Practical Strategies

Practical Strategies for Planning and Conducting the
National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD)
Youth Outcome Survey
Background
The National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) requires States to engage in two data
collection and reporting activities. First, States will collect and report basic demographic and
characteristic data on each youth and the independent living (IL) services provided to them by the
State in 14 broad categories. Second, States will conduct a baseline survey of youth in foster care
at age 17 and will conduct a follow-up survey with these youth at ages 19 and 21 to collect and
report information about the following youth outcomes:
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Increase youth financial self sufficiency;
Improve youth educational attainment;
Increase youth connections with adults;
Reduce homelessness among youth;
Reduce high-risk behavior among youth; and
Improve youth access to health insurance 

For further information on the requirements of NYTD, please see:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/systems/index.htm#nytd
This technical assistance document focuses on strategies for ensuring successful collection of
outcomes data through the baseline and follow-up youth outcome survey. It is designed to help
States start planning a successful and practical data collection effort to engage youth while they
are still in foster care and to maintain contact with them once they leave foster care. In this way,
States can work with youth to maximize their participation in the follow-up youth outcome
surveys at ages 19 and 21.

Understanding Non-Response Bias: Why is it important to locate and interview as
many eligible youth as possible?
The NYTD regulation requires States to achieve a minimum level of participation in the youth
outcome survey for youth in the follow-up population. But in addition to meeting the Federal
requirements, it is important to understand how youth participation rates affect the quality of the
data.
When information is not collected for a portion of the eligible youth for whom follow-up data are
required, this creates the risk of non-response bias in the results. If the non-respondents differ
systematically from those that do respond, then the final study results may not accurately reflect

the study population, especially if the number of non-respondents is large. Non-response bias is
one type of error that can impact the quality of survey results and render study findings and
conclusions less accurate. This risk applies to studies that seek to collect data directly from
respondents via interviews or questionnaires as well as to those that collect data indirectly from
caseworkers, case records or other information sources.
The risk of non-response bias is greatest when the response rate for the study is low and the
differences between responding and non-responding cases are large. To use a simple example,
assume that one study is designed to estimate the average height and weight of an agency’s child
welfare population. If the response rate is 50% and only male clients respond, then the final
results will not reflect the height and weight of female clients. The final estimates will overstate
the actual average height and weight of the service population due to the low overall response rate
and the systematic difference between the respondents and non-respondents. On the other hand,
if the response rate is higher (say, 80% or greater) and respondents are equally divided between
males and females, the risk of non-response bias is much lower.
For the NYTD follow-up surveys, it is easy to imagine the types of non-response bias that might
impact the results if large numbers of youth are not located. For example, if a much higher
percentage of youth that are employed are contacted compared to those that are unemployed, then
information about employment outcomes may be biased. If more youth who maintain family
relationships are contacted than youth that do not maintain such relationships, then information
about family outcomes may be biased. Similarly, if not all desired information is collected for all
youth, there could be gaps in the data that will also bias the survey results.
There are generally two types of non-response risks, unit level non-response and item level nonresponse. Unit level non-response occurs when no information is collected for a given person or
case. Item level non-response occurs when only part of the desired information is collected for
each respondent. A situation in which large numbers of respondents leave certain questions blank
or refuse to answer certain questions can lead to a high item non-response rate, which can be just
as harmful to the final study quality as a high unit non-response rate. The major way to reduce
the risk of non-response bias in a survey is to maximize both the unit and item response rates.

How to Maximize Response Rates
The surest way to avoid non-response bias is to maximize the study’s response rate. This can be
accomplished in multiple ways, but the specific methods that will be most useful depend on the
design and goals of each study. Those related to NYTD are explained below.
Gather and maintain good locating information. One of the best ways to ensure that youth can
be located is to have good information on how to contact them. Obtaining this information prior
to the youth’s transition from foster care increases the chances of their participation in any future
survey.
While the NYTD regulation requires States to collect and report basic demographic information
for youth, collecting additional information may be helpful in maintaining contact with youth
after their transition from foster care. Thus, helping to ensure that the State can locate the youth
at the time the follow-up survey must be administered.

