The Administration for Children and
Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) seeks renewal of this generic data collection development
clearance to allow us to use samples of more than nine participants
in applying methods useful for identifying data collection material
and procedural problems, and pretesting questions and procedures.
This will allow for identification of solutions and measuring the
relative effectiveness of alternative solutions and for
identification of appropriate questions to meet the intended
purposes and uses of data collection efforts. The ACF Office of
Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) studies ACF programs, and
the populations they serve, through rigorous research and
evaluation projects. These include evaluations of existing
programs, evaluations of innovative approaches to helping
low-income children and families, research syntheses and
descriptive and exploratory studies. This umbrella generic was
originally written and has been used for pretesting research and
evaluation data collection efforts primarily by OPRE. ACF program
offices also collect data for a variety of purposes including but
not limited to performance reporting and monitoring of funding
recipients; understanding of the populations served including who
they are, what their needs are, and how we can serve them better;
program and service improvement feedback; research and evaluation;
etc. For this reason, ACF proposes to broaden the scope of this
generic to include pretesting of data elements used on information
collections that are not specifically for research and evaluation.
This could be used to inform a variety of data collection efforts
in ACF to allow for consistent data requests across program offices
that are high quality and appropriate for program office needs and
for respondents who represent ACF program populations. This generic
clearance will continue to allow us to identify if and when an
information collection may be simplified for respondents,
respondent burden may be reduced, among other possible
improvements. The work completed under this generic is intended to
be informative in nature; the studies may be iterative, as
variation in questions or procedures are proposed, evaluated, and
retested. The pretesting of data collection materials is necessary
to improve future ACF information collections, resulting in higher
quality data with the best possible utility for the government and
its stakeholders, when appropriate. The core methodology and target
populations will be consistent and burden caps and token of
appreciation structure are proposed in this request. To reflect the
described updates, this request includes updates to the title of
the request, overarching description, and burden estimates. We are
also requesting an extension for information collections that are
currently approved under this generic and still ongoing.
US Code:
42
USC 1310 Name of Law: Social Security Act
This request is to renew the
use of the ACF generic clearance for another three years with
revisions to broaden scope. The overarching description and the
burden estimates have been updated to reflect this change.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Attachment A -Use of Pretesting Generic Clearance (0970-0355) – 2021-2024.docx
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