TIES_Supporting Statement A_Clean

Alternative Supporting Statement for Information Collections Designed for

Research, Public Health Surveillance, and Program Evaluation Purposes

Testing Identified Elements for Success in Fatherhood Programs (Fatherhood TIES)

OMB Information Collection Request

New Collection

Supporting Statement

Part A

October 2023

Submitted By:

Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation

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

Project Officers:

Katie Pahigiannis

Rebecca Hjelm

Part A

Executive Summary

• Type of Request: This Information Collection Request is for a new request. We are requesting two years of approval.

• Description of Request:

This is the first of two information collection requests for the Testing Identified Elements for Success in Fatherhood Programs (Fatherhood TIES) study. In this request, approval is being sought for the first phase of study data collection to gather consent from fathers to participate in the study, to ask fathers baseline survey questions when they enroll in the study beyond what the program already collects as part of their program enrollment processes, and to obtain information about program processes and outcomes during the study period to support the study teams’ understanding of implementation and how it could be improved. We do not intend for this information to be used as the principal basis for public policy decisions.

• Time Sensitivity: The study team plans a full study launch in the first quarter of 2024 once OMB approval is secured. This timeline would allow for maximum enrollment into the study until participants have completed all activities by the time the grants for Fatherhood FIRE grant recipient organizations end in September 2025.

A1. Necessity for Collection

The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks approval for data collection activities involving program participants and program staff, as part of the Testing Identified Elements for Success in Fatherhood Programs (Fatherhood TIES) project. OPRE launched Fatherhood TIES in 2022. Fatherhood TIES is a demonstration project designed to evaluate “core components” in five Responsible Fatherhood FIRE (Fatherhood—Family-focused, Interconnected, Resilient, and Essential)¹ grant recipient organizations. Fatherhood FIRE grants fund organizations to offer a combination of robust economic stability services, healthy marriage education and activities designed to foster responsible parenting.² Core components are the essential functions, principles and elements that are judged as being necessary to produce positive outcomes. Programs use several promising core components in their work with fathers, but more research would buttress the evidence of their efficacy. Fatherhood TIES is one of several new studies funded by ACF taking complementary approaches to provide needed evidence about program strategies that serve fathers and their families.

As part of TIES, selected grant recipient organizations co-create with the study team interventions focused on individualized supports for fathers to implement within the context of their existing programs. The study will examine how each core component is operationalized at each location and test to what extent it helps fathers to connect with their children, improve their relationships with their partners or co-parents and empower them to achieve financial stability. This information is necessary to help to inform ACF, other fatherhood program funders, and program operators about components that are shown to be successful.

Fatherhood TIES includes two phases of data collection. This current request is specific to Phase 1 and is for approval to consent participants to enter the study, to collect baseline information, and to obtain information about program processes and outcomes during the study period to support the study team’s understanding of implementation and how it could be improved. Phase 2 will include additional implementation study data collection details such as semi-structured interviews with program staff and participants and the nine-month follow-up survey. A future request will be submitted for Phase 2 data collection efforts.

OPRE has contracted with MDRC to complete this work.

A2. Purpose

Purpose and Use

Using a mix of research methods, this study will test “core components” of fatherhood programs. Five Fatherhood FIRE grant recipient organizations will partner with the Fatherhood TIES study team to conduct an implementation study and an impact study of a set of core components identified through grant document reviews, meta-analysis of published literature, and expert engagement. Each organization will implement a core component that is delivered individually, such as one-on-one or in a small group of three or fewer fathers. The individualized core components to be tested are targeted program content (parenting); systems navigation (e.g., family court, child support, child welfare); and goal setting and engagement supports to help the father to achieve his goals.

The implementation study will help the study team to know how the core components are implemented at each program. The impact study will rigorously evaluate, using random assignment designs whether promising core components can bring about positive outcomes for fathers and their families, which may include understanding effects of program engagement, employment and earnings, father-child relationship quality and co-parenting relationship quality.

