Tribal Maternal, Infant, and
Early Childhood Home Visiting Program: Guidance for Submitting an
Annual Report to the Secretary
Revision of a currently approved collection
No
Regular
09/04/2024
Requested
Previously Approved
36 Months From Approved
03/31/2026
53
40
1,325
998
0
0
As part of the Consolidated
Appropriations Act, 2023 (Public Law 117-328). Section 511 of Title
V of the Social Security Act authorizes the Secretary of the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to award grants to
Indian tribes (or a consortium of Indian tribes), tribal
organizations, or urban Indian organizations to conduct an early
childhood home visiting program. The legislation sets aside 6
percent of the total Maternal, Infant, Early Childhood Home
Visiting (MIECHV) appropriation for grants to tribal entities and
requires that the tribal grants, to the greatest extent
practicable, be consistent with the requirements of the MIECHV
grants to states and territories and include conducting a needs
assessment and establishing benchmarks. The goals of the Tribal
Home Visiting Program are to support healthy, happy, successful
American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children and families
through a coordinated, high-quality, evidence-based home visiting
strategy, and to continue to build the evidence base for home
visiting in tribal communities. The Administration for Children and
Families (ACF) and the Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA), the agencies collaborating to implement the MIECHV program
within HHS, also intend for the program to result in a coordinated
system of early childhood home visiting in tribal communities that
has the capacity to provide infrastructure and supports to assure
high-quality, evidence-based practice. The Tribal Home Visiting
discretionary grants support cooperative agreements to conduct
community needs assessments; plan for and implement high-quality,
culturally grounded, evidence-based home visiting programs in
at-risk tribal communities; establish, measure, and report on
progress toward meeting performance measures in six legislatively
mandated benchmark areas; and participate in rigorous evaluation
activities to build the knowledge base on home visiting among
Native populations. After the first grant year, Tribal Home
Visiting grant recipients must comply with the legislative
requirement to submit an Annual Report to the Secretary that should
feature activities carried out under the program during the past
reporting period. To assist grant recipients with meeting these
requirements, ACF created guidance for grant recipients to use when
writing their annual reports. Previously, the guidance included
information about both the annual and the final reports from grant
recipients. This request includes updates to the guidance to make
it specific to just the annual reports while we determine if the
annual report guidance could be used for the final report. If it is
decided that guidance specific to the final report would be
beneficial, we will submit a request to OMB in the future. We have
also revised the annual report to streamline significantly and
align with the previous estimated burden. At this time, we are
requesting to extend approval of this information collection for an
additional three years with the changes implemented.
Section 511(h)(6)(A)(iii) of
Title V of the Social Security Act requires the Secretary of Health
and Human Services to reduce the burden on states and public and
private implementing agencies at the local level of administrating
MIECHV. This includes reviewing paperwork and data collection
requirements for tribal grant recipients and exploring, in
consultation with tribes and tribal organizations, ways to reduce
administrative burden, respect tribal sovereignty, and acknowledge
the different focus points for tribal recipients. ACF acknowledges
that the prior burden estimate under estimated the level of effort
for grant recipients and therefore made a concerted effort to
reduce the burden by doing a thorough review of the guidance and
engaging grant recipients. As a result, substantial edits were made
to the annual report which have resulted in a version that is in
line with the average estimated time to complete of 25 hours. The
Tribal MIECHV Program is being expanded. For the fiscal years
2023-2027, Congress has increased the Tribal MIECHV set aside from
3 percent to 6 percent as part of the Consolidated Appropriations
Act, 2023 (Public Law 117-328). Section 511 of Title V of the
Social Security Act gives the Secretary of Health and Human
Services (HHS) the authority to provide grants to Indian tribes,
tribal organizations, or urban Indian organizations for conducting
early childhood home visiting programs. With these new awards, the
number of tribal entities implementing home-visiting services is
estimated to increase from 41 to 53 by FY 2027.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.