Office of Refugee Resettlement Unaccompanied Alien Children Bureau Care Provider Transportation Services Feedback Survey
Formative Data Collections for Program Support
0970 – 0531
Supporting Statement
Part A - Justification
July 2025
Submitted By:
Office of Refugee Resettlement
Administration for Children and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
5th 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 to survey Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) Bureau care providers to understand how various providers are facilitating transportation services for children. The information requested will inform ORR planning and recommendations for transportation services.
The UAC Bureau is responsible for ensuring the safety and well-being of children in ORR care. This includes safety and well-being while children are being transported to a care provider facility, foster home, or group home, or occasionally to an approved sponsor. UAC Policy Guide Section 3.3.14 Transportation Services and Section 2.8.2 Transfer of Physical Custody establish the guidelines care providers must follow when providing these services.
Historically, ORR has not tracked or evaluated how transportation services are provided by care providers except for basic transportation movements, which is tracked and assessed by the transportation contractor. Recent updates to the structure of the contract and ORR UAC Bureau have resulted in the ability to broaden the work so that the ORR Division of Placement Operations (DPO) will oversee coordination between the transportation contractor and care providers. Findings from this survey will contribute to ORR DPO refinements and operational adjustments aimed at strengthening transportation support for unaccompanied alien children.
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 survey will be distributed to care providers nationwide and will focus on key aspects of transportation services such as timeliness, communication, resource availability, and opportunities for improvement. Findings from this survey will contribute to ORR DPO refinements and operational adjustments aimed at strengthening transportation support for unaccompanied alien children.
The data collected will be used by ORR DPO to:
Evaluate the effectiveness of current transportation procedures.
Identify common challenges care providers face in arranging transportation.
Assess resource gaps and areas of improvement.
Contribute to ORR DPO refinements and operational adjustments aimed at strengthening safe, timely, and efficient transportation for children.
The data may also be incorporated into various documents and presentations for internal and external stakeholders. Possible uses of the findings include:
Technical assistance plans to address challenges faced by care providers and improve transportation coordination.
Presentations at meetings to share key insights with ORR Leadership, federal staff, grantees and contractors.
Infographics that highlight trends and challenges in transportation services.
Project-specific reports to inform decision -making within ORR and improve service delivery.
Delivery of training or technical assistance (TA) and/or workflows related to program implementation or the development or refinement of program and grantee processes.
Obtaining feedback about processes and/or practices to inform ACF program development or support.
Requesting information about resources, programs, or other ACF services or related activities to provide consolidated public sources of information for those using or interested in ACF funded services, or those interested in systems, programs, or research related to ACF.
Processes for Information Collection
This information collection will be conducted through an online survey distributed via email using Microsoft Forms. The survey will be sent to all care providers within the ORR UAC Bureau network.
Care providers will be asked to complete the survey electronically by clicking on a link provided in the email invitation. The survey will include a mix of multiple-choice and open-ended questions to capture both quantitative and qualitative insights regarding their experiences with transportation services.
Responses will be collected and stored securely through Microsoft Forms, allowing for efficient data analysis. Participation in the survey is voluntary. The respondents will be encouraged to provide honest feedback to help inform improvements in transportation services for unaccompanied alien children.
A3. Improved Information Technology to Reduce Burden
To minimize the burden on respondents, this survey will be conducted electronically through Microsoft Forms, allowing care providers to complete and submit their responses online. The survey link will be sent via email, providing easy access and convenience for respondents to complete at their own pace.
Using Microsoft Forms ensures:
Streamlined data collection, as responses are automatically recorded and organized for analysis.
Elimination of paper-based submissions, reducing manual data entry and processing time.
Improved accessibility, allowing care providers to complete the survey from any device with internet access.
These technological improvements help simplify the response process, reduce administrative burden, and enhance data accuracy and efficiency.
A4. Efforts to Identify Duplication
The information being collected through this survey is not available from any other source. While other data collections may capture aspects of transportation services for unaccompanied alien children, they do not specifically assess how care providers facilitate transportation, the challenges they face, or the resources they need.
A5. Involvement of Small Organizations
Some care providers in the ORR network may be small organizations or entities. To minimize the burden on these organizations, the survey has been designed to be concise and easy to complete, requiring only a short time commitment. Additionally, the survey will be distributed via email with a flexible completion window, allowing respondents to complete it at a time that is most convenient for them.
By using electronic format through Microsoft Forms, we further reduce the burden by eliminating the need for paper-based responses and manual data submission. These efforts ensure that small organizations can provide their input with minimal disruption to their daily operations.
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.
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 and that their participation is voluntary. Staff emails and program names will be collected so that ORR DPO can assess consistency across multi-site programs.
A11. Sensitive Questions
There are no sensitive questions in this data collection.
A12. Estimation of Information Collection Burden
Burden Estimates
The burden estimate for this information collection was calculated based on the expected time required to complete the survey and the number of active care providers in the ORR UAC Bureau network. To determine the estimated burden, a draft version of the survey was completed by senior staff within ORR DPO to assess the average time needed to read and respond to all questions. It is anticipated that care providers will require approximately 20 minutes to complete the survey, depending on the depth of their responses to open ended questions.
Cost Estimates
The cost to respondents was calculated using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) job code for Child, Family, and School Social Workers (21-1021) and wage data from May 2024 which is $23.53 per hour. To account for fringe benefits and overhead the rate was multiplied by two which is $ 47.06. (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 |
ORR UAC Care Provider Transportation Services Feedback Survey |
216 |
1 |
0.33 |
71.28 |
$47.06 |
$3,354.44 |
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 $2,062.
The annualized cost estimate for each of this form considers the time of a GS-13 Step 1 federal employee in the Tucson, Arizona locality to review information after submittal. No additional costs will be incurred by the Federal government. The hourly rate was multiplied by two to account for fringe benefits and overhead.
Instrument |
Annual Number of Federal Staff |
Number of Reviews per Federal Staff |
Average Federal Staff Burden Hours per Review |
Annual Total Federal Staff Burden Hours |
Average Federal Staff Hourly Wage |
Annual Total Federal Staff Cost |
Care Provider Transportation Services Feedback Survey |
1 |
10 |
2 |
20 |
$103.10 |
$2,062.00 |
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
Once emailed to potential respondents, the survey will remain open for about two weeks. Data analysis is anticipated to be completed within about two weeks after the responses are received.
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
Care Provider Transportation Services Feedback Survey
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | OPRE OMB Clearance Manual |
| Author | DHHS |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2025-08-07 |