Telephone script and recruitment information collection for program directors, Region XI

ATTACHMENT 2

TELEPHONE SCRIPT AND RECRUITMENT INFORMATION COLLECTION FOR PROGRAM DIRECTORS, REGION XI

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The AMERICAN INDIAN and ALASKA NATIVE HEAD START FAMILY AND CHILD EXPERIENCES SURVEY 2019

Telephone script for program directors

INTRODUCTION

My name is [AI/AN FACES WORKGROUP MEMBER NAME], from [ORGANIZATION] and I am calling about the American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey, which we refer to as AI/AN FACES 2019. I am calling about [PROGRAM NAME], which is GRANT NUMBER [#] and PROGRAM NUMBER [#]. You may have heard about the first round of AI/AN FACES, conducted during the 2015-2016 program year, or you may have heard about the current study at an Office of Head Start tribal consultation, at conferences this summer, or on a webinar.

The study is being conducted by the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Administration for Children and Families contracted with Mathematica Policy Research, an independent research organization, to conduct the survey. You should have received a letter from Ann Linehan with the Office of Head Start that describes the AI/AN FACES 2019 study and your program’s participation. I want to introduce you to [LIAISON NAME] from Mathematica [PAUSE FOR INTRODUCTION].

Mathematica also sent you a letter recently to let you know that your program was selected to be part of the study. We included a fact sheet with information about the study. Did you receive a letter about the study, along with other materials? And have you had a chance to look at them? [HAVE LETTER AVAILABLE TO PROVIDE INFORMATION IF PERSON IS NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE STUDY.]

We would like to talk with you a little bit about AI/AN FACES 2019, answer any questions you may have, assess your program’s interest in participation, and ask for your recommendations on the best next steps we should take. Is this a good time for you to talk?

[ALLOW TIME FOR QUESTIONS, RESPOND TO QUESTIONS OR DEFER QUESTIONS UNTIL LATER IN THE CALL WHEN THE TOPIC IS PRESENTED.]

[IF PERSON CANNOT TALK, ARRANGE FOR A MORE CONVENIENT TIME TO CALL BACK. NOTE THAT THE CONVERSATION SHOULD TAKE 30 MINUTES, BUT MAY TAKE UP TO 45 TO 60 MINUTES.]

[IF GOOD TIME]: Great. Now that you have met [LIAISON NAME], we are going to give you a little more background on the study and answer any questions you may have.

[LIAISON OR WORKGROUP MEMBER]: Thank you for speaking with us today. We are excited to be working on this important study with Region XI.

To begin, I want to let you know that your participation is voluntary. 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 control number for this information collection is 0970-0151, and it expires on XX/XX/XXXX.

SITE VISIT PURPOSE AND BASIC ACTIVITIES

First, I would like to briefly review some of the details about the purpose and design of the AI/AN FACES 2019 study described in the letter, and some of the activities that will take place when we visit Head Start centers in your program.. Please stop me at any time if you have questions.

• For nearly two decades, the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) has provided the Office of Head Start and the Administration for Children and Families with a wealth of information about the children and families served by Regions I through X. However, children and families in Region XI had not been a part of that study until the 2015–2016 program year when AI/AN FACES 2015 was first conducted.

• AI/AN FACES 2019 is a follow-up to AI/AN FACES 2015, which was the first study designed to gather in-depth descriptive information about the characteristics, experiences, and outcomes of children and families served by Head Start programs in Region XI. AI/AN FACES 2015 was also the first study to observe the relationships among family and program characteristics, classroom quality, and school readiness in Region XI.

• AI/AN FACES 2015 filled an important information gap and allowed Head Start to better serve the needs of Region XI programs, children, and families. That is why we are excited to be implementing a second round of AI/AN FACES in the 2019–2020 program year. The purpose of AI/AN FACES 2019 is to provide descriptive information about Region XI Head Start children and families and their Head Start classroom practices and quality.

• We will administer a battery of child assessments to children who participate in the study and will survey their parents as well. We will also survey Region XI staff and observe selected classrooms.

• The Administration for Children and Families and the Office of Head Start will use the information to determine the characteristics and experiences of, and outcomes for, children and families who Region XI Head Start serves.

