Information package for child welfare agency administrators

	National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being
	RTI International  PO Box 12194  Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709l  USA Sponsored by: Administration for Children and Families Conducted by: RTI International  The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill  Washington University in St. Louis

APPENDIX B: Recruitment Packet Cover Letter

[AGENCY ADMINSTRATOR/DIRECTOR]

[ADDRESS] [DATE]

Dear _______________,

We hope you had an opportunity to review the letter you received from Dr. Christine Fortunato at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announcing the launch of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW). We are writing to formally request your agency’s participation in this vitally important national effort.

NSCAW is the country’s only source of information on the well-being of children and families served by the child welfare system (CWS). Data are drawn from first-hand reports from children, parents, and other caregivers, as well as reports from caseworkers, and data from administrative records, and are used to shed light on outcomes for CWS-involved families. There have been two prior NSCAW efforts launched in 1999 and in 2008. Your agency might have participated in one or both of these national efforts.

Agencies participating in NSCAW will be asked to:

• On a monthly basis for 15 months, send closed maltreatment investigations, as well as cases that entered legal custody without an investigation, to RTI International (RTI) for sampling purposes

• Provide child identification numbers and other demographic information in the sample files to allow the child’s survey data to be linked to other administrative data

• Provide contact information for selected families to an RTI field representative so they may be offered participation in NSCAW

• Support the participation of caseworkers in an interview about children in their caseload who are selected for the study

Participation is voluntary and all information you provide will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. Because a set of agencies across the country have been selected to represent all children entering CWS in a given year, the inclusion of children being served by your agency is incredibly important. Together, agencies large and small, county and state administered, rural and urban, and with diverse client bases provide ACF a national picture used to strengthen child welfare policies, programs, and services to children and families. In this packet, you’ll find detailed information about the study, including: 1) An NSCAW brochure answering questions about the study, and 2) select Child Well-Being Spotlight reports highlighting key study findings to date.

A member of the NSCAW project team will be contacting you by phone to discuss this information and to address any questions or concerns you may have. We hope you will join us in this important and exciting effort!

Sincerely,

Melissa Dolan

RTI International NSCAW Project Director

Participation in the described collection of information is voluntary. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number for this information collection is 0970-0202 and the expiration date is XX/XX/XXXX.

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