ACF Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency Next Generation (BIAS-NG) Project
Generic Information Collection for Qualitative and Descriptive Quantitative Data Collection for a Second TANF Site
0970-0502
SUPPORTING STATEMENT
PART B
February 2019
Submitted By:
Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation
Administration for Children and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Mary E. Switzer Building
330 C Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20201
B. COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
B1. Respondent Universe and Sampling Methods 2
B2. Procedures for the Collection of Information 3
B3. Methods to Maximize Response Rates and Deal with Non-response 3
B4. Tests of Procedures or Methods to be Undertaken 3
B5. Individuals Consulted on Statistical Aspects and Individuals Collecting and/or Analyzing Data 3
Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency-Next Generation (BIAS-NG) consists of a series of mixed-methods studies to identify, develop, and test interventions related to social service and benefit receipt. This Generic Information Collection (GenIC) pertains to a site in the program area of TANF, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS).
The target respondents to be included in this GenIC include:
Customers or individuals receiving services from state and local ACF programs in the domain of TANF
Staff working in state and local programs or agencies in the domain of TANF
This IC pertains to activities that support the impact evaluation and implementation research.
For the implementation study, this data collection will involve formal as well as semi-formal interviews or focus groups, sampling the full universe of staff and clients participating in the study. For the impact study, data collection will rely on administrative records on case outcomes and Management Information System (MIS) data on agency processes, as described below.
Universe of Potential Respondents
The universe for client interviews is any adult TANF WorkFirst (WF) client who is enrolled in the research by conducting a Comprehensive Evaluation with one of the DSHS staff at the five participating offices, and who can be reached by DSHS during the month of the interviews. We estimate about 450 cases open per month. We intend to conduct interviews with up to 30 cases during the time of implementation research. The expected burden is no more than 1 hour of burden per respondent.
The universe for DSHS staff interviews and case file reviews is any DSHS frontline staff involved in the BIAS-NG study (either program group-serving or control group-serving staff) at the 5 participating community service offices (CSOs) and who can be reached by the research team during the months of the interview. The universe of staff respondents also includes up to 10 supervisors and CSO leadership at the 5 participating offices as well as up to 5 leadership staff at DSHS headquarters in Olympia, Washington, for a maximum of 55 interviewees (40 frontline staff and 15 staff in supervisory/leadership positions). For frontline staff, we anticipate that case study reviews will take at most 1 hour to complete and frontline staff interviews/focus groups will take at most 1.5 hours to complete, for those same staff. These activities combined will take no more than 2.5 burden hours per frontline staff member. The remaining 15 supervisory/leadership staff respondents, (WF supervisors, CSO leadership, DSHS leadership) will participate in only an interview or focus group, estimated to take 1 hour total.
To collect qualitative data, study teams composed of at least two members will conduct the in-person or possibly telephone (depending on availability during the team’s site visit) interviews. The research team will meet with up to 40 frontline staff individually to conduct case study reviews to gather a more detailed understanding of how intervention tools were used in particular cases (Appendix B.1.1). At another time, all of these same staff will be invited to participate in semi-structured interviews or focus groups to share more general perceptions (Appendix B.1.2 and B.1.3).
Supervisory staff and CSO leadership at each participating office will be interviewed individually or in a focus group (Appendix B.2.1), and DSHS leadership at state headquarters will participate in a focus group Appendix B.2.2). A total of 15 supervisory staff, CSO leadership, and agency leadership will be involved in these discussions.
Research staff members are experienced in the process of implementation research. Each interview will begin with an introduction that explains the purpose and goals of the BIAS-NG project. The facilitator will inform participants that the conversation will be audio-recorded but that we will stop the recording at any time they do not feel comfortable being recorded. For individual phone interviews, the facilitator will simply begin the conversation with the participant after receiving verbal consent. For in-person interviews with clients, the facilitator will begin after receiving the signed consent form. At the end of the interview, participating clients will receive a gift card worth $25. The instruments guiding these interviews are provided in Appendices A and B.
For outcomes data for the impact analysis, we should have very little missing data from the administrative records because the state is required to track the information we are requesting for each of their TANF clients and cases.
For qualitative implementation research data collection, the research team will work closely with administrators and staff to recruit families and staff for us to interview. We will aim to gather informants that reflect a mix of case experiences. To further increase the likelihood of participation, we will offer clients participating in interviews gift cards as incentives, as discussed in Supporting Statement Part A.
Formative focus groups and interviews with fewer than 10 people informed the development of interview protocols for data collection and the development of survey instruments. The data collection instruments will not be pre-tested at scale but are very similar to General ICs under this clearance that have been used successfully.
Jean Grossman, MDRC, Project Director
Rekha Balu, MDRC, Senior Research Associate
Kim Clum
Senior Social Science Research Analyst
Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation
Administration for Children and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
330 C St. SW, 4th Floor
Washington, DC 20201
(202) 205-4922
Victoria Berk Kabak
Social Science Research Analyst
Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation
Administration for Children and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
330 C St. SW, 4th Floor
Washington, DC 20201
(202) 401-5871
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