Early findings from the current information collection request – and additional information collection that will be described in Phase 2 - will inform the study team’s technical assistance to the programs to strengthen their interventions. Findings will also be incorporated into documents or presentations that are made public, such as through conference presentations, website material, or social media. This study will add to the body of knowledge in the fatherhood field, revealing evidence on whether program elements designed to produce positive outcomes for fathers do so. This information will help to inform ACF, other fatherhood program funders, and program operators about program components that are shown to be successful which may result in changes to how programs operate or how funding decisions are made.

The information collected is meant to contribute to the body of knowledge on ACF programs. It is not intended to be used as the principal basis for a decision by a federal decision-maker and is not expected to meet the threshold of influential or highly influential scientific information.

Research Questions or Tests

The study team’s priority is to use the random assignment method in five Fatherhood FIRE grant recipient programs to inform impact and implementation studies with the research questions listed below.

Impact Study Research Questions:

1. What is the overall impact of individualized supports for fathers on employment and earnings, co-parenting, parenting access and father-child relationship quality, and couple relationships, for relevant fathers?

2. To what extent do these impacts vary by the type of component tested?

Implementation Study Research Questions:

1. How do the core components approaches differ from business-as-usual approaches?

2. What did it take for providers to implement the interventions?

3. What was the fidelity to and quality of implementation of the core components? How did this vary across sites?

4. What were the key supports and challenges in implementing the core components?

5. How did fathers think and feel about the program?

6. How did staff think and feel about the intervention?

7. What organizational characteristics were present at each site that influenced the fidelity or quality of the interventions?

8. What community characteristics are present at each site that influenced the fidelity or quality of the interventions?

Study Design

The evaluation will include an implementation study and an impact study and will be completed in two phases of data collection:

• Phase 1 (current request) involves program participants and program staff and includes consent (Appendix #1), baseline survey (Instrument #1), a program information and management tool (Instrument #2), reflections from staff (Instrument #3), and reflections from fathers (Instrument #4).

• Phase 2 will include the impact study and additional implementation study data collection activity details. A future request will cover these Phase 2 data collection needs. These will include a nine-month follow-up survey for fathers agreeing to enroll in the study, which will be very similar to the baseline survey included here, and semi-structured interviews with program staff and participants.

The implementation study will describe who participated in fatherhood program services, how services operated, what fathers thought about the services, and the challenges staff members faced implementing them. It will provide lessons for the field on key elements for successful program implementation and barriers to overcome when implementing these core components. In addition to the data collection described in this document, the implementation study will also include semi-structured interviews with staff implementing the interventions and program participants (to be detailed in Phase 2).

The impact study will use experimental research methods (randomized controlled trials) to rigorously evaluate whether promising core components can bring about positive outcomes for fathers and their families. Fathers who consent to the study will be randomly assigned into a program group or a control group. The program group will have access to the individualized core components being tested in addition to the program’s business as usual programming. The control group will only have access to the program’s business as usual programming. Outcomes for each group will be compared to determine what effect the core components have on key measures such as parenting skills, parent-child relationship quality, time spent with child, father well-being, and economic stability.

Program applicants will be asked to first complete a consent form (Appendix #1), which will provide information on what it means to participate in Fatherhood TIES. Program staff will conduct this process. Once consent is received, participants will complete a baseline survey (Instrument #1). Fathers will be asked to provide reflections about their program experience (Instrument #4) before they complete the program. Program staff will record information about father’s participation in services using their standard documentation process and may use Instrument #2 (TIES Table) to support that effort.

A nine-month follow-up survey (to be detailed in Phase 2 materials and will be very similar to Instrument #1) will be asked of all study enrollees to capture key measures that are considered primary outcomes or theorized moderators in the impact analysis including criminal legal system involvement, child support and establishment of paternity, parenting stress, parent-child relationship quality, and father depression and self-efficacy.

The next information collection request for Phase 2, which will include additional impact and implementation study data collection activities, will include more information about Phase 2 instruments and the study design which is still being finalized.

