Attachment A-Children's Bureau Outreach Email Web Survey

	Contact After Adoption or Guardianship: Child Welfare Agency and Family Interactions

Attachment A: Children’s Bureau Outreach Email – Agency Web Survey

This email will be sent by June Dorn from the Children’s Bureau

Dear [AGENCY STAFF NAME],

I hope you are doing well during these challenging times. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is conducting an important research study with child welfare agency staff, Contact After Adoption or Guardianship: Child Welfare Agency and Family Interactions. You will soon receive an email invitation from RTI International. On behalf of the Children’s Bureau, I would like to thank you in advance for considering participation in the study. Please see below for additional details about the study.

What is the purpose of this study?

This study explores the various ways child welfare agencies are in contact with or receive information about the well-being of children and youth who have exited the foster care system through adoption or guardianship. This study also seeks to understand the extent to which child welfare agencies track information about children and youth who have exited the foster care system to adoption or guardianship, including services provided by the agency.

We understand that child welfare agencies have different practices and experiences in working with families after adoption or guardianship. In the survey we ask broadly about a variety of types of practices and experiences because we want to understand all possible types of interactions. However, we understand that not all agencies have (or need) this type of information, and that child welfare agencies are not statutorily required to collect this information. We seek to understand what type of information you currently collect.

At the end of the survey we will ask you to highlight innovative programs, and will be following up with a few (up to six) innovative programs for follow-up phone interviews.

Once we have collected all the information the project will disseminate what has been learned. This will be through brief summaries and may include a toolkit that highlights the work agencies are doing with adoptive and guardianship families that we will distribute to you.

Who is conducting this research?

ACF’s Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, in partnership with the Children’s Bureau, is funding this research. ACF has contracted with RTI International, a not-for-profit research organization in North Carolina, and its partners Case Western Reserve University in Ohio and East Carolina University in North Carolina to conduct this study.

What will I be asked to do?

You will soon receive an email message from RTI International with the link for a web-based survey. We encourage you to complete this web survey, which should take about 20 minutes to finish. Some agencies will be asked to complete a separate survey specific to guardianship; this survey should take an additional 15 minutes to complete. Based on the results of the web survey, six child welfare agencies will be invited to participate in video teleconference interviews to learn more about their agency’s practices. If your agency is selected, we will contact you to see if your agency is interested in participating in these interviews.

Why participate in this survey?

The Children’s Bureau wants to better understand the experiences of adoptive and guardianship families and ways in which the system could better serve these families. By taking part in the survey you will have the chance to share your agency’s practices and your experiences working with families after adoption or guardianship. Your input will help shape how the federal government understands the issues facing these families and will inform future federal efforts related to adoption and guardianship.

Your participation in this web survey is completely voluntary. However, your input is valuable, and your experience and expertise are important to us. We hope you will contribute to this important effort because the success of this study depends on those selected to take part. We thank you in advance for your support.

Kind regards,

June Dorn

National Adoption Specialist

Children’s Bureau

Participation in the described collection of information 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 number for this information collection is XXXX-XXXX and the expiration date is XX/XX/XXXX.

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