Appendix 2. Recruitment Letters to accompany PD and CD mail surveys

APPENDIX 2

RECRUITMENT LETTERS TO ACCOMPANY
PROGRAM AND CENTER DIRECTOR MAIL SURVEYS

OMB #0970- XXXX

Expiration Date XX/XX/XXXX

DATE

Dear [PROGRAM DIRECTOR NAME]:

You, along with all of your MSHS Program Director colleagues, are invited to complete a brief Program Director Survey for the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) Study! We want to hear about your program!

The study is funded by the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Abt Associates and its partners, The Catholic University of America and Westat, are conducting the study.

This important nationally representative study is designed to describe the characteristics and experiences of the children and families who enroll in MSHS as well as MSHS programs and services. Your participation is important to the study’s success and to helping MSHS to better serve the needs of children and families in the future.

Accompanying this letter is a survey that will take about 40 minutes to complete. This survey asks you about your background, as well as your thoughts about your grantee/delegate agency. Your participation in this study is voluntary. Information that you provide will be kept private to the extent permitted by law.

After completing the survey, please use the pre-paid envelope to return your survey by DATE to the study team at:

[ADDRESS HERE]

Study staff are happy to answer questions about the study and your participation in the study. You can contact us toll-free at XXX- XXX-XXXX or by email at XXX@xxx.com.

We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you in advance for your help with this critically important study.

Sincerely,

Linda Caswell, Ed.D.
MSHS Study Director, Abt Associates

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 control number. The OMB number for this information collection is 0970-0XXX and the expiration date is XX/XX/XXXX.

OMB #0970- XXXX

Expiration Date XX/XX/XXXX

DATE

Dear [CENTER DIRECTOR NAME]:

You are one of about 200 MSHS Center Directors who have been invited to complete a brief survey for the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) Study! Your participation will assist in providing a complete picture of MSHS.

The study is funded by the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Abt Associates and its partners, The Catholic University of America and Westat, are conducting the study.

This important nationally representative study is designed to describe the characteristics and experiences of the children and families who enroll in MSHS, as well as MSHS programs and services. Your participation is important to the study’s success and to helping MSHS to better serve the needs of children and families in the future.

Accompanying this letter is a survey that will take about 40 minutes to complete. This survey asks you about your background and about your center. Your participation in this study is voluntary. Information that you provide will be kept private to the extent permitted by law.

After completing the survey, please use the pre-paid envelope to return your survey by DATE to the study team at:

[ADDRESS HERE]

Study staff are happy to answer questions about the study and your participation in the study. You can contact us toll-free at XXX- XXX-XXXX or by email at XXX@westat.com.

We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you in advance for your help with this critically important study.

Sincerely,

Linda Caswell, Ed.D.
MSHS Study Director, Abt Associates

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 control number. The OMB number for this information collection is 0970-0XXX and the expiration date is XX/XX/XXXX.

OMB #0970- XXXX

Expiration Date XX/XX/XXXX

DATE

Dear [PROGRAM/CENTER DIRECTOR NAME]:

On behalf of the Administration for Children and Families, I invite you participate in the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) Study by completing the brief survey included in this mailing.

This important study is being conducted under contract to Abt Associates and its partners, The Catholic University of America and Westat. The study will describe the characteristics and experiences of the children and families who enroll in MSHS, as well as MSHS programs and services.

All MSHS grantee/delegate agency directors and a sample of about 200 MSHS center directors are being invited to complete mailed surveys that take about 40 minutes to complete. Your participation is voluntary, and we strongly encourage you to participate in this study. As you may know, this will be the first nationally-representative study of MSHS in over a decade and it will provide valuable information to practitioners, policy makers and researchers about how to improve services for migrant and seasonal farmworker families.

In addition to mailed director surveys, our study team will be contacting 53 randomly selected centers within 24 MSHS grantees/delegate agencies from across the United States to participate in onsite study activities. The onsite study activities will include classroom observations, teacher and assistant teacher surveys, parent and teacher child reports, parent interviews, and child assessments. Not all grantees/delegate agencies and centers will be selected. Those grantees/delegate agencies and centers that are selected for these additional onsite study activities will be contacted by the MSHS Study team to provide details about the activities and to answer any questions you may have.

If you have any questions about the study you can call the study team toll-free at XXX-XXX-XXXX or email them at XXX@xxxx.xxx.

Sincerely,

Wendy DeCourcey, PhD

Federal Project Officer

Administration for Children and Families

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 control number. The OMB number for this information collection is 0970-0XXX and the expiration date is XX/XX/XXXX.