NonSub Change Memo - HPOG NextGen COVID & IRB Updates

To: Jordan Cohen

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

From: Nicole Constance, Hilary Bruck, and Amelia Popham

Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE)

Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Date: November 13, 2020

Subject: Non-substantive Change Request – Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Second Generation National and Tribal Evaluation (OMB Control Number 0970-0462).

This memo requests approval of non-substantive changes to the approved information collection, Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 2.0) Second Generation National and Tribal Evaluation (OMB Control Number 0970-0462).

Background

The Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Program provides healthcare occupational training for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients and other low-income people. OMB has approved various data collection activities for a longitudinal evaluation of HPOG 2 National and Tribal Evaluation under OMB #0970-0462. As a result of the recent COVID-19 outbreak, most HPOG programs have had to adapt their programs in numerous ways—reduce class sizes, shift to virtual classes, suspend training temporarily, relax certification requirements or hands-on coursework, etc. The employment landscape has also changed for participants enrolling and participating in healthcare training programs during COVID-19, relative to those trained prior to the pandemic. In order to understand the effect of COVID-19 on the HPOG 2.0 Program, it will be important to understand the experiences of those enrolled after the onset of the pandemic compared to those who enrolled pre-pandemic. ACF is considering fielding a survey with a cohort of study participants enrolled during the COVID-19 Pandemic to better understand how COVID-19 effected the HPOG Program.

In the event ACF decides to fund the additional survey, it is important to notify study participants who enrolled after the onset of the pandemic period that they are part of a special cohort of study participants and may be selected to participate in a follow-up survey data collection effort. ACF will submit the survey instrument and supporting materials as part of a complete information collection request, including a public comment period, to OMB once the design work is complete.

Overview of Requested Changes

At this point, ACF seeks approval from OMB for minor changes related to the currently approved forms:

• Welcome to the Study Packet and Contact Update Form (Instrument 5a)

• Participant Contact Update Letter and Form (Instrument 5b)

This request includes an increase to the number of estimated respondents to each instrument and minor modifications to the Welcome to the Study Packet and Contact Update Form (Instrument 5a). The table below summarizes the increase in burden and document modifications. We used the enrollments to date since May 2020—the start of the pandemic period for purposes of this survey effort—and projected enrollments through September 2021 (the end of the HPOG 2.0 grant period) to calculate the burden estimates.¹ This request results in a total estimated burden increase of 1,984 hours annualized over the remainder of the current approval period for consistency with other burden estimates under this clearance.

	Additional Respondents and Burden*	Content Change Summary
Instrument 5a: Welcome to the Study Packet and Contact Update Form	6,400 respondents 640 Total Burden hours	Minor wording changes on: ·   Time elapsed since enrollment; and ·   Size of the study
Instrument 5b: Participant Contact Update Letter and Form (previously approved)	6,720 respondents 1,344 Total Burden Hours	No changes necessary
Total Burden	1,984 Total Burden hours

*The total number of respondents (6,400) enrolled during this period is a projection based on grantee projections of enrollment. The total number of respondents for Instrument 5b (6,720) is based on 3 attempts to each respondent and a projected 35 percent response rate.

Time Sensitivities

Five months have elapsed since some of these study participants enrolled. In order to engage these participants quickly, we would like to send the Welcome to the Study packets out in January 2021. The evaluation contractor will need to begin preparations to conduct that mailing as soon as possible, ideally in late November.

1 For purposes of this study, we defined the start of the pandemic period as May 2020 because there were virtually no new enrollments in March and April 2020.