SSA Prog Supp GenIC - “Research Ready Grantee” Intake Form

“Research Ready Grantee” Intake Form

Formative Data Collections for Program Support

0970 – 0531

Supporting Statement

Part A - Justification

December 2024

Submitted By:

ACF Tech

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 for an intake form to allow ACF’s grant recipients to opt-in to participation in future research efforts.

Background

Multiple teams across ACF conduct research with grantees to learn about their experience to craft solutions for improvement. Getting in touch with grantees for a research session has proven consistently time-intensive. We would like to give an opportunity to all ACF grantees to opt-in to future research efforts. This form would be to collect contact information for those grantees who are interested. (Subsequent research efforts would follow their own PRA requirements.)

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 purpose of the proposed Research Ready Grantee Intake Form is to create a consolidated list of grantees who are open to future research efforts. The information would be used by ACF teams to reach out to grantees who are interested in future research efforts. Not only would this save staff time, across both program and supporting offices, but it would also ensure interested grantees are included in relevant efforts. This will benefit grantees and ACF programs. Empowering grantees to be involved in efforts and provide feedback about their experiences is intended to improve trust and transparency. The effort will enhance the integration of grantee feedback into the ACF’s work.

While many program offices would benefit from this information, it would be particularly useful for the following ACF teams:

• The Digital Service at ACF (ACF Tech)

• Office of Grants Management’s Strategic Operations and Innovation Division

• The Customer Experience team (Office of Administration)

Information collection is for internal ACF purposes and will not be made public.

This proposed information collection meets the following goals of ACF’s generic clearance for formative data collections for program support (0970-0531):

• Obtaining feedback about processes and/or practices to inform ACF program development or support.

• Development of learning agendas and research priorities.

Processes for Information Collection

Information will be collected via an online survey. The intended respondents are current ACF grant recipients. The Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary (IOAS) will partner with the Office of External Affairs to send an email to all current grantees inviting them to opt-in to future research efforts, with this intake form capturing their information.

A3. Improved Information Technology to Reduce Burden

Information will be collected online via a modern survey platform (ex. Qualtrics or Microsoft Forms).

A4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

While we know who are grant recipients are, we do not have a recent and comprehensive list of grantees who have opted-in to research opportunities with ACF. This effort will make it easier for ACF staff to learn from grantee’s experiences and ensure research is conducted with a wide range of grantees, rather than leaning on existing personal relationships to source research candidates.

A5. Involvement of Small Organizations

This opt-in form is optional to grant recipients, which may include small organizations. If the initiative is too burdensome, entities can ignore the request.

A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection

This is a one-time data collection.

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 this information collection request to extend approval of the umbrella generic with minor changes. The notice was published on January 28, 2022, (87 FR 4603), and provided a sixty-day period for public comment. ACF did not receive any comments on the first notice. A second notice was published, allowing a thirty-day period for public comment, in conjunction with submission of the request to OMB. ACF did not receive any comments on the second notice.

Consultation with Outside Experts

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

A9. Tokens of Appreciation for Respondents

No tokens of appreciation 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.

The intake form will collect personally identifiable information (grant recipient’s name and email address) so they can be contacted in the future. Respondent’s information and answers will be primarily kept in the online survey platform, and shared with other ACF teams conducting research, as applicable.

Information will not be maintained in a paper or electronic system from which data are actually or directly retrieved by an individuals’ personal identifier.

A11. Sensitive Questions

There are no sensitive questions in this data collection.

A12. Estimation of Information Collection Burden

Burden Estimates

We estimate that 10% of ACF’s grant recipients will be interested in opting-in, which would be a total of 320 respondents. We also expect respondents to spend 5 minutes on the intake form.

Cost Estimates

The cost to respondents was calculated using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) job code for Social and Community Service Managers [11-9151] and wage data from May 2023, which is $37.03 per hour. To account for fringe benefits and overhead the rate was multiplied by two which is $74.06.

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
Research Ready Grantee Intake Form	320	1	5 mins	26.67	$74.06	$1,975

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 $1,975.

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

We do not plan to publicly publish the information collected from the intake form. The list of interested grantees will be shared with ACF teams who are pursuing research with grantees.

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.

Attachments

Intake Form for Research Ready Grantees (Word document)

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