SSA Template - ACF ARP Tribal Learning Collaborative Webinar

ACF American Rescue Plan Tribal Learning Collaborative:

Leveraging Grant Flexibilities and Promoting Innovation in Pandemic Recovery

Formative Data Collections for Program Support

0970 – 0531

Supporting Statement

Part A - Justification

May 2022

Submitted By:

Administration For Native Americans

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 to ask targeted questions and collect feedback from ACF American Rescue Plan (ARP) grant recipients during virtual Zoom breakout sessions as part of the ACF ARP Tribal Learning Collaborative Webinar to inform technical assistance and other support follow-up for ARP Tribal and Native American grant recipients.

Background

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has issued slightly over $46 billion of the $47.5 billion in relief funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) to provide critical and unprecedented support to children, families, and communities impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic downturn. ACF is committed to working with grant recipients to optimize the use of all of their COVID-19 supplemental relief funding based on differing deadlines, flexibilities, and expiration dates.

The COVID-19 global pandemic disproportionately impacted Native American communities and has had a devastating effect many times more than the national average with infection and mortality rates. Supporting the well-being of Tribes and Native American communities is a top priority of the Biden Administration, HHS and ACF. As Tribes and Native communities continue to recover from the pandemic, ACF is committed to establishing open lines of communication to listen and learn to ensure that the current and future needs of Native American communities are addressed through ACF’s programs, including those made possible by ARP funding.

Across ACF, the following program offices awarded and administer ARP funds to Tribal and Native American Grant Recipients: Office of Child Care (OCC), Early Childhood Development (ECD), Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) (Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVSPA)), Office of Head Start (OHS), Office of Community Services (OCS), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), and Administration for Native Americans (ANA). Representatives from each of these program offices will be present to hear from the ARP Tribal and Native American grant recipient attendees during the webinar.

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 Use

The overall purpose of this information collection is to support Tribal and Native American grant recipients with maximizing their ARP funding. During the ACF ARP Tribal Learning Collaborative Webinar, grant recipients will participate in one of five breakout sessions based on each grant recipient’s geographical location that aligns with the respective ACF regional office coverage area. Each of the five breakout sessions will group two out of the 10 regional offices together based on their closest geographic proximity. This is to gather ARP Tribal and Native American grant recipients that are based in the same geographic regions together to connect and listen to some examples of successful implementation strategies for their ARP-funded projects or utilizing their ARP funding. The proposed geographical breakdown of the breakout sessions is as follows:

• Region 1 (Boston) & Region 2 (New York)

  • The Office of Regional Operation’s Boston office serves Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont

  • The Office of Regional Operation's New York City office serves New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

• Region 3 (Philadelphia) & Region 5 (Chicago)

  • The Office of Regional Operation's Philadelphia office serves Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

  • The Office of Regional Operation’s Chicago office serves Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin

• Region 4 (Atlanta) & Region 7 (Kansas City)

  • The Office of Regional Operation’s Atlanta office serves Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee

  • The Office of Regional Operation’s Kanas City office serves Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.

• Region 6 (Dallas) & Region 9 (San Francisco)

  • The Office of Regional Operation’s Dallas office serves Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

  • The Office of Regional Operations' San Francisco office serves Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau, and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

• Region 8 (Denver) & Region 10 (Seattle)

  • The Office of Regional Operation’s Denver office serves Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

  • The Office of Regional Operation’s Seattle office serves Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

The feedback collected will help ACF understand some of the challenges that Tribal and Native American grant recipients face in implementing their ARP projects or utilizing their ARP funds. ACF will use the information shared to inform future technical assistance, program support, and resource follow-up for grantees.

These breakout sessions will also provide an opportunity for ACF ARP grant recipients operating in the same respective ACF region to connect and exchange success stories and ideas on how they are currently using ACF ARP funds to support recovery from the pandemic and their communities. The strategy for this information exchange is to increase the energy around and utilization of ARP investments by hearing directly from the grant recipients about the positive impacts the funds have afforded them (or will). The sessions may lead to grantees following up with each other for continued support in this area, as well.

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 or the development or refinement of program and grantee processes, and the development and refinement of communication systems.

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

Processes for Information Collection

During the ACF ARP Tribal Learning Collaborative Webinar, grant recipient attendees will be broken out into five breakout sessions based on their respective geographic location. Each breakout session will include a designated that ACF federal staff member facilitator to discuss questions related to ARP funding. The universe of proposed questions is included in Attachment A (ACF ARP Tribal Learning Collaborative Webinar Facilitators Guide). The facilitator will pose each question to initiate responses and sharing between the ARP grant recipient attendees and ACF staff.

A3. Improved Information Technology to Reduce Burden

Grant recipients will be asked a set number of questions during the virtual breakout sessions. ACF staff will document the information/responses shared by attendees in Word document format and summarize the general findings during the report out session when all attendees rejoin the main Zoom room. The breakout sessions will be recorded, with participant approval, if allowed by the Zoom platform system to support record management.

A4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

Because this is a new activity for all ACF ARP Tribal and Native American grant recipients, there is no existing data to provide this information.

A5. Involvement of Small Organizations

No small businesses will be involved with this information collection.

A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection

Given the timeframe to obligate or draw down ARP funds by the end of the FY 2022, it is necessary for ACF to gather this data quickly in order to communicate program-specific flexibilities and TA resources to ACF ARP grant recipients.

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 November 3, 2020, (85 FR 69627), and provided a sixty-day period for public comment. During the notice and comment period, no substantive comments were received. A subsequent notice was published on December 28, 2020 (85 FR 84343) and provided a thirty-day period for public comment. During the notice and comment period, no substantive comments were received.

On January 28, 2022, ACF a notice (87 FR 4603) providing a sixty-day period related to an extension request to this umbrella clearance. No comments were received. ACF will submit a request to extend approval and publish an additional notice allowing a thirty-day period for public comment prior to July 31, 2022.

Consultation with Outside Experts

No consultations have taken place with experts outside of the project team.

A9. Tokens of Appreciation for Respondents

No incentives for respondents are proposed for this information collection.

A10. Privacy of Respondents

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.

A11. Sensitive Questions

There are no sensitive questions in this data collection.

A12. Estimation of Information Collection Burden

Burden Estimates

Information will be collected from ARP Tribal and Native American grant recipients during the breakout sessions. Attendees will be participating in the breakout sessions for about 30 minutes to collect each of their responses.

Cost Estimates

The cost to respondents was calculated based on using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) job code for Social and Human Services Assistants [21-1093] and wage data from May 2021, which is $19.45 per hour. To account for the fringe benefits and overhead, the rate was multiplied by two which is $38.90. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_stru.htm

Instrument	Total Number of Respondents	Total Number of Responses Per Respondent	Average Burden Hours Per Response	Total Burden Hours	Average Hourly Wage	Total Annual Cost
ACF ARP Tribal Learning Collaborative Webinar Facilitator Guide (Tab A)	450	1	.75	337.5	$38.90	$13,128.75

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 $300.00.

This represents the total number of staff hours (2 hours x 5 federal staff facilitating the breakout sessions during the two-hour webinar) by $30.00 per hour.

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

ACF plans to collect this information on June 9, 2022, pending OMB approval.

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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