Table A.1. Summary of Data Collection Activity Proposed in this Package

Data Collection Activity	Instruments	Respondent, Content, Purpose of Collection	Mode and Duration
Baseline survey data collection	Baseline survey (Instrument #1)	Respondents: program applicant Content: Criminal justice system involvement; co-parenting relationships; parent/child quality; mental health Purpose: Have baseline data to increase power and ability to explain variance of impacts	Mode: Electronic form using Qualtrics Duration: 22 minutes
Program information and management tool	TIES Table (Instrument #2)	Respondent: Program staff Content: Information about the planned and actual delivery of the Fatherhood TIES intervention not already captured in nFORM. Purpose: To provide program and Fatherhood TIES staff with detailed information about the way in – and fidelity with – which the Fatherhood TIES program element is being implemented throughout the study period.	Mode: Program staff will enter simple information about the intended and actual participation of each member of the Fatherhood TIES “treatment” group. This information may be entered on a rolling basis or as infrequently as once per week. Duration: Up to 5 minutes per Fatherhood TIES treatment group member throughout the study period.
Written Documentation	Reflections from Staff (Instrument #3)	Respondents: Program staff involved in the intervention Content: Topics include: 1) Assessment of implementation 2) How challenges were addressed 3) How participants responded to the strategy tested Purpose: Gather initial information about intervention implementation	Mode: Electronic form using Qualtrics Duration: 15 minutes each per respondent Frequency: Once at a midpoint during each cohort throughout the study period
Written Documentation	Reflections from Fathers (Instrument #4)	Respondents: Fathers in each cohort Content: Topics include: 1) Challenges to participating 2) Program’s support of goals 3) How program could better support goals Purpose: contributes to the program’s reflection of program implementation	Mode: Electronic form using Qualtrics Duration: 15 minutes each per respondent Frequency: Once per father per cohort throughout the study period.

Other Data Sources and Uses of Information

In addition to the data collection activities detailed in Table A.1, the study team will use other existing data sources.

• nFORM. The Fatherhood TIES study team will use additional information from nFORM which was approved under OMB #0970-0566. This data source includes participant demographic information and information about service participation. This does not represent additional burden because it is already covered under OMB #0970-0566.

• Programmatic records maintained by the Office of Family Assistance or their grant recipients. These data sources may include federal grant applications, existing program-specific documents provided by the Fatherhood TIES grant recipient organizations, or information from program provider websites.

• National Directory of New Hires (NDNH) records will be requested for individuals who enroll in the Fatherhood TIES study and provide their Social Security numbers to the study team. This data will give us information about fathers’ earnings and levels of employment between the time of study enrollment and nine months after enrollment; employment and earnings are one key outcome of interest.

A3. Use of Information Technology to Reduce Burden

This study will use information technology, when possible, to minimize respondent burden and to collect data efficiently.

The study team intends to incorporate the data collection activities detailed in the consent (Appendix #1) into the systems grant recipients currently use (nFORM). For example, consent will be tracked in nFORM, which all five Fatherhood TIES grant recipient organizations are already required to use. Other activities such as the baseline survey for fathers (Instrument #1) will be administered using a complementary electronic system (Qualtrics) with similar burden reduction supports. The study team is exploring the possibility of adding an audio component to Qualtrics so at least some portions of the survey could be completed using an audio computer aided self interview (ACASI) approach. This will ensure that any literacy issues do not affect the ability of the respondent to complete the survey independently. The participant can choose to use the audio or read the questions and responses on screen, or both, whichever is most comfortable for the participant. Conducting the baseline survey in this manner means that the respondent can answer the survey questions without site staff involvement, and responses are kept confidential. ACASI also allows for the efficient administration of a survey by using skip logic to quickly move to the next appropriate question depending upon a respondent’s previous answer.

The Fatherhood TIES team will tailor the program information and management tool (Instrument #2) to meet each program’s unique needs. In doing so, program staff will be asked to enter only the information that is relevant to their program and the tested program component. Instrument #2 is designed with simple data entry requirements and fields and will provide program staff with charts and data that is designed to deepen their understanding of the implementation of program services.

