Justification for the Non-Substantive Changes to 0960-0799

Justification for Non-Substantive Changes Supporting Statement for

The PROMISE Evaluation

OMB No. 0960-0799

Justification for Non-Substantive Changes to the Collection

The PROMISE programs notified Mathematica that they classified 38 cases (SSI youth and their parents or guardians) that enrolled in the programs as “withdrawn.” This is more cases than we anticipated in the evaluation design. The programs may classify additional cases as withdrawn the future. The principal reasons for this classification are: (1) a case no longer wants to receive program services, and (2) the program is unable to contact a case to deliver services. While the PROMISE programs have withdrawn these cases from program services, there is uncertainty regarding whether they intended to withdraw from the PROMISE evaluation, including the follow-up surveys. Therefore, we propose the following changes to our program letters:

• Change #1: For all of the PROMISE programs except for the one known as “ASPIRE,” Mathematica is currently mailing a locating letter to cases participating in the evaluation 9 months before the scheduled date for the 18-month follow-up interview (see the attached locating letter: standard version). The purpose of this letter is to obtain updated contact information that we will use at the time of the interview. We are requesting OMB approval to use an alternate version of this letter for cases that PROMISE programs classified as withdrawn (see the attached locating letter: alternate version for withdrawn cases). The alternate version includes text acknowledging that a case may no longer receiving program services. It also includes a simple procedure for opting out of future contact from Mathematica regarding the evaluation. The procedure consists of the following steps:

i. The recipient of the alternate locating letter signs the following statement that we will pre-print at the bottom of the letter: “I do not want to participate in the [PROMISE PROGRAM NAME] evaluation.”

ii. The recipient places the countersigned letter in an envelope, provided by Mathematica and addressed to Mathematica.

iii. The recipient places a stamp, provided by Mathematica, on the envelope and drops it in a mailbox.

iv. Upon receipt of the countersigned letter, Mathematica removes the case from the list of cases to contact regarding the evaluation, including the 18-month survey.

Justification #1: Some of the withdrawn cases may have wanted to end their participation in the evaluation and could become upset if they receive the standard version of the locating letter for the 18-month follow-up survey, leading them to complain to the PROMISE programs. To reduce the risk of that, we developed the alternate version of the locating letter, which acknowledges the special status of these cases and provides them with a simple means for opting out of the evaluation.

• Change #2: Mathematica is currently mailing a letter to cases participating in the evaluation to notify them that it is time to complete the 18-month follow-up interview (see the attached advance letter: standard version). The purpose of this letter is to encourage the recipients to call Mathematica to complete the interview and to let them know that we will call them if we do not hear from them. We are requesting OMB approval to use an alternate version of this letter for cases that the ASPIRE program classified as withdrawn (see the attached advance letter: alternate version for withdrawn cases). Because we are not mailing the locating letter to ASPIRE cases (to avoid conflict with the program’s own evaluation activities), the advance letter will be our first contact with them. The alternate version of the advance letter includes text acknowledging that a case may no longer receive program services. It also includes the same procedure for opting out of future contact from Mathematica regarding the evaluation as described above for Change #1.

Justification #2: Some of the cases the ASPIRE program classified as withdrawn may want to end their participation in the evaluation and could become upset if they were to receive the standard version of the advance letter for the 18-month follow-up survey, leading them to complain to the program. To reduce the risk of that, we developed the alternate version of the advance letter, which acknowledges the special status of these cases and provides them with a simple means for opting out of the evaluation.

We were unable to include these changes in the earlier submission of the OMB package for the PROMISE evaluation because at that time none of the programs had classified any enrolled cases as withdrawn. Furthermore, we had not anticipated the large number of withdrawn cases.

We do not anticipate any change to the burden for this collection due to the implementation of these alternate versions of our letters.

We will implement these changes immediately upon receipt of OMB approval. Waiting to implement the changes until the renewal of the OMB package would not be a viable option because that would mean that we could not conduct the 18-month interview with withdrawn cases. Conducting the interview using the standard versions of the locating letter and advance letter would pose a significant rick of upsetting the withdrawn cases, possibly leading them to complain to the PROMISE programs, which could reduce the degree of cooperation that the programs provide to the evaluation.