[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 117 (Tuesday, June 18, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28305-28306]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-12796]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families
Proposed Information Collection Activity; Assessing the
Implementation and Cost of High Quality Early Care and Education: Field
Test (0970-0499)
AGENCY: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration
for Children and Families, HHS.
ACTION: Request for public comment.
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SUMMARY: This information request is part of the project, Assessing the
Implementation and Cost of High Quality Early Care and Education (ECE-
ICHQ). The project's goal is to create a technically sound and feasible
instrument that will provide consistent, systematic measures of the
implementation and costs of education and care in center-based settings
that serve children from birth to age 5. The resulting measures will
inform research, policy, and practice by improving understanding of
variations in what centers do to support quality, their associated
costs, and how resources for ECE may be better aligned with
expectations for quality.
DATES: Comments due within 60 days of publication. In compliance with
the requirements of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995, the Administration for Children and Families is soliciting
public comment on the specific aspects of the information collection
described above.
ADDRESSES: Copies of the proposed collection of information can be
obtained and comments may be forwarded by emailing
OPREinfocollection@acf.hhs.gov. Alternatively, copies can also be
obtained by writing to the Administration for Children and Families,
Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, 330 C Street SW,
Washington, DC 20201, Attn: OPRE Reports Clearance Officer. All
requests, emailed or written should be identified by the title of the
information collection.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Description: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks approval
to collect new information to use in testing measures of the
implementation and costs of high quality early care and education. This
information collection is part of the project, Assessing the
Implementation and Cost of High Quality Early Care and Education (ECE-
[[Page 28306]]
ICHQ). The project's goal is to create a technically sound and feasible
instrument that will provide consistent, systematic measures of the
implementation and costs of education and care in center-based settings
that serve children from birth to age 5. The resulting measures will
inform research, policy, and practice by improving understanding of
variations in what centers do to support quality, their associated
costs, and how resources for ECE may be better aligned with
expectations for quality. The goals of the study are (1) to test and
refine a data collection approach to gather information about
implementation activities and costs of key functions within ECE centers
and (2) to develop new measures of implementation and costs for use
together in understanding ways to support quality. The study has
completed two phases of data collection to develop the data collection
tools and measures. The study team collected data through on-site
visits to 15 centers as part of an initial phase of data collection to
pre-test information collections (data collected under clearance #0970-
0355). A second phase (OMB #0970-0499) relied on remote data collection
through an electronic cost workbook, telephone interviews, and web-
based surveys to gather information from 30 centers in three states to
develop preliminary measures of implementation and cost and further
reduced and refined the data collection tools.
This proposed new information collection is focused on a field test
of the measures to assess the psychometric properties of the
implementation measures and to examine the associations between
measures of implementation, cost, and quality. The field test will
include a mix of remote and on-site data collection.
Respondents: ECE site administrators or center directors, program
directors, education specialists, financial managers or accountants,
teachers, and aides.
Annual Burden Estimates:
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Number of Average burden
Instrument Number of responses per hours per Total burden
respondents respondent response hours
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Center recruitment call (to gain participation;
assumes outreach to 10 centers for every 1
center needed):
Center director............................. 800 1 .33 264
Umbrella organization administrator......... 75 1 .33 25
Center engagement call (to gather basic 100 1 .50 50
characteristics and plan steps for
participation; assumes 20% may withdraw after
this step).....................................
Implementation interview protocol:
Center director............................. 80 1 3 240
Additional center staff..................... 20 1 3 60
Electronic cost workbook........................ 80 1 8 640
Staff rosters for time use survey............... 80 1 .25 20
Time-use survey................................. 1,120 1 .25 280
Classroom rosters for observations.............. 80 1 .50 40
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Total Burden................................ .............. .............. .............. 1,619
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Comments: The Department specifically requests comments on (a)
whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the
proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether
the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the
agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of
information; (c) the quality, utility, and clarity of the information
to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection
of information on respondents, including through the use of automated
collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
Consideration will be given to comments and suggestions submitted
within 60 days of this publication.
Authority: Social Security Act Sec. 418 as extended by the
Continuing Appropriations Act of 2017 and the TANF Extension Act of
2019.
Mary B. Jones,
ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.
[FR Doc. 2019-12796 Filed 6-17-19; 8:45 am]
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