• The design of AI/AN FACES 2019 grew out of a collaborative process involving Region XI Head Start directors, Region XI Office of Head Start leaders, representatives of the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, and tribal child development researchers. These individuals made up the AI/AN FACES Workgroup. Planning for AI/AN FACES 2019 has been underway since 2017, building on several years of planning for AI/AN FACES 2015. The AI/AN FACES Workgroup is committed to ensuring that the study is responsive to the unique characteristics of Region XI. It is also committed to ensuring that tribal voices are at the forefront in determining how the study will be designed and carried out and deciding how the information from the study will be presented. The AI/AN FACES Workgroup will continue to guide the study as it moves from design to data collection and, later, to analysis and reporting.

[IF WORKGROUP MEMBER IS LEADING]: [LIAISON NAME] will now talk a little bit about data collection.

DATA COLLECTION

To give you a little more information on what is involved, in the fall 2019, we will invite a representative sample of about 800 3- and 4-year-old Head Start children and their families in Region XI to participate in AI/AN FACES 2019. Your program has been randomly selected as one of the 22 Region XI programs asked to participate by providing information about the characteristics, experiences, and outcomes of children and families served by Region XI. If your program decides to participate and your tribe approves your program’s participation in the study, we will use a variety of data-gathering approaches that ensure the efficient collection of high quality data (for example, person­al interviews and surveys). We will use methods that are sensitive to and respectful of cultural differences.

The AI/AN FACES 2019 study team will visit your program’s centers on two occasions: fall 2019 and spring 2020.

• During each visit, a team of three or four people will spend about one week at your program. If two centers are selected, five or six people will divide their time between the two centers.

• We will work with an on-site coordinator, whom I will talk about in just a few minutes. We will also work with center staff to limit any disruption that might be caused by our visit.

• In fall 2019 and spring 2020, we will administer a child assessment battery to children in the study. The assessment will measure a range of areas covered by the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework. Members of our staff, who have been specially trained to assess children for AI/AN FACES 2019, will administer the assessments. Children will be offered a book worth $10. Central to the effort of the AI/AN FACES Workgroup is a shared commitment to addressing cultural differences by selecting appropriate measures that assess the growth and development of children served by Region XI Head Start programs.

• In addition, in fall and spring, we will ask the teachers from each selected class to supplement the child assessment battery by completing a brief questionnaire about the social and emotional development of each participating child. The questionnaire will be available both on the web and on paper. Teachers are expected to complete the questionnaires on their own time and will receive $10 for each completed questionnaire.

• Also in fall and spring, we will conduct a survey of parents of children participating in the study. As with the first round of AI/AN FACES data collection, we expect to provide parents with a gift card after they complete the survey.

• In the spring, we will observe the selected classrooms and ask you, the center directors, and the teachers in the selected classrooms to complete surveys.

Now, moving to three other important points:

First, all information collected during the course of AI/AN FACES 2019 will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. We will not share the information we collect with anyone outside the research team, including your program staff or parents. Programs, Head Start staff, children, families, and tribal communities will never be identified by name in any data files or reports of the study’s findings. However, we may be required by law to report information regarding child abuse or neglect. The study will obtain a Certificate of Confidentiality from the National Institute of Health to assure participants that the information will be kept private to the fullest extent the law permits.

Second, field staff requirements include criminal background checks. To ensure the safety of our field staff and study participants, Mathematica hiring policy requires all newly hired and rehired field staff to pass a criminal background check. Sterling Testing Systems will conduct the background checks, which will include a Social Security trace, criminal conviction search, sex offender database search, and a department of motor vehicles report. For more information on Sterling Testing Systems, visit its website http://www.sterlingtestingsolutions.com/. We will provide you with documentation of field staff clearances if you request them.

Does your program have any local security requirements (such as fingerprinting) or health requirements (such as TB tests) beyond what is covered in Sterling clearance? [IF YES, ASK DIRECTOR TO PROVIDE ANY PAPERWORK ASSOCIATED WITH THE CLEARANCE SO WE CAN HAVE FIELD STAFF COMPLETE THIS AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE.]

Third, information collected during the study is not used for accountability or monitoring purposes. We want to assure you that information will be reported in aggregate form for all of the 22 Region XI Head Start programs that participate. Federal staff will not receive information about specific programs, only for the entire group of programs together. It will not be reported by program, center, or child. Do you have any questions so far?

NEXT STEPS

We want to ask for your help in determining the best way to proceed in asking for permission and approval to conduct the study in your program. Mathematica has already obtained Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval from its own IRB for the AI/AN FACES 2019 study. IRB approval helps to ensure that our study meets scientific standards to protect study participants.

