NonSub Change Req - HSCO Annual Report Updates Oct 2022

To: Jamie Wilson

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

From: Beth Caron, State Systems Specialist

Planning, Operations and Policy Division, Office of Head Start

Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Date: October 20, 2022

Subject: NonSubstantive Change Request – Head Start Collaboration Office Annual Report (OMB #0970-0490)

This memo requests approval of nonsubstantive changes to the approved information collection, Head Start Collaboration Office Annual Report, which is an instrument approved under the Generic Performance Progress Report (OMB #0970-0490).

Background

This information collection is an annual reporting requirement for all Head Start Collaboration Office grant recipients to gather uniform program performance from all 54 Head Start Collaboration Office (HSCO) grantees of which 52 are discretionary (50 states, DC, and PR) and 2 are cooperative agreements (one for American Indian and Alaska Native programs and one for Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs).

HSCOs are awarded funds under Section 642B of the 2007 Head Start Act. HSCOs facilitate partnerships between Head Start agencies and other state entities that provide services to benefit low-income children and their families. The report ascertains progress and performance results from the prior year for reporting and accountability purposes. The information collection collects demographic information and topical information on activities in seven areas of collaboration that are required of HSCO grants. Sections are as follows:

1. Demographic Information

2. Professional Development

3. School Readiness and Pre-K

4. Data And State Funding Related Work

5. Parent/Family and Diversity Related

6. Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS)

7. Early Childhood Systems Outside of QRIS

8. Health Related

9. Other Regional Priorities

OHS has recently re-analyzed the prior three years of data collections and identified areas where minor adjustments are needed to improve the clarity of the instructions and improve data quality.

Overview of Requested Changes

Based on the data submitted by HSCO grant recipients and on the analysis of recent submissions, OHS proposes the following updates to the instruction:

• Instructions have been clarified slightly for completers who are listing major goals for their grant.

• For the topical information throughout the data collection, the sentence stems have been restructured to ask first if the condition is met (yes or no) so that only those respondents with a yes answer need complete the checklists that follow.

• Final questions in each section that as for additional information if applicable, instructions were rewritten for clarity.

• Contact information in the instrument was updated to reflect staffing change.

• Section headers were corrected to follow the same format (sections numbered A-I). In the prior version the sections switch from lettering to numbering at section C.

• Minor language changes were made throughout the document to align with current language use.

• One set of questions, in section H. Health Related activities, was restructured to allow more accurate data reporting and analysis as prior structure caused confusion among respondents and yielded less than optimal information.

Time Sensitivities

The umbrella generic under which this is approved has a current expiration date of January 31, 2023. An extension request is in process, so approval of this request as soon as possible would be appreciated to allow for the submission of the extension request.