0970 – 0557
Supporting Statement
Part B
October 2021
Submitted by:
Dori Sneddon, MSW, PhD
Office on Child Abuse and Neglect
Children’s Bureau/ACYF/ACF/HHS
Switzer Building, #3417C
330 C Street, SW Washington, DC 20201
The Children’s Bureau (CB) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seeks an extension with minor changes to the approved information collection: Regional Partnership Grants to Increase the Well-being of and Improve Permanency Outcomes for Children Affected by Substance Abuse (known as the Regional Partnership Grants Program or “RPG”) Cost-Study of Trauma-Specific Evidence Based Programs (the “RPG cost study of trauma-specific EBPs”). This data collection request was previously approved and scheduled for spring 2021, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data collection is now feasible, but will extend beyond the current expiration date of November 30, 2021, so an extension is needed. Additionally, since approval, the following changes have been made to the instruments and the justification package:
Added a question to the time log to ask about virtual service delivery since the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in grantees offering virtual services.
Updated minor details in the supporting statement to reflect the current situation(number of grantees involved in this collection, description of timing, wage rate data).
Since 2006, CB has awarded multiple rounds of competitive grants to state and local agencies and service providers under the RPG program. Grants are awarded to organizations such as child welfare agencies, substance abuse treatment providers, or family court systems to develop interagency collaborations and provide services designed to increase well-being, improve permanency, and enhance the safety of children who are in or are at risk of being placed in an out-of-home as a result of a parent’s or caretaker’s substance abuse. This cost study will focus on grantees participating in RPG rounds four and five that are implementing certain trauma-specific EBPs.
Consistent with the RPG program’s focus on evidence, CB has undertaken a range of evaluation activities in collaboration with RPG grantees. Thirty-five grantees are participating in the ongoing RPG national cross-site evaluation, which examines implementation, partnerships, outcomes, and impacts. All grantees collect data on a uniform set of performance measures and report them to CB on a semi-annual basis through a web-based system. These ongoing data collection activities are approved under OMB #0970-0527. All grantees are also required to use a portion of their funding to conduct their own “local” program impact evaluation.
This information collection request is for a proposed cost study, which adds a new and unique contribution to CB’s portfolio of evaluation activities. Although the RPG cross-site evaluation will provide evidence for the effectiveness of some interventions to address the emotional effects of trauma, more information is needed about the cost of implementing these EBPs. With this information collection request, CB seeks approval for two data collection instruments, to conduct a separate, but complimentary cost study of a subset of round four and round five grantees: (1) Cost Workbook, and (2) Staff Survey and Time Log.
CB has contracted with Mathematica to undertake this one-year study.
a. Universe
There are 27 total grants awarded under RPG rounds four and five. The cost analysis will be conducted with the up to nine of the 27 grantees. The nine grantees will be implementing one of three trauma-specific EBPs:
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT),
Seeking Safety, or
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT).
The study is not intended to select a representative sample of all grantees. Rather, the site selection process will use “purposive” sampling techniques designed to answer specific research questions (see A2 for a list of research questions). In particular, sites will be selected if they are implementing one of the three selected trauma-specific EBPs listed above. Sites may be implementing more than one trauma-specific EBP. If so, we will instruct the site to complete the study instruments using the trauma-specific EBP they consider their main EBP, most likely the EBP delivered most often.
c. Selection of Respondents for Each Grantee
The Cost Workbook (Instrument #1) will be completed by the grant director or other person most knowledgeable about the program finances and implementation. The Staff Survey and Time Log (Instrument #2) will be administered to the larger group of staff responsible for delivering or managing the trauma-specific EBP. The types of staff who might participate include clinicians or therapists, case managers, supervisors, and agency administrators or managers. To ensure that the data collection is comprehensive, even staff members who spend only a small portion of their time on activities related to implementing the trauma-specific EBP or whose responsibilities focus on a subset of the listed activities will be asked to participate. If some sites have a very large number of staff involved (for example, more than 20), we will select a random sample of a few staff in key job categories to complete the survey. A more detailed description of the instruments can be found under A2.
The data collection will involve two separate instruments: (1) Cost Workbook and (2) Staff Survey and Time Log. The data collection procedure for each instrument is described below.
Cost Workbook (Instrument #1). For the organization-level cost data collection, one respondent in each of the nine grantees will be asked to provide detailed information on program costs by completing an electronic spreadsheet.
Staff Survey and Time Log (Instrument #2). The staff survey and time log includes two parts: (1) a brief survey on staff members’ positions, working hours, and training received related to the trauma-specific EBP and (2) a daily log for entering the number of hours each staff member spends on activities related to the trauma-specific EBP during the data collection window. It will be completed by staff who spend time delivering program services, supporting service delivery, or administering activities associated with the grant, including consultants or contractors.
The instruments will be sent via email using the email templates included as Appendix A. Both instruments are self-administered and include detailed instructions, though respondents will also be given the phone number and e-mail address of a study team liaison to contact with any questions. Respondents will be instructed to complete the PDF electronically -- or print, complete, and scan -- and return the completed file by e-mail. Depending on grantee preferences, we will mail copies of the instruments if they prefer that method to electronic means. These instruments do not collect personally identifiable information (PII) and can be transferred over email.
The cost workbook is estimated to take 8 hours to complete. The survey is estimated to take no more than 20 minutes and can be completed at any time the respondent finds convenient, reducing respondent burden. The time log is estimated to take 10 minutes each day over a 4-week period (20 business days).
The Cost Study of Trauma-Specific EBPs is collecting data from grantees funded by CB. We anticipate they will participate given their ongoing participation in CB’s evaluations of the grant programs. In addition, the cost study team will work to build support for the study among grantees and minimize burden during data collection by use of less intrusive e-mail contacts, rather than in person. However, even in the rare event of nonresponse, the study findings will not be significantly affected, because the sites are not intended to be a representative probability sample of all CB grantees.
B4. Tests of Procedures or Methods to be Undertaken
Both the Cost Workbook and the Staff Survey and Time Log were tested with grantees during a pilot study under the RPG National Cross-Site Study (OMB #0970-0444). Three or four staff members completed the staff survey and time log (customized to one of the three EBPs) at each of 3 agencies, and 3 (1 at each agency) completed the cost workbook. As part of the pilot study, the instruments were created and tested to assess their functionality and performance, then revised based on the results from the testing. Revisions included: (1) additional examples for reporting cost categories; (2) modifications to the items related to training to better align with specific training requirements for each trauma-specific EBP; (3) adding two questions to determine the percentage of services that are delivered virtually (if any); and (4) changes to enhance the visual presentation of the time logs and distinguish between categories related to providing direct services to clients and categories related to general program implementation.
The persons with primary responsibility for designing and administering the information collection are:
Sarah Avellar, Senior Researcher
202-484-3288
1100
First St NE, 12th floor
Washington, DC 20002
Liz Clary, Researcher
312-994-1050
Mathematica
111 East Wacker Drive
Suite 3000
Chicago, IL 60601
Claire Smither Wulsin, Researcher
202-250-3503
1100 First Street NE, 12th floor
Washington, DC 20002
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Barbara Collette |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-10-20 |