Supporting Statement A

Alternative Supporting Statement for Information Collections Designed for

Research, Public Health Surveillance, and Program Evaluation Purposes

OFA Training and Technical Assistance (TTA)

Formative Data Collections for Program Support

0970 - 0531

Supporting Statement

Part A

August 2020

Submitted By:

Office of Family Assistance

Administration for Children and Families

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

3^rd Floor, Mary E. Switzer Building

330 C Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20201

Project Officers:

Seth Chamberlain

Part A

Executive Summary

• Type of Request: This Information Collection Request is for a generic information collection under the umbrella generic, Formative Data Collections for Program Support (0970-0531).

• Description of Request:

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks approval to request that the 2020-2025 cohort of Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) Program Directors complete a Grantee Characteristics Form built into FastTRAC 2.0 (a grantee-information and performance management system). The information grantees provide will inform technical assistance and program support.

We do not intend for this information to be used as the principal basis for public policy decisions.

• Time Sensitivity: The data collection activity described in this request should happen as soon as possible to allow the technical assistance and program support to accurately reflect the needs of the grantees.

A1. Necessity for Collection

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

A2. Purpose

Purpose and Use

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 and workflows related to program implementation or the development or refinement of program and grantee processes, and the development and refinement of recordkeeping and communication systems.

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

The information collected is meant to contribute to the body of knowledge on ACF programs. It is not intended to be used as the principal basis for a decision by a federal decision-maker and is not expected to meet the threshold of influential or highly influential scientific information.

Research Questions or Tests

N/A

Study Design

N/A.

Contents of Grantee Characteristics Form.

Data Collection Activity	Instrument(s)	Respondent, Content, Purpose of Collection	Mode and Duration
Grantee Characteristics Form	FastTRAC 2.0	Respondents: Program Directors Content: The form will gather information about grantees that fall into three categories: Grant Information Program Structure CQI Process Purpose: To gather information from grantees to inform technical assistance and program support.	Mode: online (FastTRAC2.0) Duration: 1 hour

Full list of questions in Appendix A_2020-2025 Cohort Grantee Characteristics

Other Data Sources and Uses of Information

N/A

A3. Use of Information Technology to Reduce Burden

The technical assistance team is currently in the process of developing an online grantee information and performance management system (FastTRAC 2.0) that will house this form. Grantees will have access to this system and will use it to complete the Grantee Characteristics Form.

A4. Use of Existing Data: Efforts to reduce duplication, minimize burden, and increase utility and government efficiency

This is a new cohort of grantees and the information needed to understand how to best support these grantees has not been collected yet.

A5. Impact on Small Businesses

Many programs will be small, non-profit organizations. Burden will be limited for respondents by collecting grantee information through the online FastTRAC 2.0 portal which can be completed at the respondent’s convenience.

A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection

This is a one-time data collection.

A7. Now subsumed under 2(b) above and 10 (below)

A8. 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.

Consultation with Experts Outside of the Study

N/A

A9. Tokens of Appreciation

No incentives for respondents are proposed for this information collection.

A10. Privacy: Procedures to protect privacy of information, while maximizing data sharing

Personally Identifiable Information

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

Assurances of Privacy

Information collected will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. 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. As specified in the contract, the Contractor will comply with all Federal and Departmental regulations for private information.

Data Security and Monitoring

A11. Sensitive Information ¹

There are no sensitive questions in this data collection.

A12. Burden

Explanation of Burden Estimates

The estimated annual burden for this information collection request is $4,433.60. This effort includes the completion of a Grantee Characteristics Form on FastTRAC with a total of 136 respondents, explained in further detail in Table 2.

Estimated Annualized Cost to Respondents

The information collection request includes one type of respondent: Program Directors. The hourly wage rate for Program Directors was calculated using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey 2020. According to this survey, the median weekly earnings for full-time employees aged 25 and over with bachelor’s degrees is $1,304. We assume a full-time work week for program staff is 40 hours per week. Therefore, the estimated hourly wage is $32.60.²

Instrument	No. of Respondents (total over request period)	No. of Responses per Respondent (total over request period)	Avg. Burden per Response (in hours)	Total/Annual Burden (in hours)	Average Hourly Wage Rate	Total Annual Respondent Cost
Grantee Characteristics Form	136	1	1	136	$32.60	$4,433.60
Estimated Total/Annual Burden Hours				136 hours

A13. Costs

The are no additional cost to respondents.

A14. Estimated Annualized Costs to the Federal Government

Cost Category	Estimated Costs
Instrument Development and OMB Clearance	$10,768.00
Total/Annual costs over the request period	$10,768.00

Activity	Detail	Estimated Cost
Survey Design Instrument Development Pilot and User Testing	FTE time Operational expenses (such as equipment, overhead, printing, and staff support), A Other expenses which would not have been incurred without this collection of information	$10,768.00
Total/Annual costs over the request period		$10,768.00

A15. Reasons for changes in burden

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

A16. Timeline

We are developing the online data collection tool (Grantee Characteristics Form) in FastTRAC 2.0 that grantees will fill out between October 2020 and December 1^st. There are no plans to publish these data.

A17. Exceptions

No exceptions are necessary for this information collection.

Attachments

1 Examples of sensitive topics include (but not limited to): social security number; sex behavior and attitudes; illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating and demeaning behavior; critical appraisals of other individuals with whom respondents have close relationships, e.g., family, pupil-teacher, employee-supervisor; mental and psychological problems potentially embarrassing to respondents; religion and indicators of religion; community activities which indicate political affiliation and attitudes; legally recognized privileged and analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians and ministers; records describing how an individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment; receipt of economic assistance from the government (e.g., unemployment or WIC or SNAP); immigration/citizenship status.

2 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2020). News Release: Usual Weekly Earning of Wage and Salary Workers Second Quarter 2020. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf

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