• Do you know who needs to review and approve research in your community, such as a specific committee or tribal council?

• What do you recommend as next steps?

• Are there any particular concerns, such as privacy, associated with conducting the study in your program that we need to address in our future correspondence with and presentations to tribal leaders?

[ADDRESS ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS. ALLOW DIRECTOR TO RESPOND BY SPECIFYING NEXT STEPS. COLLECT INFORMATION ABOUT FORMS NEEDED AND MEETING DATES OR TIMELINES AND THEN ENTER INFORMATION INTO THE AI/AN FACES DATABASE.]

We very much appreciate all your time in talking with us today. We hope that we will get to work with [PROGRAM NAME] on this important study. We will now [LIST NEXT STEPS DISCUSSED]. We will be back in touch with you to speak further about the next steps in asking for approval for the study.

If we receive approval, we will request information on all the centers in the program in order to select the classrooms for the study. We will ask you to designate an on-site coordinator—someone from your program who can help us with our preparations.

In the meantime, what is the easiest way to contact you—by phone or email? [CONFIRM THAT THIS PERSON IS THE ONE WHO SHOULD BE YOUR REGULAR CONTACT.] Do you have any questions at this point? If questions or concerns come up, please feel free to contact me at [PHONE or E-MAIL ADDRESS].

[WORKGROUP MEMBER], is there anything else we have not covered?

[WORKGROUP MEMBER THANKS DIRECTOR AND ENDS CALL.]

[AS TIME PERMITS ON FIRST CALL, BELOW MAY REQUIRE FOLLOW-UP ONCE TRIBAL APPROVAL IS OBTAINED.]

Next, I want to confirm and collect some basic information about your Head Start program. [CONFIRM AND/OR UPDATE THE FOLLOWING IN THE AI/AN FACES DATABASE]:

• CONFIRM CONTACT INFORMATION: Please confirm the following information: program director name, physical and mailing addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, email addresses

• PROGRAM OPTION: Is your program center-based, home-based, a mix of the two, or is it a locally designed program?

• If center-based or mix: I would like to confirm the centers in your program. In FACES, we consider a center to be eligible if it has at least one preschool Head Start classroom with at least one preschool Head Start child. However, child care partnership centers and family child care centers are not eligible. From the Head Start Enterprise System, I see that you have [NUMBER] centers. These include [LIST CENTERS]. Is this correct? Do you operate any additional Head Start centers that I did not mention? Are any of the centers I mentioned no longer in operation? Are any of these center-based child care partner organizations or family child care centers? [READ IF NECESSARY] The PIR defines a child care partner as an individual child care center, umbrella organization operating multiple child care centers, child care resource and referral (CCR&R) network, or other entity with whom the Head Start program has formal contractual agreements to provide child care services to enrolled children that meet the Head Start Program Performance Standards.

• How many classrooms are in each center? How many home visitor caseloads are affiliated with each center? [NOTE: ALL CASELOADS NEED TO BE ASSIGNED TO ONE AND ONLY ONE CLASSROOM-BASED CENTER.]

• Please give me an estimate of the number of children enrolled at each Head Start center this fall. And how many do you expect in fall 2019? [ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE NUMBER MAY BE HIGHLY PRELIMINARY.]

• We would like to know about the languages that parents and families in your program speak so we can distribute study materials appropriately. Are any children in your program dual language learners (DLL)? In other words, children who speak a language other than English at home, and are learning English at the center? (IF SO: What is the estimated percentage of DLLs in each center?)

• What days of the week do you operate the children’s classrooms? Is it five days a week, four, or some other schedule? Does it vary by center? [SOME PROGRAMS DO NOT HOLD CLASSES ON MONDAYS OR FRIDAYS.]

• When does your 2019–2020 program year start and end? Are there times that we should not visit, such as times of tribal or cultural events? [RECORD THIS INFORMATION IN THE DATABASE.]

CENTER, CLASSROOM, AND CHILD SELECTION

Finally, I want to explain to you how we will select the centers, classrooms, and children that will be asked to participate in the study.

• Center selection. We will randomly select two centers for participation. If, however, a program has only one or two centers, we will include all centers in the study.