Finally, a simple electronic form will collect reflections from program staff (Instrument #3) and fathers (Instrument #4) at each site once per cohort.

A4. Use of Existing Data: Efforts to reduce duplication, minimize burden, and increase utility and government efficiency

As detailed above, some data sources exist and others the study team has confirmed are not available in any other form in a consistent manner across the Fatherhood TIES grant recipient organizations. The following describes how the study team will minimize burden and increase utility and efficiency.

Integrating Fatherhood TIES consent (Appendix #1) into the existing nFORM system and program enrollment process will minimize burden on staff and offer a seamless process to the fathers who are enrolling.

The TIES baseline survey (Instrument #1) is designed to minimize burden by only including questions that will improve the study team’s ability to detect impacts. Questions will be administered through an electronic system and integrated into the existing enrollment processes to feel as seamless as possible to the respondent. Currently, the Applicant Characteristics Survey (approved under OMB #0970-0566) does not ask any questions about criminal justice involvement, and its questions on parenting and co-parenting are too broad to capture much variation in responses. Having the additional baseline information for participants on a set of more nuanced parenting and co-parenting measures will allow the study team to improve the statistical power of the study to detect variance in impacts.

The TIES baseline data collection is expected to take 22 minutes and will provide the study team with more power to explain the variability in its outcomes of interest.

When possible, the study team will seek to embed questions from Instruments #3 and #4 (reflections from staff and fathers) into a program providers’ existing continuous quality improvement (CQI) or local evaluation efforts to avoid duplicating established feedback loops with program staff and program participants.

A5. Impact on Small Businesses

We expect most of the Fatherhood TIES grant recipient organizations in the study will be small, non-profit organizations. Burden will be minimized for staff by integrating the study consent (Appendix #1) into the existing nFORM system. Burden will be minimized for respondents by restricting the number of baseline questions (Instrument #1) into a 22-minute module. A limited number of staff will be responsible for adding information to the program information and management tool Instrument #2) based on their role within the grant recipient. Burden will also be limited by restricting the length of time required to response to staff and father reflections (Instrument #3 and Instrument #4). Fatherhood TIES will also provide financial resources for each grant recipient to offset the costs of being involved in the study.

A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection

The baseline survey (Instrument #1) reflects a one-time event. To the extent that Instruments #2 through #4 are used to collect information at multiple points in time for one respondent, less frequent data collection would result in the loss of somewhat real-time information about program operations and implementation.

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 this information collection activity. This notice was published on July 25, 2023, Citation #88 FR 47884, Number #2023-15694, page #47884-47885, and provided a sixty-day period for public comment. During the notice and comment period, 1 comment was received. The commenter shared their thoughts about, and barriers associated with, non-custodial parents, child support, and father-child relationships. There were no comments made about utility, duplication, cost, or hour burden. The study team reviewed the comment and took it into consideration in intervention design conversations.

Consultation with Experts Outside of the Study

Experts outside of the study team were consulted for advice about study design issues, including about core components the study team should explore testing. These conversations were designed to inform research design decisions only. The team met with a range of experts – fatherhood program staff and practitioners, participants with lived experience and academics with extensive experience in core component methodologies or who have experience in relevant fields such as programming for fathers, healthy relationships or workforce development – in individual and small group conversations.

