Cover letter - FSS

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Dear Family Services Staff,

I would like to invite you to participate in a field test of the Family and Provider/Teacher Relationship Quality (FPTRQ) study. For this field test, we will ask you to fill out a brief survey which asks questions about how you work with parents of children in Head Start/Early Head Start programs, such as how often you have offered parents ideas or suggestions about parenting and how often you have helped families find services they need. The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete on average, and the results of this field test will help us examine how reliable the survey is in measuring the relationship quality of family services staff and families of the children in Head Start/Early Head Start programs.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is sponsoring this field test. It is being conducted by Westat and Child Trends, research firms in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Your participation is voluntary, but I encourage you to participate because your input will help improve Head Start/Early Head Start programs. To thank you for your participation, we will mail you a check for $20 when you return your completed survey in the postage-paid envelope.

All information collected will be kept private. No information that identifies you will be included in any reports. The information you provide will not be shared with parents or anyone else at your program. Participation will not affect you or your standing with your Head Start/Early Head Start program.

If you have any questions about the field test, please call Valerie Atkinson at 1-240-314-2394 or email at ValerieAtkinson@westat.com. More information about this FPTRQ study is available at the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) website at

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/research/project/development-of-a-measure-of-family-and-provider-teacher-relationship-quality-fptrq.

Sincerely,

Kwang Kim, Ed.D.

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 15 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB number.

The office of Management and Budget has approved the data collection under OMB No. 0970-0355. OPRE is authorized to conduct this field test under Section 649 of the Head Start Act, as amended by the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007, codified at 42 United States Code (U.S.C.) 9844.

OMB No.: 0970-0355. Expiration date: 01/31/2015.