To: Kelsi Feltz
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
From: Michael Hayes
Office of Child Support Services (OCSS)
Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
Date: August 5, 2024
Subject: NonSubstantive Change Request – Race/Ethnicity Data in Grants to States for Access and Visitation (OMB #0970-0204)
This nonsubstantive change request is to update the race and ethnicity categories in the approved information collection, Grants to States for Access and Visitation (OMB #0970-0204) to align with the requirements outlined in the March 2024 updates to the Statistical Policy Directive 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (SPD 15).
Background
On June 4, 2024, OMB approved this information collection with the following terms: “Approved consistent with the understanding that ACF will use the current version of the State and Local Child Access and Visitation (AV) Survey (Survey) until the end of the current reporting period (September 2024) and will then submit a nonsubstantive change to submit an updated version with revisions to align with OMB's SPD-15.”
OCSS now has the updated version of the AV Survey to submit, which is intended for use beginning October 1, 2024.
Overview of Requested Changes
ACF is submitting this nonsubstantive change request to update this information collection with the race and ethnicity question with minimum categories, as outlined in the updated SPD-15. Specifically, we have updated to the following categories.
American Indian or Alaska Native
Asian
Black or African American
Hispanic or Latino
Middle Eastern or North African
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
White
Two or More Races
Data Not Reported
The options “Two or More Races” and “Data Not Reported” are necessary since this information is reported to ACF in the aggregate.
If ACF intends to continue using the minimum categories beyond the official implementation date for SPD-15, a justification will be provided to the OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs during the next extension or full revision for this information collection, which is necessary on or before June 30, 2027.
Time Sensitivities
OCSS would like to have the document ready to send to grantees by September 15, 2024 so they can distribute it to contractors who will begin using it for reporting starting in October 1, 2024.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Jones, Molly (ACF) |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2024-09-04 |