Interview Protocol for Nonparticipating Families

Evaluation of Transition Supports for Youth with Disabilities: First Phase of Data Collection Activities

Protocol for Interviews with Nonparticipating Families

MARCH 2023

Overview of Request for School Staff to Follow Up with Families That Decline to Enroll in the Charting My Path for Future Success Project

Your district is piloting two new programs intended to help students with disabilities reach their goals after high school—{Program 1 name} and {Program 2 name}. The programs are part of a national U.S. Department Education project called Charting My Path for Future Success. This project includes a study to learn about ways to help students with disabilities succeed as they move from high school to college, careers, and independent living. The American Institutes for Research (AIR) is conducting the study with their partners, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Social Policy Research Associates.

As outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding with your district and school, the study team is supporting staff at your school in conducting outreach to families of eligible students—that is, students with IEPs who are about two years from completing high school as of Fall 2024. To support these outreach efforts, the study team has provided your school with program brochures, project information, and consent forms to be filled out by parents/guardians and students.

Our hope is that most eligible students will enroll. But some may not, in which case their parents/guardians may return consent forms stating that they decline to enroll in the study. We would like to partner with staff in your school to understand the reasons and potential concerns of this group returning consent forms marked “no.”

On the following page is a follow-up protocol we request that you to use for discussions with parents/guardians about their families’ reasons or concerns for not enrolling in the study. In these discussions, please keep in mind that the primary goal is to understand why some families have declined to enroll so that we can improve outreach efforts, not to change their minds. Please ask the questions in a neutral way that respects the choices of families.

You might consider talking with parents/guardians at a school event, sending an email or text message asking to speak, or calling the phone numbers you have on file for parents/guardians.

Follow-Up Protocol for Parents/Guardians of Students with Consent Forms Marked “No”

Step 1: Connect with Parent/Guardian for a Live Conversation

Please attempt to have a conversation with the parent or guardian named on the consent form that has the “no” box checked.

Step 2: Describe the Reasons for Following Up with the Parent/Guardian

When talking with the parent/guardian, please start by introducing yourself and briefly explaining why you are hoping to talk with them. This explanation should cover the following points:

• This conversation is about the Transition Supports for Youth with Disabilities (YWD) Project.

• You received their form indicating that they did NOT wish to participate.

• The project team would like to understand why they declined to participate, to inform our future efforts and make improvements that could make the project more appealing to families.

• You would like to ask them a few questions to learn about their concerns.

• The conversation should only take a few minutes and is completely voluntary.

• You are NOT trying to get them to change their mind – although if we can remove barriers to their participation, we will.

Then go on to read the following statement:

Information collected for this project falls under the confidentiality and data protection requirements of the Institute of Education Sciences, as required by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (Title I, Part E, Section 183). Responses to the questions will be used only for research approved by the U.S. Department of Education. Project reports will summarize patterns and will not associate responses with a specific school or person. The purpose for asking these questions is to learn about common reasons why families may not want to be in this project. .

Finally, ask for permission to continue on to ask the parent/guardian why they checked the “no” box on the form. If the parent/guardian does not wish to proceed, please thank them for their time. If the parent/guardian does wish to proceed, please continue to the next step.

Step 3. Establish Why They Did Not Wish to Participate

1. Ask the following question:

As I mentioned, we’re just trying to get a better understanding of why families might opt not to participate. Could you say a little about your reasons for this decision? Again, we’re not trying to convince you to participate, we just want to understand your concerns.

2. Based on what you find out, check the appropriate box(es) and complete the “Details” column in the table on the following page. Please ask for more details, as needed, to fill out the table—including whether reasons/concerns were those of the parent/guardian, the child, or both.

Reason	Details (note whether reasons/concerns were for the parent/guardian, the child, or both)
Concerns about the request for Social Security Number
Other concerns about invasiveness or privacy of data collection
Concerns about the lottery/random assignment
Participation in the {Program 1 name} / {Program 2 name} seems like too much of a hassle or inconvenience
Participation in {Program 1 name} / {Program 2 name} would take too much time
Belief that child would not benefit from participating in {Program 1 name} / {Program 2 name} Examples: child will be fine without the program, child faces challenges that would make it hard to meaningfully participate
Child wants/needs to concentrate on other priorities
Child did not want to participate for other reasons (please ask and fill in why)
Family did not want to participate for other reasons (please ask for and fill in why)
Reasons related to eligibility Examples: student does not have IEP, student no longer attends the school or will be leaving the school

3. Say thank you and end the call.