SSA - GenIC Formative for Program Support - OHS DTL TA Needs Assessment

Needs Assessment Listening Sessions for the National Center for Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning’s (NCECDTL’s) Training and Technical Assistance Offerings

Formative Data Collections for Program Support

0970 - 0531

Supporting Statement

Part A

July 2021

Submitted By:

Office of Head Start

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

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 four listening sessions with Disability Services Coordinators for the National Center for Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning’s Training and Technical Assistance Offerings. 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 to program implementation.

• Planning for provision of programmatic training and technical assistance (TTA).

Background

The National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning (NCECDTL) provides TTA to Head Start/Early Head Start grantees and Regional TTA Specialists. This professional development aims to yield improvements in program- and staff-level outcomes and lead to enhanced competencies (knowledge, skills, and practices) for TTA and grantee staff who focus on early child development and education services across the Head Start and Early Head Start program options. As part of the network of Early Childhood National Centers, DTL collaborates with the Central Office and Regional Offices for the Office of Head Start (OHS) to provide a range of supports designed to benefit Disability Services Coordinators. DTL plans to develop additional supports for Disability Services Coordinators, primarily support through a new mobile application or other technology platform. This proposed data collection is necessary to provide DTL with a deeper understanding of what resources and supports could be provided through a mobile application or other technology platform that would be most beneficial to their ongoing work.

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

This Generic Information Collection (GenIC) request includes a protocol for conducting four listening sessions with a total of up to 20 Disability Services Coordinators located in OHS Regional Offices. The purpose of this data collection is to understand participants’ current and anticipated needs that DTL can address in future offerings. Results from the listening sessions will be used to identify participant needs and design offerings that speak to those needs.

Questions

The listening session protocol includes 6 questions and supporting prompts that focus on the following topics: most successful experiences as a Disability Services Coordinator, most common topics on which they support educators and home visitors, topics and formats of the existing resources they find most useful, any gaps in existing resources, and potential content and functionality for a mobile application to support their inclusion work.

Design

Listening session participants will be selected from list of contacts of Disability Services Coordinators. Each participant will receive an email invitation with a Zoom link to join one of the four listening sessions. The listening sessions will each be one hour long and, with respondent permission, will be recorded for transcription. No names will be included in the transcription, and the recordings will be deleted within two weeks of each listening sessions upon finalization of the associated transcription.

A3. Improved Information Technology to Reduce Burden

Disability Service Coordinators will receive an Outlook invitation for the listening session containing a Zoom link for the session. With respondent permission, sessions will be recorded. This will minimize the need for respondents to repeat information.

A4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

This is a one-time needs assessment to inform future work of the NCECDTL, the information is not available from another source.

A5. Involvement of Small Organizations

Not applicable. No impact to small organizations expected.

A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection

Not applicable. This is a one-time data collection effort.

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 13, 2020, Volume 85, Number 198 page 64480, and provided a sixty-day period for public comment. During the notice and comment periods, no substantive comments were received.

Consultation with Experts Outside of the Study

Not applicable as this is not a research study.

A9. Incentives for Respondents

Participants in the listening sessions will be offered a resource box containing 3-5 resources of their choice from the NCECDTL as a token of appreciation. Resources would be hard-copies of existing resources for Disability Services Coordinators that are currently available online at https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/search/eclkc?q=Disability%20Services%20Coordinator%20&start=0&filter=&site=*. For example, a bounded version of the Disability Services Coordinator Orientation Guide available at https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/no-search/disability-services-coordinator-orientation-guide.pdf. Otherwise, they would be able to print this in PDF. The box will be assembled and mailed to participants by the NCECDTL Project Manager.

A10. Privacy of Respondents

Information collected will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. Participants in the listening session 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. They will also be informed in advance that the listening session will be recorded for transcription purposes, that no names will appear in the transcriptions, that no one other than evaluation staff will have access to the recordings, and that the recordings will be deleted upon receipt of the transcriptions. Furthermore, introductory comments during each listening session will request that participants maintain privacy of all participants by not discussing the reflections shared with anyone who did not participate in the same listening session.

A11. Sensitive Questions

There are no sensitive questions in this data collection.

A12. Estimation of Information Collection Burden

Instrument	Total Number of Respondents	Number of Responses Per Respondent	Average Burden Hours Per Response	Total/Annual Burden Hours	Average Hourly Wage	Total Annual Cost
Listening session protocol	20	1	1	20	$47.26	$945.20

Total Annual Cost

The total annual cost is estimated at $945.20. This is based on median hourly wage of preschool education administrators from BLS job code 11-9031 (https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes119031.htm, May 2020) at $23.63 per hours for 20 total hours annually. The hourly rate is multiplied by two to account for fringe benefits and overhead. The estimate of annualized cost to respondents for hour burden is $47.26 times 20 hours or $945.20.

A13. Cost Burden to Respondents or Record Keepers

There are no additional costs to respondents.

A14. Estimate of Cost to the Federal Government

The total cost for the data collection activities under this current request will be $2,000. Federal staff costs are estimated to be about 20 hours of the time of a staff at the GS-14 labor category to oversee the activities of this data collection.

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 data is only intended for internal capacity building and no publications are expected as a result of this data collection.

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.

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