Supporting Statement PartA_NSCAW_revised September 2021_clean

Alternative Supporting Statement for Information Collections Designed for

Research, Public Health Surveillance, and Program Evaluation Purposes

National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being-Third Cohort (NSCAW III)

OMB Information Collection Request

0970 - 0202

Supporting Statement

Part A

Approved January 2021

Revised August 2021 (Remote data collection option for 18-month follow-up)

Submitted By:

Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation

Administration for Children and Families

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

4^th Floor, Mary E. Switzer Building

330 C Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20201

Project Officers:

Christine Fortunato

Mary Bruce Webb

Part A

Executive Summary

• Type of Request: This request is a change request to an approved information collection.

• Progress to date: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is proposing to collect data on the child welfare workforce as part of the third cohort of children and families for the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW III). The first cohort of NSCAW began in 1999. NSCAW is the only source of nationally representative, longitudinal, firsthand information about the functioning and well-being, service needs, and service utilization of children and families who come to the attention of the child welfare system. The Phase I submission for NSCAW III, approved November 2016, included recruitment and sampling process data collection activities. The Phase II submission, approved July 2017, is still ongoing and includes baseline and 18-month follow-up data collection activities. See Table B1.4 in Supporting Statement B for full sample sizes and response rates for Phase II.

• Timeline: Phase II of the project is progressing. Phase III of the project began in January 2021.

Summary of Changes Requested: This request is for revisions to the Phase II information collection, including a remote data collection option for the 18-month follow-up.

A1. Necessity for Collection

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposes to collect data on the child welfare workforce as part of the third cohort of children and families for the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW III). The goal of this data collection is to gain a better understanding of the strengths and challenges of the current workforce in public child welfare agencies is needed to support efforts to promote a stable workforce that meets the needs of vulnerable children and families.

Study Background

Child welfare turnover is costly and can have a negative impact on the safety and permanency outcomes of children and families being served by the child welfare system (e.g., Fluke et al., 2016; Graef & Hill, 2000; Pietrowiak & Gambino, 2003; Strolin-Goltzman et al., 2010). Recent research leveraging 2003 to 2015 data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting System (NCANDS; Edwards & Wildeman, 2018) examined workload and workforce instability among child welfare agencies in 46 states. Findings indicated a 14-22% median turnover rate among front-line caseworkers and a 20% median turnover rate among supervisors nationwide. On average, caseworkers had an active caseload for 1.8 years before exiting the child welfare system.

While prior data collection efforts have yielded insights into the child welfare workforce, they have generally focused on one type of worker (e.g., caseworkers or directors), have not been nationally representative, and have been limited to focus groups or qualitative surveys (e.g., Hughes & Lay, 2012; Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development, 2019). These new data collection activities will provide nationally representative information on the job responsibilities, available supports, and overall work experiences of the public child welfare workforce, including agency directors, caseworkers, and supervisors.

Legal or Administrative Requirements that Necessitate the Collection

There are no legal or administrative requirements that necessitate this collection. ACF is undertaking the collection at the discretion of the agency.

A2. Purpose

Purpose and Use

The purpose of this information collection is to gain a better understanding of issues specific to the child welfare workforce, including child welfare workers’ characteristics and work experiences. The information collection is not intended to focus on the child welfare system itself, but rather on the perceptions and experiences of staff serving children and families within the system. A limited number of items focused on the impact of COVID-19 on child welfare workforce practices have been included in the information collection. These items were crafted to focus specifically on ways the pandemic may have altered the work and practice of agencies and their staff. The information collection will be used to inform policy, programs, and practice related to the public child welfare workforce. Workforce data will also be made available to the research community for analysis.

The information collected is meant to contribute to the body of knowledge on ACF programs. It is not intended to be used as the principal basis for a decision by a federal decision-maker and is not expected to meet the threshold of influential or highly influential scientific information.

