This ICR is approved on the following conditions: 1) ACF will report within the next 30 days whether any previous PRA violations were incurred for this study and, if so, in what ICB this was reported; 2) because this study is based on a purposive sample and is exploratory in nature, ACF agrees it will not generalize results to the wider population of foster youth programs; 3) any adaptations made to the instruments will be of a non-substantive nature; 4) in sites where study participants have not aged out of the foster care system at final follow-up, study results will not be interpreted as Âoutcomes for children who have aged out of the system but, rather, as something along the lines of Âoutcomes that would suggest favorable behavior change when participants eventually do age out of the systemÂ; 5) the same privacy protections and process used for obtaining informed consent for children in this study will be used for children who are selected to participate in the focus groups; 6) ACF will not collect any information from the additional fifth study site until this change to the study design has been reported to and approved by the agency which issued the Confidentiality Certificate for the original ICR.
Inventory as of this Action
Requested
Previously Approved
12/31/2009
36 Months From Approved
12/31/2006
569
0
4,500
780
0
3,800
0
0
0
The Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 mandates evaluations of promising Independent Living Programs (ILP) administered by state and local child welfare agencies. ACF proposes an evaluation of four ILP programs over a five year period using a randomized experimental design. Data will be collected from foster youth (aged 14-21 years) and their caseworkers at three different time points during the evaluaiton period. The goal of the evaluation is to determine the effects of these programs on key youth outcomes.
Although the burden hours reflect the planned addition of a fifth site to the evaluation, this extension request shows a net reduction in total burden hours from the current inventory due to the following: elimination of caseworker surveys in all but one site; completion of all three rounds of interviews for some of the youth survey participants (burden hours for these participants have been removed from the total).
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.
0970-0253 Supporting Statement A and B.doc
Multi-site Evaluation of Foster Youth Programs