Memo with changes

Policy and Program Studies Service

Memorandum

To: Katrina Ingalls, RIMS

From: Beth Yeh

Date: December 14, 2011

Re: Response to OMB’s comments on the Evaluation of the Homeless Children and Youth Program

We made the following changes to the package in response to OMB’s comments.

OMB comment: We would prefer it if PPSS would categorize parallel research questions for states and districts in similar groups.

PPSS response: We revised the research questions to provide parallel research questions for states and districts. These questions can be found on pages 1 and 2 of supporting statement A.

OMB comment: We’ve proposed below some additional questions that we think should be included in the instruments to get at how ED’s current data collection informs State and local program implementation. 

PPSS response: The table discusses how we addressed each subquestion.

OMB question		Corresponding question on the survey
		State Survey	District Survey
1. How do States and districts use the current federal reporting requirements?	a. How do States and districts use the CSPR to identify and address the needs of homeless students?	We changed question 7 on the state survey to address this question. We think the existing question 11 on the state survey and district survey also addresses this question.
	b. Is there data that is missing from the CSPR that would be useful to States and districts?  Conversely is there data that is burdensome to collect and not useful?	We changed question 8 on the state and district surveys to address the second question (burdensome/not useful). We think the first question under 1b and the second question under 1c are related. We changed question 9 on the state and district surveys to address both of these questions. Since we didn’t want to ask an open-ended question about which data elements should be added to the CSPR we propose asking which data elements the states and districts are collecting outside of the CSPR. We think it is implicit that if they are collecting it they think it would be appropriate to add to the CSPR.
	c. How much data do States collect that is outside the CSPR?  Why doesn’t the CSPR include this data (question for ED)?	We changed question 9 on the district and state surveys to address how much data do states collect outside the CSPR (see above response for more information).
	d. Are there other sources of federal data that States and districts use to identify and address the needs of homeless students?	We changed question 12 in the state and districts surveys to address this, but we broadened it to include non-federal sources as well.
2. What are other ways that ED can support States and districts in the administration of the McKinney Vento program?	a. How do States and districts use the Student Achievement and School Accountability (SASA) reports?  Do they find them useful?	We added question 13 on the state survey. We didn’t ask about usefulness explicitly, but we think it’s implicit if they using the reports that they find them useful. We didn’t ask districts about this because we think it’s very unlikely that districts use these. However, we can add a parallel question to the district survey if OMB would prefer this.
	b. Are there federal barriers that States and districts encounter when administering McKinney Vento?	We added question 29 on the state survey. We didn’t ask districts about this because we think it’s very unlikely that districts have federal barriers. However, we can add a parallel question to the district survey if OMB would prefer this.

1