supporting statement 04-09-12

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

Child Welfare Demonstration

A. JUSTIFICATION

1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary.

Per section 1130 of the Social Security Act (the Act) as amended by Public Law 112-34, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF), Children’s Bureau (CB) is planning to announce an opportunity for title IV-E agencies to submit proposals for new child welfare demonstration projects in each of Fiscal Years 2012, 2013 and 2014. These demonstration waiver projects will involve the waiver of certain requirements of title IV-E and IV-B of the Act. We are preparing an Information Memorandum (IM) which will specify the procedures we expect applicants to employ in involving the public in the development of proposed demonstration projects under section 1130 of the Act, the procedures we will follow in receiving and reviewing demonstration proposals and the principles and procedures we will follow in exercising our discretion to grant demonstration waiver projects.

2. Purpose and Use of the Information Collection.

Each title IV-E agency submitting a waiver demonstration project proposal must submit a proposal describing the project in detail including the goals identified in statute that the project is intended to accomplish, the geographic areas in which the proposed project will be conducted, the service interventions to be implemented, the impact intervention is expected to have on outcomes related to safety, permanency and well-being, how service provision will change for children and families under the waiver demonstration, a statement of program requirements for waivers needed to conduct the project, an estimate of the proposed costs or savings of the proposed project, a description of the proposed evaluation design and an accounting of any other sources of funding that have been used to provide the services that the agency now proposes to address under a waiver demonstration. In addition, while not required, applicants may submit a letter of intent briefly describing the project.

3. Use of Improved Information Technology and Burden Reduction.

This is a new collection of information.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication and Use of Similar Information.

We are not aware of any similar information collection efforts.

5. Impact on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities.

N/A. The respondents will be title IV-E agencies.

6. Consequence of Collecting the Information Less Frequently.

Each title IV-E agency wishing to conduct a waiver demonstration project is required to submit a proposal once.

7. Special Circumstances Relating to the Guidelines of 5 CFR 1320.5.

There are no special circumstances required to collect this information in a manner other than required by OMB.

8. Comments in Response to the Federal Register Notice and Efforts to Consult Outside the Agency.

We published a Notice in the Federal Register on February 2, 2012, specifically requesting comment on the proposed collection of information (77 FR 5258). We received no comments on that Notice.

9. Explanation of Any Payments or Gift to Respondents.

No gifts or payments will be provided to any respondents.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality Provided to Respondents.

There is no assurance of confidentially provided to respondents.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions.

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

12. Estimate of Annualized Burden Hours and Costs.

ANNUAL BURDEN ESTIMATES

Instrument	Number of Respondents	Number of Responses	Average Burden Hours Per Response	Total Burden Hours
Letter of Intent	10	1	5	50
Full proposal	10	1	40	400

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 450

Below we describe how we arrived at the estimated burden:

Section 1130 of the Act, as amended, provides the Department with the authority to approve up to ten child welfare waiver demonstration projects in each of FYs 2012 – 2014. Eligibility for child welfare waiver demonstration projects is limited to:

• States administering or supervising administration of title IV-E; and

• Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations or consortia approved to operate as title IV-E agencies.

The estimated annual costs to a State or Tribe resulting from the information collections are:

• 450 hours X $20.00 per hour average wage = $9,000 or $900 per title IV-E agency.

Certain costs associated with these activities may be claimed for Federal reimbursement under the title IV-E agency’s title IV-E authorization

13. Estimates of Other Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents and Record Keepers.

There are no out-of-pocket costs.

14. Annualized Cost to the Federal Government.

There are no costs to the Federal Government in addition to staff time to review and analyze the child welfare demonstration waiver proposals.

15. Explanation for Program Changes or Adjustments.

This is a new collection of information.

16. Plans for Tabulation and Publication and Project Time Schedule.

We have no plans to publish the child welfare demonstration waiver proposals.

17. Reason(s) Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate.

There is no instrument on which to display the OMB expiration date. However, we will publish it in the IM that specifies the requirements for applying for the demonstration waiver projects.

18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions.

There are no exceptions to the certification statement. No special circumstances require the collection of the requested information in a manner other than that required by OMB.

B. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS

The information collected in these information collections does not require the use of statistical methods.

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