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Having as much information as possible about a youth’s characteristics will help the State to
understand the potential for non-response bias in the data collected. Because States may not be
able to locate and interview all of the eligible youth at all of the required stages of NYTD data
collection, States will want to know what, if any, differences there are between the youth they
find and those they cannot find so they can engage certain groups of youth to ensure future
participation.
One way to ensure that current and accurate information is obtained for youth is to ensure that
staff complete an exit interview with them before their transition from foster care. In fact, the
Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-351)
included a provision requiring that a transition plan be completed with youth in foster care 90
days before their emancipation date. This new requirement offers one opportunity for States to
gather and confirm information about where the young person can be located after their
emancipation.
Some contact information may be available in your State information system and may only need
to be confirmed by the youth. It may be helpful to develop a standardized “locating form” to
capture this information, so that it can be easily checked for completeness and updated as
necessary. Below are suggestions for information that States may want to collect to determine
where a youth may be contacted to participate in the follow-up survey.
Identification, Contact Information and Vital Statistics
• Youth’s first name, last name, and middle initial(s)
• Address for youth after leaving care: local address, permanent address, school address
• Home and cell phone numbers (collect all)
• E-mail addresses (collect all)
• Contact information for all persons with whom youth plans to live: name, address,
home phone, cell phone, e-mail address
• Youth’s nicknames, aliases, maiden or birth names
• Social security number
• Driver’s license or other identification number
• Public assistance ID
• Permanent Resident Card ID
• Day, month, year, and place (city/state/county) of birth
• Names and addresses of siblings (biological, half, step, and foster) who the youth has
a close relationship with
Characteristics
• Race/ethnicity
• Gender
• Height, weight, eye/hair color
• Distinguishing features (e.g., glasses, limp, scar, tattoo, piercings)
Social Network Memberships
• For example, user name for MySpace or Facebook.
Employer and Supervisor Contact Information
• Name and title
• Street address

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E-mail address
Telephone number

Places the Youth Frequents
• Social clubs
• Community centers
• Churches and other religious institutions
• Schools
• Gyms
• “Hang outs” (restaurants, coffee shops, pool halls, etc.)
In addition to obtaining locating information from youth prior to their transition from foster care,
it is important to continue to update locating information by keeping in touch with youth. States
may want to have a procedure in place to update locating information when youth contact the
agency. Strategies that States may want to consider include:
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Make locating information easily accessible to all staff that may be in contact with
youth after transition. Good opportunities to update locating information are when
youth contact the agency for aftercare services or when youth apply for and receive
Education Training Vouchers.
Prompt staff to ask youth to update their locating information whenever youth
contact the agency. Consider questions such as:
o Are you still at this address?
o Is this still your phone number?
o What is the best way to contact you (text message, Facebook, MySpace)?
o If I have trouble getting in touch with you, who are the best people to call to help
me find you? (Get names, phone numbers, email, and physical addresses of the
people the youth lists).
Have a procedure for staff to update any changes in a youth’s locating information.

Continue direct contact with youth. In addition to collecting information from youth, States may
want to consider methods to maintain direct contact with youth. Ongoing contact with youth will
help maximize response rates and avoid non-response.
Suggestions for ways to engage youth and maintain contact with them are provided below. These
suggestions range from simple to more extensive efforts. In selecting the best methods for your
State, consider time, cost, and youth suggestions. States might want to review this list with an
internal committee comprised of youth, staff, and foster parents to seek input on the best methods
to use, as well as to develop other creative strategies for maintaining contact with youth:
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Send youth a reminder postcard or other special mailing (e.g., birthday cards, holiday
cards). Use youth developed logo that identifies NYTD. Always specify “Return
Service Requested” on mailings so that undelivered mail will be returned to the
agency so it can note that the address is no longer current. Also, insert a selfaddressed, postage-paid envelope and change of address form with each mailing.
Consider holding a lottery for those youth that respond to special mailings.
Create and send a newsletter that provides independent living tips for youth and also
reminds them of NYTD follow-up surveys.
Establish a website or add an alumni-only page to the agency website. The website
could be interactive so youth can send e-mails to the agency.

