Supporting Statement A: ECD Radical Family Engagement

Office of Early Childhood Development

Radical Family Engagement National Stakeholder Meeting

Formative Data Collections for Program Support

0970 - 0531

Supporting Statement

Part A

October 2020

Submitted By:

Office of Early Childhood Development

Administration for Children and Families

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

4^th Floor, Mary E. Switzer Building

330 C Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20201

Project Officer:

Melissa Brodowski

A1. Necessity for the Data Collection

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks approval for data collection for a Radical Family Engagement stakeholder meeting that the Office of Early Childhood Development (ECD) is hosting to inform ACF priorities and program planning. Information collected will help inform program implementation and technical assistance for ACF early care and education programs and related supports for families. ACF seeks this information through this stakeholder event hosted by ECD to help increase our understanding of current needs, programmatic trends, promising strategies, barriers and challenges, and needs and preferences of families served through various national, state, and local early care and education, and health and human services programs. The data collection will also be used to gather information from various stakeholders, national, state, and local leaders to identify innovative programmatic solutions to barriers faced by parents, providers, and states and communities working to improve the health, development and well-being of children and families.

This proposed information collection meets the following goals of ACF’s generic clearance for formative data collections for program support (0970-0531):

• Delivery of targeted assistance related to program implementation or the development or refinement of program and grantee processes;

• Planning for provision of programmatic or evaluation-related training or technical assistance (T/TA).

• Obtaining grantee or other stakeholder input on the development of program performance measures and program outcomes.

Legal or Administrative Requirements that Necessitate the Collection

There are no legal or administrative requirements that necessitate the collection. ACF is undertaking the collection at the discretion of the agency.

A2. Purpose of Survey and Data Collection Procedures

Overview of Purpose and Approach

ECD’s primary mission is to act as a catalyst to create collective impact and support early learning and care of our nation's children and their families. As part of this role, ECD will convene the Radical Family Engagement stakeholder event in October 2020 as part of its mission to bring partners together to improve outcomes for young children and their families. The meeting will include panel presentations and small and large group discussions which include national, state and local organizations serving young children and their families, parents, federal partners, researchers, philanthropy, business, and other stakeholders. The meeting will be an opportunity to discuss barriers and challenges, innovative approaches, and practical solutions in early care and education and related to engaging families in child and family serving systems. Information collected during these sessions will be used by ACF in the development of future technical assistance, research agendas, and/or strategic planning and partnership development.

Research Questions

Through large and small group discussions at various meetings, we will ask several questions along the following general themes:

• What do parents and families need to support their healthy development and social and economic well-being?

• What are some promising and innovative strategies to support and strengthen families with young children?

• What are states/localities doing to increase improve early care and education systems and transition to school and other child and family service systems?

• What are the factors that make it easier to coordinate across early childhood programs/initiatives?

• What makes it hard or difficult to coordinate across programs and initiatives? What are barriers and challenges to serving families more holistically?

• What could the federal government do to make the coordination better?

• What type of technical assistance and support is needed?

• What are some of the data and research needs in early childhood development?

Sample Questions are provided as Attachment A.

Study Design

The primary goal of this information collection is to gather data and information from several of ECD’s key stakeholders: parents, early childhood programs, schools, employers, philanthropy, researchers, and state and local government officials, other child and family serving professionals.

ECD will identify potential participants and conduct outreach with stakeholders to ensure that the key stakeholders will be represented at the Radical Family Engagement meeting. Data will be collected using large group discussion and small group breakout sessions within a 90-minute virtual meeting. ACF will have facilitators lead the discussion using a semi-structured protocol. Participants will be informed that the large group discussions will be recorded for note-taking purposes only. Additional notetakers will capture the responses during the large and small group breakout sessions. ECD staff will review the notes and prepare a summary report with key themes for ACF.

A3. Improved Information Technology to Reduce Burden

The data collection will occur through virtual group discussion sessions. Participants will be informed that the large group sessions will be recorded for note-taking purposes only.

A4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

There are no other offices at ACF hosting cross-sector early childhood stakeholder meetings about radical family engagement.

A5. Involvement of Small Organizations

Faith and community-based early childhood providers and stakeholders may be included as target audiences for the meeting and will be invited to attend. ACF will work with the HHS Faith and Community-Based Office to assist with recruitment, as appropriate.

A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection

This is a one-time data collection during an existing meeting.

A7. Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances for the proposed data collection efforts.

A8. Federal Register Notice and Consultation

Federal Register Notice and Comments

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations at 5 CFR Part 1320 (60 FR 44978, August 29, 1995), ACF published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the agency’s intention to request an OMB review of the overarching generic clearance for formative information collection. This notice was published on October 11, 2017, Volume 82, Number 195, page 47212, and provided a sixty-day period for public comment. A subsequent notice, updated with more specific information, was published on June 18, 2019, Volume 84, Number 117, page 28307, and provided a thirty-day period for public comment. During the notice and comment periods, no substantive comments were received.

A9. Incentives for Respondents

No incentives for respondents are proposed for this information collection.

A10. Privacy of Respondents

Information collected will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. Respondents will be informed that the large group discussion will be recorded and the small group discussion will have notetakers. Respondents will be informed of all planned uses of data, that their participation is voluntary, and that their information will be kept private to the extent permitted by law.

Information will not be maintained in a paper or electronic system from which data are actually or directly retrieved by an individuals’ personal identifier.

A11. Sensitive Questions

There are no sensitive questions in this data collection.

A12. Estimation of Information Collection Burden

Total Burden Requested Under this Information Collection

Instrument	Total Number of Respondents	Number of Responses Per Respondent	Average Burden Hours Per Response		Annual Burden Hours	Average Hourly Wage			Total Annual Cost
Semi-structured discussion questions	110	1	0.5	55			$35.56	$1,956
Estimated Annual Burden Total				55				$1,956

Total Annual Cost

To calculate the annualized cost to respondents for the hour burden, we assume that the typical respondent distribution for each meeting will be about one-fifth state or local government officials; one-fifth local programs; one-fifth community or social services managers; and one-fifth parents. Based on data on our expected respondents from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we use a mean hourly wage for program directors ($23.05); state government officials ($52.24), local social and community services manager ($31.41) for an average wage for respondent of $35.56¹.

A13. Cost Burden to Respondents or Record Keepers

There are no additional costs to respondents.

A14. Estimate of Cost to the Federal Government

There is no additional cost to the government. Data collection, analysis, and reporting will be conducted using existing staff at ECD.

A15. Change in Burden

This is for an individual information collection under the umbrella formative generic clearance for program support (0970-0531).

A16. Plan and Time Schedule for Information Collection, Tabulation and Publication

The ECD Radical Family Engagement stakeholder meeting is currently scheduled for mid-October 2020.

A17. Reasons Not to Display OMB Expiration Date

All instruments will display the expiration date for OMB approval.

A18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

No exceptions are necessary for this information collection.

1 This is an average of the mean hourly wages for child care directors ($23.05); state government officials ($52.24), local social and community services manager ($31.41). See: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes111011.htm

6