OJJDP NTTAC Supporting Statement_to send Angela 7-30-09

Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

OJJDP National Training and Technical Assistance Center

Needs Assessment of the Juvenile Justice Field

Office of Management and Budget

Clearance Package Supporting Statement

and Data Collection Instruments

April 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Section Page

A. Justification 1

A1. Circumstances Requiring the Collection of Information 1

A2. Use of the Information 2

A3. Use of Technology to Reduce Burden 2

A4. Efforts to Identify Duplication 3

A5. Impact on Small Businesses 3

A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection 3

A7. Special Circumstances Influencing Collection 3

A8. 5 CFR 1320.8: Public Comment and Consultation 3

A9. Payment or Gift to Respondents 4

A10. Assurance of Confidentiality 4

A11. Justification for Sensitive Questions 4

A12. Estimates of Hour Burden 4

A13. Estimate of Cost Burden 6

A14. Estimated Annualized Cost to the Federal Government 6

A15. Explanation of Program Changes or Adjustments 6

A16. Plans for Publication and Project Time Schedule 7

A17. Reasons display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate 7

A18. 5 CFR 1320.9: Exceptions to Certification Statement 7

B. Statistical Methods…. . 7

Appendices

Appendix A: Legislative Authority

Appendix B: OJJDP NTTAC Needs Assessment - Managers

Appendix C: OJJDP NTTAC Needs Assessment – Direct Service Providers

Supporting Statement for the

Paperwork Reduction Act Submission

Agency: Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Title: OJJDP NTTAC Needs Assessment of the Juvenile Justice Field

A. JUSTIFICATION

A1. Circumstances Requiring the Collection of Information

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is a federal agency within the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Authorized through the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (1974), OJJDP supports programs and policies that serve children, families, and their communities, through grants to state and local governments and youth-serving organizations. They provide training and technical assistance, support research and evaluation, and disseminate information to help states and communities identify what works and find solutions to the challenges that confront our nation’s children. They focus this work on delinquency prevention, child protection, public safety, and strengthening the juvenile justice system. OJJDP’s mission is to provide national leadership, coordination, and resources to prevent and respond to juvenile delinquency and victimization. OJJDP supports states and communities in their efforts to develop and implement effective and coordinated prevention and intervention programs and to improve the juvenile justice system so that it protects public safety, holds offenders accountable, and provides treatment and rehabilitative services tailored to the needs of juveniles and their families

Established in 1995, the OJJDP National Training and Technical Assistance Center (NTTAC) is designed to assist practitioners and communities identify and implement evidence-based prevention and intervention programming through provision of customized training and technical assistance that aims to significantly impact delinquency, substance abuse and other co-occurring problems that confront youth in the juvenile justice system everyday. The primary activities of NTTAC include delivering customized training and technical assistance; identifying appropriate training and technical assistance subject matter experts, providers, and events that best meet the needs of the field; conducting ongoing needs assessments of the field; generating searchable directories of training and technical assistance providers, events, and resource materials; distributing individualized training and technical assistance packages, including "how to" guides, resource lists, and reference materials; and supporting efforts to evaluate and improve training and technical assistance delivery. To this end, it is important to systematically assess the training, technical assistance, and information needs on a regular basis. This information collection request is focused on formally identifying in a systematic manner the appropriate needs of the juvenile justice field in order to inform OJJDP NTTAC training and technical assistance products and services.

A2. Use of the Information

OJJDP NTTAC intends to use the new information collected to improve services and plan for future training and technical assistance efforts. The instrument will provide information concerning the topics of information that are of interest to the field, the type of training and technical assistance that will provide the greatest benefit, and the challenges the juvenile justice field is currently facing. Additional information regarding the background and experience of respondents will also assist in tailoring OJJDP NTTAC’s offerings to the needs of the field. OJJDP also plans to utilize results from the needs assessment to tailor training and technical assistance offered through other contracts. Additionally, it is anticipated that NTTAC will provide the web-based instrument as a self-assessment tool in the future, for the field to use in understanding their own organization’s training and technical assistance needs.