Research Questions or Tests

Previously approved Phase II research questions are provided for reference in Appendix A. The research questions for the current information collection request are outlined in Table 1. Research questions are organized in three content domains: 1) workforce characteristics and competencies, 2) training and professional development, and 3) organizational factors.

Table 1. Research Questions

Workforce Characteristics and Competencies

What are the demographic and educational characteristics of the child welfare workforce, including caseworkers, supervisors, and agency directors?

What are the primary roles and responsibilities of the child welfare workforce?

What personal characteristics and competencies (knowledge, skills, and abilities) do child welfare staff members possess and/or demonstrate?

Training and Professional Development

What training did child welfare staff possess when they were hired? Did their training include any courses in child welfare? What recruitment practices do agencies use to attract and hire child welfare candidates? What onboarding practices do agencies have for new child welfare workers?

What types of training and professional development opportunities are offered to child welfare staff? What factors influence child welfare staffs’ abilities to engage in training and professional development opportunities?

What training and professional development opportunities do child welfare staff engage in? How does this training and professional development influence job satisfaction, retention, turnover, increased knowledge, and practice?

Organizational Factors

What is the public child welfare agency landscape? This includes the number of child welfare staff, caseload size, turn-over rates, ratio of supervisors to workers, vacancy rates, salary levels and benefits, and union/non-union.

To what extent are public–private child welfare partnerships taking place? What is the extent of privatization and contracting out?

What is the organizational culture and climate within the public child welfare agency? How do organizational culture and climate influence workforce issues, including role conflict, burnout, turnover, supervision, caseload/workload, or education and training requirements?

How do child welfare staffs’ perspectives about organizational culture and climate influence workforce issues?

Study Design

As with prior NSCAWs, NSCAW III employs a stratified, two-stage sample design where the primary sampling units (PSUs) are U.S. counties or contiguous areas of two or more counties, and the secondary sampling units are children involved with the child welfare system during the sample recruitment period. Public child welfare agencies were selected with probability proportional to size, based on their distributions in the child welfare system. Selected child welfare agencies were recruited for study participation. Participating agencies, in turn, provide lists of children and families recently investigated for maltreatment for sampling purposes. Sampled children and their caregivers who participate at baseline comprise the NSCAW III cohort.

Previously Approved Requests

Phase I Agency Recruitment – OMB approved Phase I of the study for the purpose of recruitment and gathering information to facilitate sampling of children in November 2016. In Phase I of the project 61 child welfare agencies were recruited. The 61 participating agencies will submit, on a monthly basis for 15 months, files containing information about children with a closed maltreatment investigation in the prior month, as well as children who entered CWS custody without a maltreatment investigation.

Phase II Data Collection - For Phase II of the project, OMB approved baseline and 18-month follow-up data collection, which includes face-to-face interviews and assessments with 4,565 children (aged birth to 17 ½ years), their adult caregivers (e.g., biological/adoptive parents, foster parents, kin caregivers, group home caregivers), and their assigned caseworkers. Baseline data collection began in November 2017 and was on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 to May 2021. Data collection resumed in June 2021 and is scheduled to be completed in February 2022.. The 18-month follow-up data collection began in September 2019 and was placed on hold in March 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a pause in face-to-face interviewing for the safety of interviewers and sampled respondents, the follow-up interviews for some baseline cases will occur later than 18 months. Because of the pandemic delays and the need to complete follow-up data collection within the contract period, a remote interview option will be offered to children and young adults ages 11 and older, adult caregivers, and caseworkers. Remote interviews with children, young adults, and adult caregivers will be conducted by telephone and web; remote interviews with caseworkers will be conducted by telephone.

Phase III Data Collection – For Phase III of the project, OMB approved workforce data collection which includes telephone and/or web surveys with agency directors, supervisors, and caseworkers in child welfare agencies participating in NSCAW III. Surveys will collect information on workforce characteristics and competencies, training and professional development opportunities, and organizational and agency factors. The surveys will also collect information about the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on child welfare workforce practices.

The current request is for revisions to the Phase II information collection, including a remote data collection option for the 18-month follow-up..

