Change Request - Reimagining NSCAW

TO: Kelsi Feltz

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

FROM: Christine Fortunato, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families

DATE: January 26, 2023

RE: Request for changes to Preliminary Activities to Support Future Data Collection for the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well‐Being (NSCAW) formative data collection (0970-0356)

This memorandum requests approval for changes to an approved generic information collection under the umbrella generic, Formative Data Collections for ACF Research (0970-0356).

Background

In July 2022, OMB approved formative data collection in support of developing design options for the Preliminary Activities to Support Future Data Collection for the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well‐Being (NSCAW). Information collection with child welfare agency personnel has been ongoing and was approval was extended recently through the extension of the umbrella generic.

As design options have evolved, the study team has identified a need for additional input from child welfare agency personnel on the specific study activities and design components being considered. Specifically, we are interested in the perceived burden associated with potential design components and study activities, design components that may add value or facilitate agency participation in NSCAW, and the status of child welfare agency data infrastructure and data sharing capabilities. This information will continue to help us design future data collection efforts for NSCAW.

Overview of Requested Changes

This change request includes modifications to the data collection instrument (Instrument 1) to add questions focused on perceived burden associated with potential design components and study activities, design components that may add value or facilitate agency participation in NSCAW, and the status of child welfare agency data infrastructure and data sharing capabilities.

Since we select a subset of questions for different types of respondents, we anticipate that the average response time will still be about one hour. Therefore, there are no changes to estimated burden per respondent. We have, however, updated the burden estimates for this request to reflect the total remaining burden for the data collection. See Table 1 below.

Table 1: Estimated remaining time and cost burden to respondents, by respondent type (0970-0356; previously approved July 2022, updated January 2024)

Instrument	No. of Respondents (total over request period)	No. of Responses per Respondent (total over request period)	Avg. Burden per Response (in hours)	Total/Annual Burden (in hours)	Average Hourly Wage Rate	Total Annual Respondent Cost
Collaborator discussion guide (Instrument 1)	11084	1	1 hour	11084	$49.29	$5106.20 $4,140.36

Time Sensitivities

To allow the project to stay on schedule, we would like to make these updates to the instrument as soon as is practicable. Ideally before the end of January 2024.

Proposed New Items to Instrument 1: Collaborator Discussion Guide

Agency Perspectives on Potential Study Activities

1. What might be potential research capacity issues that could impact your agency’s study participation?

1. Any anticipated challenges related to data and technology staffing capacity?

2. How might your agency’s broader infrastructure support impact its participation? This includes anything related to design, data, fiscal, and technology infrastructure?

3. Tell me about the process and feasibility (ease and/or burden) of:

   1. Facilitating and securing Memorandums of Understanding/Data Use Agreements to allow for study participation and data sharing.

   2. Providing data files needed for sampling on a monthly basis for 12 months. Sampling files would contain information on closed maltreatment investigations extracted from a Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS) or Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS), including demographic and other child welfare variables for the child and parent/caregiver.

      1. Providing contacting information (PII) for sampled cases each month, either within the sampling files or after cases are sampled each month.

   3. Providing National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) and Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) files covering the data collection period (typically about 18 months per data collection wave) on sampled children with a linkage identifier to allow survey data to be linked to NCANDS/AFCARS data.

   4. Providing Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) Title IV-E Prevention Program Data and other services data (extracted from SACWIS/CCWIS) covering the data collection period on sampled children and parents/caregivers with a linkage identifier to allow survey data to be linked to services data.

4. What regulations does your agency follow related to the retention of records for different types of cases (e.g., substantiated, unsubstantiated, screened out)?

Agency Perspectives on Potential Future NSCAW Data Collection Efforts that May Add Value and/or Facilitate Participation

5. What might your agency find valuable about participating in future NSCAW data collection efforts?

6. What might your agency find as barriers to participating in future NSCAW data collection efforts?

7. How might participation in NSCAW data collection support your agency’s ongoing work and advance your agency priorities?

8. How might NSCAW’s well-being data connect with your current data needs/interests?

1. What information would be helpful to inform policy and practice decisions that you do not currently collect or don’t have sufficient data on? More specifically:

   1. What type (e.g., entries, child well-being, caregiver well-being data) and level of data would you be most interested in receiving (e.g., state, county, agency-level data)?

   2. What child or parent well-being outcomes is your agency particularly interested in learning more about (e.g., child physical health, child developmental milestones, child mental/behavioral health, educational outcomes, parent physical health, parent mental/behavioral health, or parent substance abuse)?

   3. Are there subpopulations that you regularly serve that you would be interested in learning more about (e.g., a specific racial/ethnic minority group, screened-out cases)?

      • Are there any emerging [or overlapping] issues they are seeing among the population they are working with that may not yet be widely known or currently being systematically captured?

   4. Are there specific data needs around FFPSA that are currently unmet?

   5. Would you be interested in child welfare workforce data collected directly from your frontline caseworkers and/or supervisors?

   6. Would you be interested in any type of customized data analyses or the development of a real-time portal dashboard that makes integrated and rigorous well-being data from multiple systems more easily accessible?

   7. Are there ways we could share the data to make them more user friendly and accessible to your ongoing work?

      • Co-developing and possibly user testing a prototype online data portal through which data can be shared, accessed, and visualized?

      • Developing customizable visuals and files (e.g., sharing a presentation or memo of findings, de-identified data file, etc.)?

9. Beyond the data itself, what else might be a motivator for your agency to participate in NSCAW data collection?

1. If it were possible, how might payments, funds, or in-kind compensation affect your state’s likelihood of participation?

   1. (If applicable) If payments, funds, or in-kind compensation are not sufficient, what would be a motivator for your participation?

   2. Are there regulations that limit your ability to accept funds or payments as compensation for study participation?

   3. One idea is a tiered compensation structure, by which the type and amount of compensation received would be contingent on level of effort. Would this approach be something of interest?

      • How might that tiered compensation structure look?

2. In what ways could a designated NSCAW liaison facilitate study participation and reduce burden? A designated NSCAW liaison’s role would be to facilitate study participation and reduce burden on state/agency personnel. For example, an agency staff member with time will be supported by the study, or a study team member assigned to work closely with your agency.

Agency Perspectives on Child Welfare System Data Structure and Data Sharing Capabilities

10. Are you able to provide access to identifiable child welfare records/data for research purposes?

1. Are you able to share contact information for the parent/caregiver and child? Does that include biological parent contact information for children in out of home placements?

11. What is your state’s CCWIS status?

    1. Are there multiple systems being used to collection child welfare data throughout the state? If so, how do those systems interact with each other?

    2. What linkages to other data/systems are in place or planned? If no linkages are in place, what are some of the challenges/barriers to making those linkages?

12. Where is your needs assessment and/or risk assessment data stored? Could those data be shared for research purposes with the intent of reducing burden by asking for that information from individual caseworkers?

13. Do you routinely collect any child and/or parent/caregiver well-being data?

14. Do you use well-being data to create dashboards, conduct analyses, produce analytic files or other reports?

15. What is the process and timeline by which data use agreements can be established?

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