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Create and distribute innovative reminder products with agency contact info. (e.g.
pencils, mugs).
Ask youth how they would prefer to take the NYTD youth outcome survey. If a
youth prefers an in-person interview, ask where they would like to meet (a favorite
coffee shop or restaurant would be good incentive for them to meet).
Hire a youth as a “contact specialist” to maintain contact and check on services
needed after exiting care. Hire youth to facilitate any of the activities that you select
from this list.

Select the right method for contacting youth to administer the NYTD youth outcome survey.
How a State contacts and engages a youth may also impact whether and how youth participate.
Some suggestions regarding contacting youth around the time of the interview include:
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Send a letter, email or text message to the youth letting them know that you will be
contacting them. Send a reminder notice seven days prior to the planned time for
interview. Notice should include information on how to contact the agency to
participate in the interview.
Use the last known telephone number, residence address or email address to contact
the youth. The best way to contact young people today is by calling, texting,
emailing, and sending messages to social networking accounts (e.g. MySpace,
Facebook).
Call contacts provided by youth.
Use directory assistance or an online resource such as Google or whitepages.com.
Use Criss-Cross Directory (reverse directory) to find telephone numbers for youth or
the contacts listed. Street addresses are provided for a city or county, noting names
and phone numbers of current residents. Using a criss-cross directory (such as
Haines) may also help to identify neighbors who may know the whereabouts of a
youth. Directories are available in local libraries.
Call at different times of day. Ask youth what time of the day is best to call.
Make in-person contact (visit) at location specified by youth. Ask neighbors if they
know of the youth’s whereabouts. For example, if it is an apartment building, start
on the top floor as residents who live on the upper floors glean greater knowledge of
other residents by riding the elevator or using the stairs together.
Review case-record to find leads that are not available on locating form. Include
space on locating form for these additional leads for second round follow-up.

Engage youth and others before the youth leaves foster care to ensure their participation.
Involve youth in the NYTD process from the beginning. Since youth are the best resource to help
States plan and implement all data collection activities, involving them in the planning will likely
garner their “buy in” to future data collection.
The new requirement to develop a transition plan 90 days prior to youth emancipating from foster
care may be an opportunity for some States to educate young people about the purpose of NYTD
and why these data are important to collect. This year (2009) is the optimal time to begin the
education process. Some strategies for educating youth, caregivers, and agency staff include:
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Develop informational material for youth, caregivers, and agency staff. Some of
these materials already exist on the websites for the National Child Welfare Resource
Center for Youth Development and the National Resource Center for Child Welfare
Data and Technology.

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Provide information and workshops at teen conferences.
Provide information and workshops at professional meetings and conferences.
Provide information and workshops at caregiver conferences and meetings.
Post materials on youth, caregiver, and professional web sites.
Create “YouTube” style NYTD presentations for web sites.

It is important to keep youth involved in the education process by engaging them in the data
collection tasks. From the beginning get their input on locating youth after transition from foster
care, engage them in creating their transition plans and if possible, hire youth to help educate
other youth in foster care about NYTD.
Explain the importance of the study. Motivated respondents who understand the goals of the
study and the potential benefits to themselves and people like them are more likely to respond.
Youth should understand the importance of participating in the NYTD youth outcome survey
before they leave foster care. Explanations should be brief and should include information about
who is sponsoring the study, a summary of key goals and objectives, and expected benefits.
Minimize the burden on respondents. In general, short, simple and thoughtfully designed
questionnaires or other data collection forms will obtain better response rates than long,
complicated forms. Survey questions should be pre-tested to determine average completion times
and to identify any items that are confusing or hard to complete, which may need additional
explanation. By identifying problems prior to actual administration of the survey, appropriate
probes can be developed to help youth respond to questions and avoid item non-response. Ensure
that the survey is being administered in a method that is reflective of the request of the young
adult, if possible.
States are required to administer the outcome survey directly to each youth in the NYTD baseline
and follow-up populations. While the survey must consist of the questions specified by ACF,
States can ask additional questions. States can also choose the specific method it will use to
administer the survey. For example, States can develop a self-administered survey format, either
for paper and pencil or through a computerized survey. The methods you use will depend on the
way in which you plan to conduct the interview. In selecting the best methodology for your State
it is important to consider the number of youth to be interviewed, the timeframes in which the
surveys must be completed, the State staff available to conduct the survey, and the effectiveness
and efficiency of each method.

