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Title: Regional Partnership Grant (RPG) Program Data Collection.

OMB No.: New Collection.

Description:

On September 30, 2007, the Administration for Children and Families (ACE), Children's Bureau awarded multi-year grants to 53 regional partnerships grantees (RPGs) to improve the safety, permanency and well-being of children affected by methamphetamine or other substance abuse who have been removed or are at-risk of removal from their home. The Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006, the authorizing legislation for the RPG program, required that a set of performance indicators be established Start Printed Page 50024to periodically assess the grantees' progress on achieving certain outcomes. The legislation mandated that these performance indicators be developed through a consultative process involving ACE, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and representatives of the State or Tribal agencies who are members of the regional partnerships.

The final set of RPG performance indicators was approved by ACF and disseminated to the funded grantees in January 2008. It includes a total of 23 indicators across four outcome domains: child/youth (9 indicators), adult (7 indicators), family/relationship (5 indicators), and regional partnership/service capacity (2 indicators). It also includes a core set of child and adult demographic elements that will provide important context needed to properly analyze, explain and understand the outcomes. No other national data collection measures these critical child, adult, family, and RPG outcomes specifically for these children and families. The data also will have significant implications for policy and program development for child well-being programs nationwide.

The purpose of this request is to obtain OMB approval to collect this legislatively required performance and outcome data from the RPGs.

To minimize grantee data collection and reporting burden, many of the data elements are already being collected by counties and States in order to report Federally-mandated data for the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) and the National Outcome Measures (NOMs); in addition, all States voluntarily submit data for the Federal National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS). Therefore, most child welfare data elements included in the RPG performance measures can be found in a State's automated case management system, which is often a Federally-funded Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS) TEDS admission and discharge data are collected by State substance abuse agencies according to their own information systems for monitoring substance abuse treatment admissions and transmitted monthly or quarterly to the SAMHSA contractor.

In short, as a result of prior Federal government reporting requirements, States are already collecting several data elements needed by the RPGs. The RPGs can download information from these existing State child welfare and substance abuse treatment data systems to obtain data to monitor their RPG program outcomes, thereby reducing the amount of primary data collection needed.

Beginning in year two, grantees will submit a data file with their required indicator data, according to their final set of indicators, every six months.

Respondents: RPG Grantees.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 18,603

Additional Information: ACE is requesting that OMB grant a 90 day approval for this information collection under procedures for emergency processing by September 30, 2008. A copy of this information collection, with applicable supporting documentation, may be obtained by calling the Administration for Children and Families, Reports Clearance Officer, Robert Sargis at (202) 690-7275.

Comments and questions about the information collection described above should be directed to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Attn: OMB Desk Officer for ACE, Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project, 725 17th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20503, (202) 395-7316.

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