at three
different time points during the evaluaiton period. The goal of the
evaluation is to determine the effects of these programs on key
youth outcomes.
Although the burden hours
reflect the planned addition of a fifth site to the evaluation,
this extension request shows a net reduction in total burden hours
from the current inventory due to the following: elimination of
caseworker surveys in all but one site; completion of all three
rounds of interviews for some of the youth survey participants
(burden hours for these participants have been removed from the
total).
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
0970-0253 Supporting Statement A and B.doc
Multi-site Evaluation of Foster Youth Programs