Change Justification with Letter

DATE:
United States
Department of
Agriculture
Food and
Nutrition
Service

January 5, 2016
TO:

THROUGH:

Steph Tatham, OMB Desk Officer
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Office of Management and Budget

3101 Park
Center Drive

Ruth Brown, Desk Officer
United States Department of Agriculture
Office of Chief Information Office

Alexandria, VA
22302-1500

FROM: Rachelle Ragland Greene

rg

FNS Information Collection Officer, Planning & Regulatory Affairs
Food and Nutrition Service
SUBJECT:

Justification for addition of a reminder and request notice to complete the
provider survey approved for OMB Control No: 0584-0602 SNAP
Employment and Training Study.

Through this memorandum, we are requesting approval to add a reminder and request notice
to encourage providers of SNAP Employment and Training services to complete the Provider
Survey under the Information Collection Request (ICR), OMB Control No. 0584-0602,
which expires on May 31, 2018. It will take approximately two minutes to read the emailed
reminder and request notice, appended as Attachment A. This is an increase of two minutes
per each non-respondent due to program changes.
FNS is conducting a study to collect data to understand (1) how the SNAP Employment and
Training (E&T) program serves participants, (2) what supports participants require to
develop their skills, and (3) whether existing programs provide these necessary supports and
meet participants’ needs. The package includes three key data collection activities conducted
as part of the study: (1) a survey of SNAP work registrants and SNAP E&T participants, (2) a
survey of SNAP E&T providers, and (3) collection of focus group data from SNAP E&T
participants. As the provider survey nears its initially planned completion date, FNS would
like to bolster what we consider to be an unacceptably low response rate by sending an
additional email with an attached reminder and request notice from the SNAP Office of
Employment and Training encouraging the provider to complete the survey.
The burden statement for the provider survey is the sum of the burden for the provider survey
and recruitment materials which included an advance letter, a reminder letter, and a reminder
postcard. The provider survey burden is 303.63 hours annually including the survey,
recruitment materials, and pretest. We propose including an additional two minutes per each
of the 413 non-respondents to account for the reminder and request notice. This program
change reflects an increase of 13.77 hours for a total of 320.40 hours. In addition there is an
increase in the total number of annual response. The current total annual response for this
affected public and activity is 504 responses. We are requesting an additional 413 responses
for a total of 917 responses. The reminder and request notice will be emailed to SNAP E&T
providers who have not yet completed the provider survey.
The overall burden for the entire study is 2,238.86. Based on the addition of the reminder
and request notice we estimate the burden for this collection will be 2,252.63 hours. The
overall total annual response for this data collection is 5,261 responses. Based on the
additional reminder and request notice we estimate the total annual responses for this
collection will be 5,674.

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If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact Rachelle Ragland-Greene,
FNS Information Collection Officer for the Food and Nutrition Service, Planning &
Regulatory Affairs Office at (703) 305-2586.

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United States
Department of
Agriculture

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid
OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0584-0602 The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 0.03
minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the
collection of information.

Food and
Nutrition
Service

OMB Control No.: 0584-0602
Expiration Date: 05/31/2018

3101 Park
Center Drive

Appendix A: Reminder and Request Notice

Alexandria, VA
22302-1500

January XX, 2016
Dear Provider:
I am writing today to encourage your participation in an important study that is being
funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS).
You are receiving this letter because you were contacted by Mathematica Policy
Research and invited to complete a brief online survey.
FNS is committed to helping SNAP participants gain skills, training, and experience
that lead to jobs. FNS is funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Employment and Training Study to understand how SNAP E&T programs serve
clients, what participants need to develop their skills, and how E&T programs meet
participants’ needs. In addition to the provider surveys, Mathematica is collecting
data through surveys and focus groups from E&T participants and analyzing
administrative data from 25 randomly selected States.
As a provider of SNAP E&T services, you have a unique perspective about how the
SNAP E&T program is working and what could be improved. Your response is
critical to our understanding of how to connect SNAP participants to gainful
employment and self-sufficiency. Your responses will be kept private and will be
compiled into the larger report Mathematica is preparing for FNS.
We appreciate your commitment to serving SNAP E&T clients and helping them gain
and retain employment and hope you will inform our understanding of how the
program works and how it can be made even better. Please respond to the brief
online survey before the December 18th deadline.
If you have any questions about the survey or need any help, please contact Bryce
Onaran, the Survey Director, at bonaran@mathematica-mpr.com or 202-484-4524.
Sincerely,

Moira Johnston
Director
Office of Employment and Training
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

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