A9. Tokens of Appreciation

We have assumed each of the five Fatherhood TIES grant recipient organizations study locations will enroll 600 participants into the study. Each participant will be invited to consent to participating in Fatherhood TIES (Appendix #1) and take the baseline survey (Instrument #1). As a token of appreciation, study participants will receive a $25 gift card for completing the consent and the baseline survey. There are three reasons to propose a token of appreciation for baseline survey completion. First, to improve the likelihood that someone will agree to participate in the study and complete the baseline survey. To ensure adequate statistical power for detecting likely program effects, it is essential to have large enough samples in each study location and do whatever possible to encourage study participation. Modest gifts associated with baseline survey data collection can make it easier for program staff to meet enrollment targets. Research has shown that respondent payments are effective at increasing response rates across a wide variety of populations, including some similar to the expected Fatherhood TIES enrollees (Abdelazeem et al. 2023). Second, to show study participants that the study team appreciates their participation in data collection activities and offset any incidental costs of participation. The time taken to complete the consent and baseline survey will take about 22 minutes to complete; this is in addition to the standard intake processes already in place. A $25 gift card may offset the opportunity cost associated with taking this extra time to complete these activities (e.g., parenting time or work responsibilities). Third, the token of appreciation after completing the baseline survey may serve to reduce attrition in follow up activities such as the nine-month follow-up survey. In longitudinal studies, providing a token for earlier surveys may contribute to higher response rates for subsequent surveys (Singer and Ye 2013). Data quality will be improved by the increased number of people participating in future study activities. We believe this is a reasonable amount for the time associated with signing up for the study but is not so high as to appear coercive for potential participants.

Fathers who complete short reflection surveys will be eligible to receive a token of appreciation for the time they take to respond. This amount will be $5 provided via electronic gift cards.

One month after an individual enrolls, he will receive a welcome packet in the mail. The welcome packet will include a $5 gift card as a token of appreciation for being in the study. Including a pre-token is a methodological approach that has been shown to help build better response rates to tracking mailings and to help build a rapport with participants which ultimately helps increase response rates to follow-up data collection (Singer, Van Hoewyk, Maher 2000; Singer et al. 1999; Cantor, O’Hare, and O’Connor 2008). Abt Associates used this approach on Building Bridges and Bonds (OMB Control Number 0970-0485) by including a study magnet and $2 with the welcome letter.  Since the TIES welcome letter includes a request to update contact information, we suggest using the welcome gift card to begin building a good relationship with study participants as well as increasing the response to the tracking request. 

A10. Privacy: Procedures to protect privacy of information, while maximizing data sharing

Personally Identifiable Information

Since information associated with consent is being collected through the existing nFORM system, Fatherhood TIES will primarily utilize existing practices to protect privacy of information as approved in OMB #0970-0566. Using nFORM, all Fatherhood FIRE grant recipient programs collect personally identifiable information (PII) from clients including clients’ first and last names, contact information (telephone number, home and email addresses, and social media information), and personal characteristics. The nFORM system is designed for Fatherhood FIRE grant recipient organizations to conduct client case management and track services and outcomes for individual clients. ACF provides guidelines for protecting PII. Only nFORM contractor staff responsible for ensuring data quality have access to PII; limiting the number of contractor staff with access to PII reduces the risk of disclosure.

In addition, the five grant recipient programs involved in Fatherhood TIES will be asked to collect Social Security Numbers for individuals agreeing to participate in the study. Data from nFORM, including PII, will be accessed via the nFORM web portal requiring dual authentication for access and will be downloaded directly into a secure location. The contact information will be used for the purpose of follow-up survey administration (the details of which will be covered in a future submission). Social Security Numbers will be used to request relevant administrative records such as National Directory of New Hires (NDNH) data as part of the impact analysis. Providing Social Security Numbers will be voluntary.

The program information and management tool (Instrument #2) will not include any personally identifiable information.

Assurances of Privacy

Information collected will be kept private. Respondents will be informed of all planned uses of data, that their participation is voluntary, and that their information will be kept private. As specified in the contract, the Contractor will comply with all Federal and Departmental regulations for private information.

At least some of the information collected as part of this request will likely be retrieved by an individual’s personal identifier in a way that triggers the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (5 U.S.C. 552a). The system of records notice (SORN) for this collection will be 09-8-0-0361, OPRE Research and Evaluation Project Records. Each individual will be provided with information that complies with 552a(e)(3) prior to requesting information that will be placed into that system of records. This means respondents will receive information about the authority, the purposes for use, the routine uses, that the request is voluntary, and any effects of not providing the requested information.

