Alternative Supporting Statement for Information Collections Designed for
Research, Public Health Surveillance, and Program Evaluation Purposes
Sexual Risk Avoidance Education
Grantee
COVID-19 Interviews
Formative Data Collections for Program Support
0970 – 0531
Supporting Statement
Part A
October 2021
Submitted by:
Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation
Administration for Children and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
4th Floor, Mary E. Switzer Building
330 C Street, SW
Washington, DC 20201
Project Officers:
Jessica Johnson
Calonie Gray
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).
Progress to Date: This request is related to fall 2020 surveys of grantees that collected feedback from grantees on training and technical assistance and program guidance due to the impacts of the COVID pandemic. This information was approved under the ACF Fast Track Generic Clearance for Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery (OMB #0970-0401; Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) Grantee COVID Survey).
Description of Request: This request is to collect interview data through virtual asynchronous interviews with grantees to gather more detailed information than the survey would allow about the impacts of COVID-19 on Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) grantee operations and programming for the 2020–2021 school year and into the future. The data will inform Family and Youth Services Bureau programming and technical assistance to SRAE grantees. We do not intend for this information to be used as the principal basis for public policy decisions. Data are not meant to be generalizable.
Time Sensitivity: Work must be completed at the start of the 2021–2022 school year in order to provide timely technical assistance to programs starting in fall 2022.
A1. Necessity for Collection
As part of the federal government’s efforts to support youth in making healthy decisions about their relationships and behaviors, in February 2018, Congress reauthorized Title V, Section 510 of the Social Security Act to fund the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) grant program. SRAE funds programs that teach adolescents to refrain from sexual activity. It is administered by the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The SRAE programs also provide education on personal responsibility, self-regulation, goal setting, healthy relationships, a focus on the future, and preventing drug and alcohol use. SRAE replaces the Title V, Section 510 Abstinence Education grant program, which Congress had passed as part of welfare reform in the mid-1990s. ACF is undertaking the collection at the discretion of the agency.
This information collection request focuses on how COVID has affected grantees’ programming and operations and how it is shaping programming in the coming year. Data from this request will inform discussions with SRAE direct service providing grantees about changes to their program plans resulting from the pandemic. These data are also necessary for ACF to provide targeted training and technical assistance (T/TA) to SRAE grantees as they plan their programming for the coming year.
A2. Purpose
Purpose and Use
Qualitative data collected will be requested from 150 grantees, a purposive sample of all Competitive SRAE and General Departmental SRAE grantees that are direct service providers. These organizations are located in most states, and therefore represent the experiences providing programming in different regions across the country who may have had varying experiences due to varying COVID-19 restrictions. The data will provide ACF with a deeper understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on SRAE grantees and their programming between fall 2020 and spring 2021, and details on their plans for the coming year. FYSB learned through anecdotal reports that grantees made rapid adaptations to their workspace, staffing, and programming because of the pandemic. This qualitative data collection will systematically capture information about grantees’ adaptations to their workspace, workforce, and programming; youth engagement with programming; and potential youth needs resulting from the pandemic. ACF will use the information collected from these interviews to provide relevant technical assistance and to inform programming guidance for grantees for the 2021–2022 program year.
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 and the development and refinement of program and grantee processes.
Planning for provision of programmatic or evaluation-related training and technical assistance.
The collected information will contribute to the body of knowledge on ACF programs. However, federal decision makers will not use the collected information as the principal basis for creating policy or making policy decisions. Moreover, the information is not expected to meet the threshold of influential or highly influential scientific information.
Research Questions
ACF proposes to examine the following high-level research questions through this data collection:
What changes did grantees make to their workspaces and work environments because of the COVID-19 pandemic?
How did the grantees design and adapt their programming during the COVID-19 pandemic?
What changes did grantees make to data collection and evaluation activities as a result of the pandemic?
How has the pandemic informed the future of programming for grantees?
Study Design
Our contractor, Mathematica, will collect data for this study through virtual asynchronous chat board interviews. Table A.1 summarizes the study design, including the data collection activities, instrument, respondent type, instrument content, and the mode and duration of the data collection.
ACF will provide Mathematica with the contact information for the grantees. The study team will conduct one-on-one asynchronous interviews that last about 60 minutes with each grantee. Questions and responses will be posted on an online chat board. Mathematica will use the responses as the interview transcript. Boards will be open for responses 24 hours a day and the study team will consistently monitor the boards.
See Supporting Statement B for more details on the data collection, including appropriateness for intended use (Section B1).
Limitations of the study design include a lack of verbal cues from respondents and relatively less control of the interview by the interviewer when compared with in-person interviews.1 To address these limitations, the study team will pay special attention to respondents’ creative use of text, such as punctuation and emojis. The team will also have collaborative discussions during the interview period to ensure common understanding and interpretation in the analysis. The study team will closely monitor and vigorously moderate each chat board during the interview period to encourage timely follow up questions to respondents.
Table A.1. Study design summary
Data collection activity |
Instrument |
Respondent, content, and purpose of collection |
Mode and duration |
Interviews |
Instrument 1: Grantee COVID-19 Interview Protocol |
Respondents: 150 grantee administrators or program directors Content: Impact of COVID-19 on grantee workspace and work environment, program design and adaptations, data collection and evaluation activities, and the future of programming Purpose: To gain an understanding of how programs navigated the challenges of adapting and delivering programming during the COVID-19 pandemic and the implications for future programming. |
Mode: Individual chat board interviews
Duration: 60 minutes |
Other Data Sources and Uses of Information
The grantee interviews will build on data collected under the ACF Fast Track Generic Clearance for Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery (OMB #0970-0401) through the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) Grantee COVID in fall 2020.
