OMB Memo and Justification for Nonsubstantive Change

370 L’Enfant Promenade SW, 4^th Floor, Washington DC 20447

MEMORANDUM

TO: Brenda Aguilar and Jennifer Park

THROUGH: Jennifer Burnszynski, Director, Division of State, Tribal, and Local Assistance, OCSE

FROM: Elaine Sorensen, Technical Advisor, OCSE

DATE: May 7, 2014

TITLE: Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration (CSPED)

AGENCY: HHS/Administration for Children and Families/Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE)

SUBJECT: Non-Substantive Change Request to 0970-0439

This information collection request (ICR) is for clearance for instruments associated with the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration (CSPED) Evaluation. Under CSPED, the office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has issued grants to eight state child support agencies to provide employment, parenting, and child support services to noncustodial parents who are having difficulty meeting their child support obligations. HHS/ACF/OCSE has issued a grant to the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families to conduct an implementation and cost study and an impact study of CSPED. The evaluation will be based on a randomized controlled trial research design in which program applicants who are eligible for CSPED services will be randomly assigned to either a treatment group that is offered CSPED services, or a control group that is not.

The ICR associated with this evaluation received OMB approval on September 12, 2013, through which OMB approved nine instruments. At the time of approval, OMB requested that additional detail on the 12 month follow up survey (including the full protocol) be submitted as a nonsubstantive change prior to use in October, 2014. Per these terms, OCSE has revised the September 2013 ICR to provide this additional detail.

The first attachment that OCSE seeks approval for is the aforementioned follow-up survey, included in this change request as IC #10. This instrument will be used to collect data for the impact evaluation. OCSE needs approval of this instrument by the end of September 2014, so we can train data collectors and begin collecting data in October 2014. OCSE has included a question-by-question justification and surveys referenced for the CSPED 12-month follow-up survey, referred to as Attachment G.

OCSE also requests approval for minor modifications to the second round of the program staff survey, which is included as IC #11 in this change request. The modification includes the addition of several questions designed to inform the implementation and cost study. However, because we have also deleted items from this collection, the overall burden estimate is not affected. The staff survey is to be administered twice, in April 2014 and April 2015. The additional questions will only appear in the second (April 2015) administration of the survey. OCSE needs approval of this instrument by the February 2015, so we can begin collecting data in April 2015.

We have updated Part A - Justification and Part B - Statistical Methods to reflect the follow-up survey and included them in this change request. Minor revisions have also been made to several of the original documents submitted to OMB. We have included these revised documents for OMB review. All of these revisions are in track changes.

We look forward to receiving your response to this non-substantive change request. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me, if you have any questions about the request.

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