Due to the sensitive nature of this research (see A.11 for more information), the evaluation obtained a Certificate of Confidentiality to assure participants that their information will be kept private to the fullest extent permitted by law.

This study received a full committee review from MDRC’s IRB and was approved with conditions on December 7, 2022. The expiration date of the IRB approval is December 7, 2023. The study team received IRB approval on July 17, 2023 for the materials covered in this document – consent (Appendix #1), baseline survey (Instrument #1), program information and management tool (Instrument #2), and reflections from staff and fathers (Instruments #3 and #4). The IRB approval is included as Appendix #2.

Data Security and Monitoring

The baseline survey (Instrument #1), reflection from staff (Instrument #3) and reflection from fathers (Instrument #4 will be administered using Qualtrics, a FedRAMP compliant data collection platform. Response files will also be stored in MDRC’s FedRAMP-certified cloud-based environment.

As specified in the contract, the Contractor shall protect respondent privacy and will comply with all Federal and Departmental regulations for private information. The Contractor has developed and will continue to update a Data Security Plan that assesses the data security technologies, protocols, and protections that will be used to protect respondents’ PII and their sensitive information. Specifically, the Data Security Plan will include a detailed description of the type and nature of the data collected, data storage protocols, data collection and transfer protections, data disposition protocols, and data incident reporting and response.

Contractor holds an ATO at the moderate impact level from HHS and the FedRAMP Program Management Office (PMO). MDRC’s FedRAMP Application Number is FR1902240018. All required documentation supporting our accreditation is uploaded and available for reference on the OMB MAX portal. MDRC continues to upload information monthly as part of the ongoing continuous monitoring of our FedRAMP accredited system. MDRC is subject to an annual audit and review conducted by an independent accredited external audit organization. Documented policies, procedures, plans, and security controls are carefully reviewed to ensure that MDRC follows NIST 800-53 guidelines and industry best practices. In accordance with HHS data security standards, the project team will store datafiles including PII and other controlled unclassified information (CUI) in the FedRAMP-certified cloud-based environment.

Security procedures described in the Data Security Plan include the following: access to information on a need-to-know basis, multi-factor authentication to login to MDRC network, end-to-end encryption, in-transit and at-rest, using TLS 1.2 or later 256-bit encryption. Other data security protocols include: employee nondisclosure agreements and annual data security training, cyber defense infrastructure, and strict policies for responding to data security incidents.

The Contractor shall ensure that all its employees, subcontractors (at all tiers), and employees of each subcontractor, who perform work under this contract/subcontract, are trained on data privacy issues and comply with the data security requirements as specified in the Data Security Plan. 

A11. Sensitive Information³

As noted in the consent, participants in Fatherhood TIES will be asked to provide their Social Security Numbers. Some of the baseline survey questions (Instrument #1) may be sensitive for study participants. Individuals will be asked about their current or previous involvement in the criminal justice system and about their mental health, including depression and psychological distress. Other questions cover the father’s discipline practices, frequency of his contact with his children and frequency of co-parenting conflicts. These questions are necessary to gain more knowledge about fathers’ lived experiences, especially regarding parenting and co-parenting. As noted in section A4, this information will not be available from other data sources. There is no sensitive information associated with Instruments #2 through #4.

Across all data collection, respondents will be informed by research staff prior to the start of the interviews or surveys that their answers will be kept private, that results will only be reported in the aggregate, and that their responses will not affect any services or benefits they or their family members receive.

At the point of enrollment in the study, the informed consent (Appendix #1) will provide an overview of data collection efforts to expect during the study. Staff obtaining consent from participants will be trained to answer questions about what it means to participate in the study.