• Classroom selection. We will randomly select approximately [two/four] [LATTER IF ONE CENTER PROGRAM, FOUR OR MORE CLASSES] classrooms in [each selected/your] center. If a center has [two/four] or fewer classrooms, we will include all of them. A Mathematica field enrollment specialist (FES) will visit your program about three weeks before the start of fall 2019 data collection. The FES’s visit will last about two days per center. During the FES’s visit in fall 2019, the FES will ask the on-site coordinator(s) to provide a list of all classrooms and home visitor caseloads in each center.

• Child selection. After we have randomly selected classrooms for the sample, we will randomly select children for the study. The FES will ask for a list of the names, dates of birth, and enrollment date into preschool Head Start for each child in the selected classroom or home visitor caseloads. We will then select about 13 children per classroom and will invite these children and their families to participate in the study.

IDENTIFY ON-SITE COORDINATOR

As I mentioned earlier, we would like to work with an on-site coordinator from your program—someone you designate—to help us with our preparations. You may designate one or two people, depending on your preference. We will need this person’s help as we prepare for data collection. It is important that we establish a close working partnership—this is the [person/people (IF MORE THAN ONE ON-SITE COORDINATOR/COORDINATORS)] who will ensure that our data collection plan conforms to your local requirements. We will work with the OSC to minimize the burden on your program, and we will be respectful of staff, families, children, and the community. Together, the OSC and I will develop the data collection plan, and then we will submit a copy to you. The coordinator(s) will be responsible for:

• Working with a field enrollment specialist to identify eligible classrooms and children to be sampled for the study.

• Helping us obtain parental consent and track the receipt of consent forms.

• Helping coordinate the visit to each center.

• Scheduling the child assessments.

The on-site coordinator will receive an honorarium of $500 for helping us in fall 2019. If there are two coordinators, each will receive $250. The amount of the on-site coordinator’s honorarium for spring 2020 will be $250. We will provide a check in that amount as an honorarium for the coordinator’s or coordinators’ help. If you wish, we can give the honorarium directly to the program.

Do you know who you would like this person [these people] to be or do you want to think about it? I will call you at another time to discuss this matter if you are not yet sure. [ENTER THE IDENTIFIED NAME(S) INTO THE AI/AN FACES DATABASE. BE SURE TO HAVE A CONTACT PERSON OTHER THAN THE ON-SITE COORDINATOR(S) JUST IN CASE THERE IS A CHANGE IN COORDINATOR(S)!]

[IF THE ON-SITE COORDINATOR(S) IS (ARE) NAMED] With your permission, I would like to contact the individual(s) to explain our AI/AN FACES procedures and our expectations of the on-site coordinator(s). [GET THE ON-SITE COORDINATOR’S(S’) NAME(S) AND CONTACT INFORMATION, BUT WAIT FOR PERMISSION TO CONTACT THE INDIVIDUAL(S).]

It is important that we establish a good working partnership with the on-site coordinator(s), as he or she is the person we will work with to ensure that we develop a data collection plan that conforms to your local requirements and minimizes the burden on your program. I will work with the on-site coordinator(s) to develop that plan, and we will send you a copy of the completed plan, which will include:

• The number of Head Start classrooms in each selected center

• A schedule for the field enrollment specialist’s preliminary visit to the program for the purpose of selecting the sample of classrooms and children

• The procedures for obtaining parental consent

• A schedule for the data collection week

• Arrangements for assessment locations

NEXT STEPS

• [IF ON-SITE COORDINATOR(S) NOT NAMED EARLIER] Once you have identified the on-site coordinator(s), I would like to send the individual(s)—with your permission—detailed information about the study and arrange a time to discuss coordination responsibilities. It would be helpful if you could soon identify the on-site coordinator(s).

• [IF ON-SITE COORDINATOR NAMED EARLIER] With your permission, I would like to send the on-site coordinator you selected detailed information about the study and arrange a time to discuss his or her coordination responsibilities. It would be helpful if that could be accomplished soon, ideally within one week.

• In case I need to follow up with you for any reason, what is the easiest way to contact you—by phone or email? [CONFIRM THAT THIS PERSON IS THE ONE WHO SHOULD BE YOUR REGULAR PROGRAM-LEVEL CONTACT.]

• Do you have any questions at this point? If questions or concerns come up, please feel free to contact me at [LIAISON PHONE] or [E-MAIL].

Thank you for participating in this important study. We appreciate your cooperation, and I look forward to working with your program!