A3. Use of Technology to Reduce Burden

The OJJDP NTTAC Needs Assessment will be conducted on-line to reduce the burden on the respondent. Using a web-based survey system, the needs assessment will gather feedback from both direct service staff and managers. Questions will be asked concerning their background/roles; previous training and technical assistance experience; and current training and technical assistance needs. The needs assessment will also capture information concerning the topics of interest to the field, the level of need for information about the topic, the types of training and technical assistance of interest around a topic, and the specific challenges that the field is facing in their work. In order to reduce the burden of time to complete the survey, the on-line survey format will include skip patterns to ensure that each completion is tailored to the individual needs of each respondent. Each respondent’s survey will be tailored to their organization role, background, and topics of interest to reduce the amount of time spent completing the survey and to focus on the information needed. Each invitee will be e-mailed a survey invitation which will include a link to the survey and an individualized password that will provide them access to the needs assessment instrument. They will be able to save their responses and finish the survey at a later date. We will also send reminders by e-mail to help them remember and access the survey easily. If a participant from the general public would like to complete the needs assessment, they will provide their name, organization, and e-mail address in order to be assigned a username and password. The personally identifiable information will only be used to ensure no duplication of responses and to minimize fraudulent responses. Personally identifiable information will not be shared and will not be stored or associated at any time with survey responses. If a participant is unable to complete the survey on-line, there will be an option to complete a paper version of the same survey. All survey responses will be reported in aggregate and not individual survey responses will be reviewed or reported.

A4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

The information to be collected is only for the purposes of informing OJJDP training and technical assistance services. This type of needs assessment of the juvenile justice field has not been conducted before.

A5. Impact on Small Businesses

The OJJDP NTTAC Needs Assessment of the Juvenile Justice Field does not impact small businesses or other small entities.

A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection

The urgency of changing needs in juvenile justice requires a field-wide formal assessment in order to better understand what training and technical assistance services would help direct service providers and agencies do their work. This type of systematic assessment has not been done before for this population. To keep current on the information about needs of the field, this collection will be conducted every two years. Without this information, OJJDP NTTAC will be making decisions about products and services without important knowledge regarding the most effective use of funds to have the most impact in the field.

A7. Special Circumstances Influencing Collection

Responding to this data collection effort is completely voluntary. Respondents will be given the opportunity to not respond at all (without penalty), and to respond whenever it is convenient for them during the data collection period. They may also save their responses and complete the instrument at a later date. They will only complete the tool once per data collection effort and will not be required to submit any documents or maintain records for this data collection effort. The instrument is not a statistically based survey and no pledge of confidentiality is required.

A8. Public Comment and Consultation

Experts in the field of training and technical assistance assessment have been consulted in the development of the NTTAC Needs Assessment instrument. Additionally, IT professionals and other training/technical assistance evaluators have been consulted in methods for minimizing burden including the use of technology for minimizing burden. As required by CFR 1320.8(d), a Federal Register Notice appeared on March 11^th, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 46)) Page 10615-10616. The first notice received no public comment.

A9. Payment or Gift to Respondents

The purpose of this OJJDP NTTAC Needs Assessment is to assess the needs of the juvenile justice field, improve services, and plan for future training and technical assistance efforts in a fiscally responsible manner that will provide the greatest benefit and impact. No payments or gifts will be provided to respondents for completing the needs assessment. Participation is completely voluntary.

A10. Assurance of Confidentiality

All information is collected in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974. Any release of information will conform to the stipulations of the Privacy Act and the guidelines of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) as determined by Title 45 Part 46 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Only those who are required to review and process the forms will have access to the information and personally-identifiable information will only be used to send reminders to those in the target population (e.g. grantees) though participation will still be voluntary and there will be no consequence for not completing the needs assessment. Once the information from each form has been entered into an electronic database, only those persons with a valid identification, password, and permissions will have access to the information. Any physical forms will be maintained in a safe location with access only to those who will be entering the forms into the electronic database. At no time will any personally-identifiable information be reported or shared. Additionally, no personally identifiable information will be stored/linked with survey responses.

A11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

There are no questions of a sensitive nature asked in this information collection.

