Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Performance Measures and Additional Data Collection

For decades, various organizations and agencies (including community- and faith-based organizations, local governments, and universities) have been developing and operating programs to strengthen families through healthy marriage and relationship education and responsible fatherhood programming. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has had administrative responsibility for federal funding of such programs since 2006 through the Healthy Marriage (HM) and Responsible Fatherhood (RF) Grant Programs. The authorizing legislation for the programs may be found in Section 403(a)(2) of the Social Security Act. ACF requires HMRF grant recipients to collect and report performance measures about program operations, services, and clients served, using a performance measures data collection system called nFORM (Information, Family Outcomes, Reporting, and Management). ACF provides this system to grant recipients to improve the efficiency of data collection and reporting and the quality of data. This system allows for streamlined and standardized submission of grant recipient performance data through regular progress reports, and it also supports grant recipient-led and federal research projects. Grant recipients are required by ACF’s Office of Grants Management (OGM) to submit a Performance Progress Report (PPR) once during each grant year (in October), reporting on the programmatic activities conducted by the grant recipient in the prior year and activities planned for the next year. The annual PPR (Instrument 5) fulfills these requirements for the HMRF grant recipients. The performance measures data collection and reporting instruments for the 2020 cohort were approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB #0970-0566) in 2021 and renewed in 2024. The instruments have been used as planned. Through September 29, 2025 (the end of the 2020 cohort), grant recipients had enrolled 193,993 clients, administered the OMB-approved survey instruments, and submitted the OMB-approved reports to ACF to meet reporting requirements. In addition, the data have been used to support numerous federal and grant recipient-led evaluations of the HMRF programs. This request from ACF is for a revision to its approved collection and reporting of performance measures about program operations, services, and client services through the HMRF Grant Programs. ACF proposes to continue performance measure data collection and reporting for the 2025 cohort of HMRF grant recipients that received five-year awards in September 2025. For the 2025 cohort, ACF revised the instruments used by the 2020 cohort to reflect its current priorities, better align the data with the characteristics of HMRF programs and clients, and reduce respondent burden.

The latest form for Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Performance Measures and Additional Data Collection expires 2029-07-31 and is listed under ICR 202604-0970-010.

1: Program Application and Enrollment - Program applicants (1b: entrance survey)

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