A12. Burden

Explanation of Burden Estimates

Table A.2 shows the annual burden for activities described in this supporting statement. The team aims to consent 3,000 Fatherhood TIES program participants into the study (Appendix #1). Consent will be conducted by about 4 staff members at each Fatherhood TIES grant recipient for a total of 20 staff. We have estimated about 10 minutes for each consent conducted and have accounted for this recordkeeping burden in the table below. Likewise, the team aims to have each of the 3,000 Fatherhood TIES consenters complete the baseline survey (Instrument #1) which is estimated to take 22 minutes to complete. The team will ask all Fatherhood TIES consenters to respond to a short reflection survey about their experiences (Instrument #4) which is estimated to take 15 minutes. During the study period, 20 program staff will use the program information and management tool (Instrument #2) to document information about the planned and actual delivery of the intervention an estimated 80 times each at 5 minutes each time, and 37 staff will be asked to respond to a reflection survey (Instrument #3) up to 8 times each (for 15 minutes each time) to share their thoughts about intervention implementation. Study enrollment is expected to take place over 21 months.

Estimated Annualized Cost to Respondents

The assumed wage rate is based on the May 2022 employment wages from Occupational Employment Statistics survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rate used for staff involved in the consent process is $23.74, is equivalent to the mean hourly wage for community and social service occupations under SOC code 21-0000. The rate used for program applicants, $22.26, is the May 2022 median wage across all occupations in the United States (see https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#00-0000).

Table A.2. Annual Burden for Activities Described in This Supporting Statement

Instrument	Respondent	No. of Respondents (total over request period)	No. of Responses per Respondent (total over request period)	Avg. Burden per Response (in hours)	Total Burden (in hours)	Annual Burden (in hours)	Average Hourly Wage Rate	Total Annual Respondent Cost
TIES Consent Materials for Fathers (over 18 years old)	Staff (Record- keeping)	20	188	.167	628	314	$23.74	$7,454.36
TIES Baseline Survey	Applicant	3,000	1	.367	1101	551	$22.26	$12,265.26
Program Information and management tool (TIES Table Template)	Staff	20	80	.083	133	67	$23.74	$1,590.58
TIES Reflection from Staff	Staff	37	8	.25	74	37	$23.74	$878.38
TIES Reflection from Fathers	Participant	3,000	1	.25	750	375	$22.26	$8,347.50
Estimated Annual Burden Total					2686	1344		$30,536.08

A13. Costs

There are no additional costs to respondents. We are not proposing honoraria.

A14. Estimated Annualized Costs to the Federal Government

The annual estimated costs for data collection activities under this request include labor costs for staff associated with field work/data collection, data processing and analysis, as well as other expenses, such as software for supporting the administration of the instruments, which would not have been incurred without this collection of the instruments. The following table outlines these costs.

Table A.3. Estimated Annualized Costs to the Federal Government

Cost Category	Estimated Costs
Data Collection	$768,879
Analysis	$526,672
Total costs over the request period	$1,295,551
Annual costs	$740,314.86

A15. Reasons for changes in burden

This is a new information collection request.

A16. Timeline

Fatherhood TIES is scheduled to launch Phase 1 in January 2024, pending OMB approval. Phase 2 is expected to begin in March 2024, pending OMB approval. Study enrollment is expected to last 21 months. The team is scheduled to finalize the final report in December 2026. The contract will end in June 2027.

A17. Exceptions

No exceptions are necessary for this information collection.

Instruments

Instrument #1 – TIES Baseline Survey

Instrument #2 – TIES Table Template

Instrument #3 – TIES Reflection from Staff

Instrument #4 – TIES Reflection from Fathers

Appendix #1 – TIES Consent Materials for Fathers

Appendix #2 – IRB Approval

1 https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/healthy-marriage/responsible-fatherhood

2 Ibid.

3 Examples of sensitive topics include (but not limited to): social security number; sex behavior and attitudes; illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating and demeaning behavior; critical appraisals of other individuals with whom respondents have close relationships, e.g., family, pupil-teacher, employee-supervisor; mental and psychological problems potentially embarrassing to respondents; religion and indicators of religion; community activities which indicate political affiliation and attitudes; legally recognized privileged and analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians and ministers; records describing how an individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment; receipt of economic assistance from the government (e.g., unemployment or WIC or SNAP); immigration/citizenship status.

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