Also be sure to consider the need for translations for youth who may not be fluent in English.
Providing appropriate translations is an important step for maximizing response rates and
minimizing language barriers for respondents. Ideally, the survey forms should be translated in
advance, rather than translated spontaneously by different interviewers. But if this is not
possible, consider special training for the bilingual/multilingual staff who will conduct the
interviews to ensure consistency in the way questions are asked and the way answers are
recorded.
In many cases it may be necessary or helpful to use a mix of survey methods and procedures. For
example, you might develop a web-based survey but also have a paper and pencil survey
available to mail to youth without access to a computer. You might also arrange to have youth
complete surveys at a foster care alumni gathering or similar setting. No matter what survey
method is employed, it is important that survey questions be worded the same for all youth.

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There are many options for conducting effective, high quality data collection efforts. Again,
consider those options that appear to have the best chance of success for your State and those that
are recommended by the youth themselves.
Offer cash incentives or in-kind gifts for responding, if appropriate. Quite often, small amounts
of money (e.g., $1-$5) included with a mailed letter of introduction or questionnaire can produce
double-digit increases in response rates. Incentives convey the importance of the study to the
respondent and communicate a sense of gratitude for the respondent’s time and attention. In
many cases, the cost of the incentives is outweighed by the savings in data collection costs
generated by a higher response rate. If it takes less time and effort to achieve the desired
response rate for a study, total research costs will be reduced as well.
Make multiple attempts to locate and contact youth. States may consider using different contact
modes or procedures, such as mailing a letter to the last known address, then following up by text
messaging, phone or in-person, or both. Contact attempts should be made on different days of the
week and different times of the day to increase the odds of finding the respondent.
Suggestions for contacting youth who are hard to locate are provided below. These suggestions
are more labor intensive and costly. It might be helpful to work with neighboring States to pool
your resources.
Access public records:
• Department of Motor Vehicles provides address, driver’s license number and date of
expiration, whether a youth turned in tags in another state, or applied for a new
license
• Social Security Administration will forward a letter on the agency’s behalf for a $3
fee. This process is highly confidential and involves very strict guidelines
• Vital Statistics Records provide birth, marriage, divorce, and death records that may
be helpful in supplying contact information. Searches can be conducted to determine
if a youth is deceased or notice requested from the county coroner’s or state
registrar’s office
• Other Public Agency Records (Health Department, Criminal Justice, Unemployment)
• Check community resources:
o Local utilities
o Schools
o Churches
o Voter Registration
o Community clinics and hospitals
o Courts
• Salvation Army (which has a service to contact homeless people)
• Use locating data bases:
o For example, Lexus/Nexus, WhitePages.com

Non-Response Bias: Determining if there are any differences between respondents
and non-respondents
If a State is unable to locate a significant portion of its young adults to participate in the follow-up
outcomes survey, the Federal Regulation provides for the Federal government to impose a
penalty. In order to increase subsequent participation at the unit and item level, States may want

