NonSub Change Memo - PJAC COVID-19 Updates

To: Josh Brammer

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

From: Sharon Henderson

Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE)

Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Date: May 27, 2020

Subject: NonSubstantive Change Request – Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt Demonstration (PJAC) (OMB #0970-0505)

This memo requests approval of nonsubstantive changes to the approved information collection, Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt Demonstration (PJAC) (OMB #0970-0505)

Background

Information collection related to PJAC has been approved in two rounds. The initial package was approved in January 2018, and a revised package was approved in April 2020.

The initial package included the following instruments:

• Instrument 1: Staff Data Entry on Participant Baseline Information,

• Instrument 2: Study MIS to Track Receipt of Services, and

• Instrument 3: Staff Interview Topic Guide.

The revised package added four instruments related to the project’s implementation study:

• Instrument 4: Noncustodial Parent Participant Interview Protocol,

• Instrument 5: Staff Survey,

• Instrument 6: Staff Time Study, and

• Instrument 7: Custodial Parent Interview Protocol.

The coronavirus pandemic and related economic fallout require modifications to some of the approved data collection approaches and protocols. This nonsubstantive change request describes requested changes to Instruments 3, 4 and 7.

Overview of Requested Changes

This section describes our requested changes to each instrument.

• Instrument 3: Staff Interview Topic Guide. Due to travel restrictions, we now plan to complete the remaining interviews by videoconference, as opposed to in-person. The supporting statements have been updated to reflect this change in mode.

• Instrument 4: Noncustodial Parent Participant Interview Protocol and Instrument 7: Custodial Parent Interview Protocol. These interviews have already been cleared for in-person or phone modalities; in light of travel restrictions, they will be conducted by phone only. Several questions in the proposed revised interviews would directly touch on aspects of parents’ lives that have likely been affected by the coronavirus. These are employment, relationships with children and the other parent, and changes to how child support agencies and courts handle child support cases. In order to gather sufficient information to understand the effect of the pandemic on these key topics for the evaluation, questions and probes related to coronavirus have been added to the protocols. These questions and probes will allow the research team some insights into (1) how the public health crisis may have affected PJAC treatment and business-as-usual services from the vantage point of parents, thus effecting the treatment contrast for this random assignment study and (2) how the social and economic context of the pandemic may affect employment and family relationships, which may in turn affect child support payments, the evaluation’s main outcome of interest. Estimated average time to complete these interviews will remain the same.
  
  
  

Time Sensitivities

Instruments 4 and 7 are scheduled to begin fielding in June 2020. Fielding needs to conclude by November 2020 in order for the project to stay on schedule. We request approval of these changes as soon as possible.