A12. Estimates of Hour Burden

The OJJDP NTTAC Needs Assessment of the juvenile justice field is designed to be tailored to the needs of the individual respondent and therefore, will require varying levels of burden hours to complete with an anticipated average of 20 minutes per respondent. Two parallel instruments will be utilized to assess the needs of managers and direct service providers in an appropriate manner with the individual’s role in the organization directing the respondent to the tailored questions in a seamless manner through on-line skip patterns. The two instruments have similar, parallel questions with response choices tailored to the role of the respondent and are expected to have the same burden on the respondent. The burden estimate of 20 minutes per respondent was created by having staff from the OJJDP NTTAC evaluation team complete the parallel on-line needs assessment developed by the Office for Victims of Crime training and technical assistance center. The anticipated number of respondents for each type of affected public was created using OJJDP NTTAC staff knowledge regarding the primary audience of OJJDP NTTAC – 75% state, local, and tribal government, 15% private sector, and 10% individuals. It is anticipated that this data collection effort will occur every two years therefore the annual burden estimate is provided for Years 1 and 3 of OMB approval with the expectation that the burden and cost for the year in-between will be zero.

Table A-1: Annual Burden Estimates for Years 1 and 3 of OMB approval

Instrument	Affected Public	Number of Respondents	Number of Responses per Respondent	Average Burden hours per Response	Total Burden Hours
OJJDP NTTAC Needs Assessment – Direct Service Providers	Individuals/ Households	216	1	.33	72
	Private Sector	324	1	.33	108
	State, Local, or Tribal Governments	1620	1	.33	540
OJJDP NTTAC Needs Assessment – Managers	Individuals/ Households	144	1	.33	48
	Private Sector	216	1	.33	72
	State, Local, or Tribal Governments	1080	1	.33	360
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours per data collection year					1200 hours

To determine the annualized cost associated with the burden hours of the information collection, federal job postings for probation officer and juvenile case manager were examined to estimate the cost for direct service providers and federal job postings for facility administrators were examined to estimate the cost for managers. The average salary range was grade 10 for direct service providers and grade 13 for managers on the federal wage schedule published by the office on personnel management. Accordingly, the annualized cost burden for the needs assessment of direct service providers would be $13,614 and the annualized cost burden for the needs assessment of manager would be $16,342 with a total burden of $29,956 for per year for years 1 and 3 of the approval.

A13. Estimate of Cost Burden

The annual reporting cost burden to respondents resulting from this information collection is estimated to be $0. The estimated cost burden for the collection of information related to this effort will not require funding for capital/startup or operating and maintenance of these data by respondents.

A14. Estimated Annualized Cost to Federal Government

We estimate the total cost to the Federal government to be $122,768. This cost estimate is based on the capital/startup costs (e.g. planning, development, invitations sent) and operating and maintenance costs (data collection, analysis, and reporting) for two data collection periods. This information includes: the quantification of hours for managerial and support staff to administer the needs assessment; the acquisition or development of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques; and operational expenses (e.g., equipment, overhead, printing, etc.). Since the information collection will occur biannually, the operating and maintenance costs are repeated for the second information collection effort within the three year period.

• Capital/Startup costs: $45,066. This amount includes instrument design and development. This amount also includes the development of information technology to store, generate, and assist in distributing and collecting the data necessary for carrying out this effort.

• Operating and Maintenance costs: $77,702. This amount reflects the total costs for a data collection effort in year 1 and year 3 of OMB approval ($38,851 respectively) for operating and maintaining any automated, electronic, mechanical or technological collection techniques, as well as, the labor necessary to implement, analyze and report on this effort.

A15. Explanation of Program Changes or Adjustments

There are no program changes or adjustments as this is a new collection.

A16. Plans for Publication and Project Time schedule

Submit OMB Package: April, 2009

Data Collection: September - October 2009

Reporting: October – November 2009

Second Data Collection: September – October 2011

Second Reporting Period – October- November 2011

Analysis of data will primarily include basic descriptive information such as frequencies, means, and percentages. Additionally, analysis of qualitative data will include thematic coding. No advanced statistical methods will be used.

A17. Reasons Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate

This section does not apply. OJJDP NTTAC will display the OMB control number and expiration date.

A18. Exceptions to Certification Statement

There are no exceptions to Item 19 of OMB form 83-I.

B. STATISTICAL METHODS

We will not be employing statistical methods in this information collection. Therefore, items one through five (1-5) of section B are not addressed

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