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to review the data collected from participants using available information to determine what
strategies can be used to increase participation. One method to determine the difference between
respondents and non-respondents follows:
Calculate response rates. Let’s use the follow-up population at age 19 as an example of how to
calculate response rates. The response rate numerator will be the number of 19-year-old foster
youth who complete or partially complete the outcomes survey. The response rate denominator is
the total number of 19-year-old youth (minus those who are not eligible to be interviewed
because they are mentally or physically incapacitated, deceased, or incarcerated).
Examine response rates. Once you have determined the overall response rate it is important to
find out where non-response differences occur (e.g. youth who dropped out of school versus those
who are still in school). This will help to adjust for non-response as well as help to decide which
populations are harder to find so you can use the information to improve future data collection.
There are various ways to examine response rates. You can use statistical tests to determine
whether the data are missing at random and the potential magnitude of non-response bias.
Various methods can be used to compare respondents and non-respondents. Statistical tests
include calculating the statistical significance of mean differences and formal multivariate
modeling such as non-response propensity models. Also, data on respondents can be compared
with external data sources to see if there are similarities in estimates. While there are limitations
to this method it can help alert you to potential concerns and may uncover important issues.
Other suggested surveys that may contain helpful information about ex include the Midwest
Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Foster Youth Outcomes at Age 19 and 21 (Courtney, M.
et al) and Improving Family Foster Care: Findings from the Northwest Alumni Study (Pecora, P.
et al). Finally, follow-up surveys of non-respondents can be attempted. Determining the
difference between respondents and non-respondents is not required but will help you to
understand if there are any differences.
Adjust the data to compensate for missing cases or information. States will not be required to
make non-response adjustments. However, for States interested in doing additional analysis of
their data, some of the methods that could be used to adjust for unit and item non-response
include weighting the data (i.e., statistically adjusting the responding sample to bring it into better
alignment with the total sample characteristics) and ascription/imputation for missing data items
(i.e., methods to create values to substitute for missing data). Having good information about the
characteristics of youth found and not found is critical to making these adjustments. Suggested
data elements to identify these differences are listed below. Some of these elements are already
required NYTD data elements. Those that are not required NYTD data elements are provided
only as suggestions, not as required data to collect.
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Birth date
Race/ethnicity
Last living arrangement prior to discharge (e.g. foster home, group home, independent
living arrangement)
Number of living arrangements while in foster care
Ever runaway or on runaway status
Trouble with the law
Physical health problems
Mental health problems
Education level at time of discharge

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Employed while in foster care
Maintains contact with parents/relatives
Siblings

Additional sources for understanding how to locate youth
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Anglin, M.D., Danils, B., Ryan, T., and Mantius, K. (1996). Staying in touch: A
fieldwork manual of tracking procedures for locating substance abusers for follow-up
studies. Fairfax, VA: National Evaluation Data and Technical Assistance Center
Cohen, E.H., Mowbray, C.T., Bybee, D., Yeich, S., Ribisl, K., and Freddolino, P.P.
(1993). Tracking and follow-up methods for research on homelessness. Evaluation
Review 17, pp. 331-352.
Desmond, D.P., Maddux, J.F., Johsnon, T.H., and Confer, B.A. (1995). Obtaining
follow-up interviews for treatment evaluation. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 12,
pp. 95-102.
Juntmen, A., Hwalek, M., and Neale, A.V. (1999). Tracking and interviewing clients at
risk for HIV and substance abuse in a Latino community. Evaluation and Program
Planning 22, pp. 305-312.
Kauff, J., Olsen, R., and Fraker, T. (2002). Nonrespondents and Nonresponse Bias:
Evidence from a Survey of Former Welfare Recipients in Iowa. Washington, DC:
Mathematica Policy Research.
Pollio, D.E., Thompson, S.J., & North, C.S. (2000). Agency-based tracking of difficultto-follow populations: runaway and homeless youth programs in St. Louis, Missouri.
Community Mental Health Journal 36, pp. 247-58.
Ribisl, K.M., Walton, M.A., Mowbray, c.T., Luke, D.A.Davidson, W.S., and Bootsmiller,
B.J.(1996). Minimizing participant attrition in panel studies through the use of effective
retention and tracking strategies: Review and recommendations. Evaluation and
Program Planning 19, pp. 1-25.
Ziek, K., Tiburcio, N., and Correa, N. (2002). Follow-up and tracking methods for hareto-reach populations. In A Practical Guide to Research and Services with Hidden
Populations, edited by Stephanie Tortu, Lloyd A. Goldsamt, and Rahul Harnid. Boston,
MA: Allyn & Bacon.

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