Phase III

Phase III represents a one-time survey of agency directors/administrators, supervisors, and caseworkers employed within the 61 public child welfare agencies currently participating in Phase II of NSCAW III. Field interviewers and project team members meet with agency staff to collect information on sampled children and to conduct interviews with investigative and services caseworkers assigned to children in the cohort. The new information collection is purposefully timed to occur during the 18-month follow-up wave of NSCAW III for two main reasons: 1) the baseline child/family cohort will have been enrolled and the burden of agencies participating in the study is much lower, and 2) the study will continue to have the field interviewing resources and agency relationships necessary to conduct the additional workforce data collection.

The NSCAW III sampling frame provides a nationally representative sample of public child welfare agencies. All directors/administrators from agencies participating in NSCAW III will be included in the sample. A sample of supervisors will be randomly selected from each agency. A sample of caseworkers who report to participating supervisors will also be randomly selected. This nested sampling allows for worker perceptions within a given agency to be compared, and for within agency characteristics and context to be considered as factors that could impact those perceptions. Because all caseworkers reporting to a participating supervisor have a chance of being selected, it is possible that a caseworker who provided information about participating children and families during Phase II could also be selected for a workforce interview. See Sections B1 and B2 for more detail on the plan for sampling.

The primary data collection modes will be telephone and/or web. An in-person mode may be offered to respondents in the future if it is safe to conduct in-person surveys in the respondent’s state and county. The contractor has in place an Infectious Disease Response Team that is monitoring COVID-19 infection rates across the country. A dashboard that incorporates public health data at the state and county-level to monitor trends has been developed. This dashboard considers a variety of metrics to inform decisions about where in person field data collection can begin, including 7-day rolling average infection rates. The agency director survey will be administered by a field interviewer using a paper-and-pencil instrument for both the telephone and in-person modes. The supervisor and caseworker surveys will be administered by a combination of telephone and/or web, with the most sensitive items (e.g., secondary trauma, burnout) being answered by caseworkers and supervisors via a web survey.

Survey results are intended to be representative of public child welfare agencies able to participate in NSCAW III; that is, agencies located in states that do not prohibit the release of identified child maltreatment records required for the survey (see Section B1 for more information).

Table 2 provides detail on the three workforce survey instruments, including the intended respondent, content, purpose of the collection, mode, and duration.

Table 2. Study Design and Instruments

Data Collection Activity	Instruments	Respondent, Content, Purpose of Collection	Mode and Duration
NSCAW III workforce surveys	Agency Director Survey	Respondents: 56 child welfare agency directors/administrators Content: Title and function within agency; primary roles and responsibilities; prior child welfare training/ experience when hired; education, years of experience and other demographics; agency characteristics and structure; partnerships with other private agencies, recruitment and hiring practices, training and professional development practices; agency funding. Purpose: Collect information about agency director characteristics, agency context, and agency practices.	Mode: Telephone, web, and/or in-person Duration: 35 minutes
	Supervisor Survey	Respondents: 130 child welfare supervisors Content: Title and function within agency; prior child welfare training/ experience when hired; education, years of experience and other demographics; skills and competencies; number/types of caseworkers supervised; roles and responsibilities as a supervisor; training and professional development opportunities for self and caseworkers; job stress; supervisory relationship with caseworkers; relationship with own supervisor, stress and burnout. Purpose: Collect information about supervisor characteristics and responsibilities; obtain supervisor’s perspective on training and development opportunities, caseworker skills and competencies, supervisory support to caseworkers, and any work-related stress/burnout.	Mode: Telephone, web, and/or in-person Duration: 35 minutes

Caseworker Survey

Respondents: 390 child welfare caseworkers Content: Title and function within agency; prior child welfare training/ experience when hired; education, years of experience and other demographics; skills and competencies; caseload; training and professional development opportunities; supervisory support and relationship to supervisor; salary and benefits; secondary traumatic stress; organizational climate. Purpose: Collect information about caseworker characteristics, responsibilities, and competencies; obtain caseworker’s perspective on training and development opportunities, preparedness, job benefits and supports, supervisory support, stress, and the climate/culture of the agency.

