Federal Foundation Assistance Monitor

(REGULATIONS) ACF Seeks Comments on Efficacy of Home Visiting Programs

 Health & Human Services Dept.'s Administration for Children and Families (ACF) wants to implement new reporting procedures for grantees receiving funding under the Evidence-Based Home Visiting Programs to Prevent Child Maltreatment (EBHV) program, according to an Oct. 26 Federal Register announcement.

Public Comment Deadline: Nov. 26.

ACF is proposing new cross-site evaluation data collections to identify successful strategies for adopting, implementing, and sustaining high-quality home visitation programs to prevent child maltreatment. An ACF evaluation study will address: (1) systems change to develop infrastructure, (2) fidelity to evidence-based models, (3) costs of home visiting programs, and (4) family and child outcomes (via a review of grantee analysis reports). A process study will focus on the broader grant initiative to understand how programs plan and develop the infrastructure needed to support home visitation services and how they ensure service quality.
Information will be collected through biennial site visits, Web-based data entry, a data quality progress table, a relationship questionnaire and a grantee-partner network survey. In particular, site visits will include interviews with key grantee staff and stakeholders involved in the execution of the grant and in the efforts to make system changes.

Respondents: EBHV grantee and key staff (evaluators, home visitors and supervisors), partners, implementing agencies, home visiting participants, and home visitors.

In seeking comments, ACF specifically requests comments on: (a) whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency; (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.

Info: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-25259.htm, copies of the proposed collection may be obtained by writing to the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Administration, Office of Information Services, 370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW., Washington, DC 20447, Attn: ACF Reports Clearance Officer; or . 

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