A3. Use of Information Technology to Reduce Burden
Mathematica will collect qualitative information from the interviews via QualBoard, a chat board platform that imposes less of a burden than other interview methods.2 In addition, an online message board permits respondents more flexibility in scheduling the interview. Participants will type their responses into the board as messages, which are stored and used as the interview transcript. Researchers can export, code, and analyze the transcripts. Boards will be open for responses 24 hours a day. The study team will monitor the boards during day and evening hours, so participants can respond when it is convenient for them.
A4. Use of Existing Data: Efforts to reduce duplication, minimize burden, and increase utility and government efficiency
No similar data are being collected, and there is no equivalent source for the information to be collected.
A5. Impact on Small Businesses
No small businesses will be involved with this information collection.
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 13, 2020, Volume 85, Number 198, page 64480, and provided a sixty-day period for public comment. During the notice and comment period, no substantive comments were received.
We will not be seeking consultation from experts outside of the study.
A9. Tokens of Appreciation
No tokens of appreciation for respondents are proposed for this information collection.
A10. Privacy: Procedures to protect privacy of information, while maximizing data sharing
Personally Identifiable Information
This request comprises the collection of information about organizations, not individuals. No personally identifiable information will be collected.
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 and that their information will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. The contractor will also notify respondents that although participation in SRAE evaluation efforts is a condition of their grant, they may choose not to respond to specific questions.
Only the study team and respondents will be granted access to the project QualBoard. Respondents will receive an invitation to the project QualBoard via email. The invitation will contain the respondent’s username and a link to the password protected interview webpage. Once on the webpage, respondents will set up their password to complete the interview.
Data Security and Monitoring
The contractor has developed a Data Safety and Monitoring Plan that assesses all protections of respondents’ information. The contractor will ensure that all of its employees, subcontractors (at all tiers), and employees of each subcontractor who perform work under this contract or subcontract are trained in data privacy issues and comply with the above requirements. All study team staff involved in the project will receive training in (1) limitations of disclosure; (2) safeguarding the physical work environment; and (3) storing, transmitting, and destroying data securely. All Mathematica staff sign the Mathematica Confidentiality Agreement, complete online security awareness training when they are hired, and receive annual refresher training thereafter. Additionally, staff at QualBoard adhere to all pertinent Federal and State laws governing privacy.3
As specified in its contract, the contractor will use encryption that complies with the Federal Information Processing Standard (Security Requirements for Cryptographic Module, as amended) to protect all sensitive information during storage and transmission. The contractor will securely generate and manage encryption keys to prevent unauthorized decryption of information in accordance with the Federal Information Processing Standard. In addition, the contractor has a plan for minimizing to the extent possible the inclusion of sensitive information on paper records as well as for protecting any paper records, field notes, or other documents that contain sensitive information, thereby ensuring secure storage and limits on access.
The project’s QualBoard data will automatically be archived 90 days after the project closes and will be permanently deleted 180 days after the project closes.
A11. Sensitive Information
There are no sensitive questions in this data collection.
A12. Burden
Explanation of Burden Estimates
In Table A.2, we summarize the estimated reporting burden and costs for the instrument.
ACF will ask 150 of their grantees who are direct service providers to participate in the interviews. We estimate that the interview will take 60 minutes for completion via an online chat board, for an estimated annual burden of 150 hours.
Estimated Annualized Cost to Respondents
The estimated annual cost for the proposed data collection is $6,501.00 (150 hours * $43.34). The estimated average hourly wage is based on the mean wage for “Social Scientists and Related Workers” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ May 2020 National Occupation Employment and Wage Estimate.
Table A.2. Estimated annual burden and cost to respondents
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 COVID-19 interviews |
150 |
1 |
1 |
150 |
$43.34 |
$6,501.00 |
A13. Costs
There are no additional costs to respondents.
A14. Estimated Annualized Costs to the Federal Government
Cost category |
Estimated costs |
Fieldwork |
$38,900 |
Publications and dissemination |
$18,200 |
Total/annual costs over the request period |
$57,100 |
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
Recruitment for interviews is expected to take place over five weeks after OMB approval. Following data collection, Mathematica will include the results in an internal memorandum to FYSB that will inform SRAE programming strategies and content. The memorandum will summarize key themes and include a description of the study methods and the limitations regarding generalizability and policy decisions. ACF may also elect to prepare a public facing brief on the findings if there are lessons learned that could be helpful for grantees’ continuous program improvement efforts.
A17. Exceptions
No exceptions are necessary for this information collection.
Attachments
Appendix A. Grantee Email Invitation
Appendix B: QualBoard Invitation Email
Instrument 1: Grantee COVID-19 Interview Protocol
1 Reisner, S.L., R.K. Randazzo, J.M. White Hughto, S. Peitzmeier, L.Z. DuBois, D.J. Pardee, E. Marrow, S. McLean, and J. Potter. “Sensitive Health Topics with Underserved Patient Populations: Methodological Considerations for Online Focus Group Discussions.” Qualitative Health Research, vol. 28, no. 10, 2018, pp. 1658–1673.
2 Opdenakker, R. “Advantages and Disadvantages of Four Interview Techniques in Qualitative Research.” Qualitative Research in Ibero America, vol. 7, no. 4, 2006, pp. 7.
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| File Created | 2022-01-17 |