Letter to OMB

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Office of the Secretary

Assistant Secretary for Health

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health

Washington, DC 20201

TO: Stephanie Mok, OMB

FROM: Tara Rice, Office of Adolescent Health (OAH)

CC: Amy Feldman Farb, Office of Adolescent Health (OAH)

DATE: September 14, 2017

SUBJECT: Request to reduce the number of measures, Pregnancy Assistance Fund (PAF) 2017-2019

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In May, 2017, the Office of Adolescent Health (OAH) submitted a new ICR for the New Pregnancy Assistance Fund (PAF) Performance Measure information collection package (0990-XXXX) for the cohort of grantees funded in the summer of 2017. 

The intent of collecting performance measures was to obtain annual data over a 3 year period to document grantee’s progress in scaling up the PAF program in multiple settings and sites, and to track outcomes such as educational attainment, birth outcomes, over a 3 year period of service.

After submission of our new ICR, senior leadership within HHS/Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health made the decision to reduce the funding period for PAF grants issued in 2017 to a single year of implementation. Thus, there are 16 newly funded grantees that will be funded from 7/2017-6/2018. The truncation reduces the amount of time available to grantees to establish programs and services, limiting the scope of what the grantees would be able to accomplish with their grant programs.

Because we know collecting the performance measures data can be burdensome to the grantees and the benefit to the collection of the information is now lower, due to the shortened period of implementation, OAH proposes to not collect any the following categories of questions: dissemination, birth outcomes, educational attainment, and self-sufficiency. OAH would also remove questions that relate to multiple years of services, (2 of the reach items and 1 of the partnerships items), and would reduce by 2 the number of items on the core services form.

The specific items which would be eliminated are as follows:

Partners:

2. How many program partners that were engaged at the beginning of the grant (July 1) are still engaged at the end of the grant year? _____________

[Engagement means that the program partner is still as of June 30 either serving as a PAF site, providing core services to the expectant and parenting PAF participants, serving on the advisory group for a PAF project, and/or providing technical assistance, or advice related to the PAF program to a PAF grantee or sub-grantee]

Reach:

2. Of the total number of expectant and parenting teens and young adults served at each site during the federal grant year (July 1-June 30), how many were new to the PAF program? [A new participant did not receive any services during a previous year of the PAF grant funding]. This question will be asked only during the second and third federal grant years)

Expectant or parenting mothers at high schools ____

Expectant or parenting fathers at high schools ____

Expectant or parenting mothers at Institutions of Higher Education ____

Expectant or parenting fathers at Institutions of Higher Education ____

Expectant or parenting mothers at community service organizations ____

Expectant or parenting fathers at community service organizations ____

Expectant or parenting mothers at other settings ____

Expectant or parenting fathers at other settings ____

Total number of expectant and parenting participants (all Settings): ____

Core Services:

8. How many expectant or parenting participants were offered any evidence-based programs during the federal grant year (July 1- June 30)? _________

9. Of those PAF participants who were offered evidence-based programs, how many expectant or parenting youth received any Evidence–based programs through the PAF program during the federal grant year (July 1-June 30)? Include the numbers below

Evidence-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs ______________

Evidence-Based Education Programs ______________

Evidence Based Mental Health/Substance Abuse Prevention Programs ______

Evidence-Based Workforce Development Programs ______________

Evidence Based Home Visiting Programs ______________

All items from the forms dissemination, birth outcomes, educational attainment, and self-sufficiency.

OAH would continue to collect the other items from the PAF grantees (training of facilitators, partnerships, core services, partnerships and sustainability, participant reach and demographics). The revised forms are included as attachments.

Table 1. Estimated Annualized Burden Hours

Forms	Type of Respondent	Number of Respondents (Anticipated)	Number of Responses per Respondent	Average Burden Hours per Respondent	Total Burden Hours
Training	All Grantees: Grantee Staff	20	1	15/60	5
Partnerships and Sustainability	All Grantees: Grantee Staff	20	1	3	60
Dissemination	All Grantees: Grantee Staff	20	1	30/60	10
Reach and Demographics	All Grantees: Grantee Staff	20	1	645/60	215
Core Services	All Grantees: Grantee Staff	20	1	750/60	250
Education	All Grantees: Grantee Staff	20	1	7	140
Birth Outcomes	All Grantees: Grantee Staff	20	1	270/60	90
Self-Sufficiency Outcomes	All Grantees: Grantee Staff	20	1	90/60	30
Total	All Grantees: Grantee Staff	20	1	40	800

Table 2 describes the proposed burden changes. OAH proposes eliminating the following measures: This results in a decrease in the total burden hours from 800 hours to 437 hours. All proposed burden changes are highlighted in yellow in Table 2.

Table 2. Revised Estimated Annualized Burden Hours

Total Estimated Annualized Burden - Hours revised August 2017

Form Name	Number of Respondents	Number of Responses per Respondent	Average Burden per Response (in hours)	Total Burden Hours
Training	19	1	15/60	4.75
Partnerships and Sustainability (less 1 question)	19	1	144/60	45.6
Reach and Demographics (removed 2 items)	19	1	637/60	202
Core Services (removed 2 items)	19	1	583/60	184.6
Total Burden	19	1	23	437