Mode: Telephone, web, and/or in-person Duration: 50 minutes

Other Data Sources and Uses of Information

NSCAW III (#0970-0202) provides the foundation for this information collection. Data collected from agency directors will be supplemented with agency administrative data publicly available to researchers via NCANDS and the Adoption and Foster Care Reporting System (AFCARS). These data provide further information on the context of agencies, such as the annual number of maltreatment reports and investigations and the number of children in foster care. There is no burden to study participants associated with using NCANDS and AFCARS data for NSCAW III.

A3. Use of Information Technology to Reduce Burden

The supervisor and caseworker surveys and the web survey option for agency directors will be programmed for computer-assisted interviewing (CAI). CAI offers several features that make the survey more efficient, and thus less burdensome for the respondent, while also supporting data quality. First, CAI technology makes possible the administration of complex questionnaires by interviewers with a level of accuracy that would otherwise not be feasible. CAI-programmed surveys implement complex skip patterns based on youth responses to gateway questions and to fill specific wordings based on answers previously provided by the respondent. Second, CAI technology improves the consistency of data provided by a respondent. If a respondent’s answers fall outside the logical range, the interviewer is prompted to verify the two seemingly inconsistent pieces of data with the respondent while their thinking on how the answer was formulated is still fresh. This reduces the need for subsequent data editing. Third, CAI technology provides greater expediency with respect to data processing and analysis. Several backend processing steps, including editing, coding, and data entry become part of the data collection process. The remote follow-up interview options for children 11 and older, caregivers, and caseworkers will benefit similarly from CAI technology. Additionally, caregivers and children and young adults ages 11 and older will have the option of completing the web survey portion at their own pace and at a time that is convenient for them.

In-person interviews for this study will use a computerized document management system (DocMan) developed by RTI International with which interviewers secure respondents’ signatures on all documents (e.g., informed consent forms) via the laptop computer, an electronic signature pad, and a portable scanner. Signed forms are transmitted electronically with completed questionnaire data in encrypted files and reviewed for completeness and accuracy.

A4. Use of Existing Data: Efforts to reduce duplication, minimize burden, and increase utility and government efficiency

Efforts were undertaken to identify existing data, reduce duplication, and minimize burden. A literature review and website scan revealed no ongoing efforts to conduct a nationally representative study of the strengths and challenges of the workforce in public child welfare agencies.

Because the agency director survey focuses largely on agency-level characteristics, the project team reviewed variables already available via two federal efforts - the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) (OMB #0970-0424) and the Adoption and Foster Care Reporting System (AFCARS) (OMB #0970-0422) prior to developing survey items. Relevant information available via NCANDS and AFCARS (e.g., annual number of maltreatment reports, number of children in foster care) will be obtained via those sources to reduce the number of questions asked of agency directors.

NSCAW III is uniquely positioned as a nationally representative study operating within pubic child welfare agencies. The information being collected cannot be obtained through other sources.

A5. Impact on Small Businesses

While county child welfare agencies with fewer than 55 maltreatment investigations annually are excluded from the NSCAW III sample frame, some agencies employ relatively few child welfare personnel. In these agencies, only one survey for each respondent type will be sought.

A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection

The current information collection request is a one-time data collection.

A7. Now subsumed under 2(b) above and 10 (below)

A8. Consultation

Federal Register Notice and Comments

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations at 5 CFR Part 1320 (60 FR 44978, August 29, 1995), ACF published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the agency’s intention to request an OMB review of this information collection activity. This notice was published on February 4, 2020, Volume 85, Number 23, page 6198, and provided a sixty-day period for public comment. A copy of this notice is attached as Appendix B. During the notice and comment period, no comments were received.

