Appendix L. Sample Follow-up Email to WIC State Agencies

OMB Number: 0584-0609

Expiration Date: xx/xx/20xx

Appendix L.
Sample Follow-Up Email to State Agencies

Good Morning,

Thank you for submitting the April WIC participant characteristic data for [STATE]. The diagnostic tables have been prepared and reviewed. Attached you will find some suggestions and questions raised during an evaluation of the tables. Relevant tables have also been included for ease of review.

After you have a chance to review the questions and the tables, we would appreciate your feedback, which you may provide via email or in a brief conference call during which we will answer any questions you may have. Please respond by [DATE] or let me know when we can schedule a conference call within the next week. I can be reached by phone at [ANALYST PHONE] or by email at [ANALYST EMAIL].

Sincerely,

[ANALYST SIGNATURE]

This information is being collected from State agencies to enable the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to prepare biennial reports on WIC participant and program characteristics. This is a mandatory collection authorized under 7 CFR §246.25(b)(3). FNS uses the data from these reports to estimate budgets, submit civil rights reporting, identify needs for research, and to develop and review WIC policies and procedures. Under the Privacy Act of 1974 and the System of Record Notice FNS-8 USDA/FNS Studies and Reports, any personally identifying information obtained will be kept private to the extent of the law. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0584-0609. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 30 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Services, Office of Policy Support, 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 1014, Alexandria, VA 22302, ATTN: PRA (0584-0609*). Do not return the completed form to this address.

The document below is a sample of the issue memo sent with the follow-up email. The issue memos have copies of diagnostic tables attached illustrating each WIC SA’s specific issues in the data.

M emorandum

Date: [WIC SA PC CONTACT]

To: [WIC SA PC CONTACT]

CC: [ADDITIONAL WIC SA STAFF]

From: [ANALYST]

Subject: [STATE]’s WIC PC[YEAR] Data Submission

Thank you for submitting the April WIC participant characteristics data for [STATE]. We have thoroughly reviewed the data and would like to discuss some aspects of the submission with you. These issues are described below, and the relevant tables have been attached. Please let me know when we can schedule a conference call to discuss the data submission and any next steps we might take. I can be reached at [ANALYST PHONE] or [ANALYST EMAIL].

Income or Income Range – Table 38

No participants have $0 income. Does [STATE] truly have no participants with $0 income, or are there any reasons for this missing data? Moreover, approximately 8 percent of participants reported an income of $1. A numeric value of 1 should indicate an actual dollar amount, not missing data. Please let us know if these income values are $1 or if they may indicate missing values or participants without income.

Nutritional Risk Code 2 – Table 44

More than half of infants and children are missing a second nutritional risk code. We expect most infants and children to have more than one nutritional risk code. Please describe any factors or policies that could contribute to these high missing values for infants and children.

Date Breastfeeding Data Collected – Table 84

This table displays data on infants and children who were 6 to 13 months old in April [YEAR]. Within this group, 21 percent of the infants and children who were reported to be currently breastfeeding were between 0 and 4 months of age when breastfeeding data were collected, including 9 percent for whom this information was collected at birth. This indicates that the breastfeeding information is old and will likely provide an inaccurate estimate of breastfeeding duration in [STATE]. Is [STATE] able to report a date that more accurately reflects when the breastfeeding data were collected or confirmed for these infants and children?

Food Package Codes – Table 87a

Food package prescriptions should be reported for all participants (except partially breastfeeding women who do not receive a food package). Nearly 15 percent of [STATE]’s participants are missing food package code data. Please explain what accounts for these missing data.