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
table that charts list comparision
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.
Attachment A ACF Response to ASTHVI Comments Guidance for AR_60 Day FRN _fnl.docx
Final Report to the Secretary Guidance