Consultation with Experts Outside of the Study

The project team consulted with several outside experts to inform workforce knowledge gaps, study design, and survey development. A panel with expertise in the child welfare workforce were contributed to decisions about the utility of gathering workforce data as part of NSCAW III, respondents to be surveyed, and key research questions and content. A subset of the expert panel was asked to review and provide feedback on drafts of the agency director, supervisor, and caseworker surveys. Their feedback and suggestions were incorporated into the surveys included with this submission. Experts and their affiliations are outlined in Table 3.

Table 3. Expert Consultants

Expert Consultant	Affiliation
Anita Barbee, MSSW, PhD	Professor and Distinguished Scholar, Kent School of Social Work, University of Louisville; Evaluation Specialist, Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development
Julie Breedlove, MSW	Priority Area Manager, ICF International, Capacity Building Center for States
Nancy Dickinson, MSSW, PhD	Clinical Professor, University of Maryland, School of Social Work; Project Director, National Child Welfare Workforce Institute
John Halloran, PhD	Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work, Lewis University
Mary McCarthy, MSW, PhD	Director, Social Work Education Consortium, University at Albany School of Social Welfare
Cynthia Osbourne PhD	Director, University of Texas Center for Health and Social Policy; Director, University of Texas Child and Family Research Partnership
Mike Shaver, PhD	President and CEO, Children’s Home Society of Florida
Rebecca Wells, PhD	Director, University of Texas Center for Health Systems Research, Policy, and Practice

A9. Tokens of Appreciation

Agencies participating in NSCAW III are committing significant time and effort to the study over the course of the several consecutive years needed to complete the baseline, month follow-up, and workforce data collection efforts previously approved by OMB. This change request includes the addition of a non-monetary incentive to adolescent respondents ages 11 to 17 years old. Adolescents will be offered a $20 gift card and an additional non-monetary gift of approximately equal (i.e., $20) value such as headphones or an art kit.

Previously Approved

Tokens of appreciation previously approved in Phase I, II, and III of NSCAW III are as follows:

Respondents	Activity	Time per Response	Token of Appreciation
Participating child welfare agencies	Provision of contact information for sampled children and their caregivers Baseline and 18-month caseworker interviews	1 hour per month during baseline 45 minutes per caseworker interview	$200 annually
Caregivers	Baseline and 18-month interviews	100 minutes	$50 cash
Children 11 and older	Baseline and 18-month interviews	60-100 minutes	$20 gift card and a nonmonetary gift of ~$20 in value
Children 10 and younger	Baseline and 18-month interviews	60-90 minutes	$10 gift card
Participating supervisors and caseworkers	Workforce surveys	35-50 minutes	$20 gift card

A10. Privacy: Procedures to protect privacy of information, while maximizing data sharing

Personally Identifiable Information

A limited amount of personally identifiable information (PII) will be collected for the purposes of contacting agency directors, supervisors, and caseworkers to schedule interviews. These include name, agency address, and agency telephone number. Information will not be maintained in a paper or electronic system from which data are actually or directly retrieved by an individuals’ personal identifier.

Assurances of Privacy

Information collected will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. Respondents will be informed of all planned uses of data, that their participation is voluntary, and that their information will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. As specified in the contract, the Contractor will comply with all Federal and Departmental regulations for private information.

The consent forms for each respondent type describe measures taken to assure participant privacy. These include assurances that the project team will protect the privacy of respondents to the fullest extent possible under the law, that respondents’ participation is voluntary, and that they may withdraw their consent at any time without any negative consequences.

The supervisor and caseworker surveys will use Computer Audio-Recorded Interviewing (CARI). CARI is a laptop computer application developed by RTI International for audio recording of field data collection to verify data collection and quality of data collection. The consent form also explains that CARI recordings will not include identifying information for participants and recordings will be destroyed after a review of survey quality. Participants either provide permission or opt out of CARI for their survey. As noted in Section A3, the Contractor will use DocMan to securely obtain and transmit signed respondent documents, including informed consent forms, for any in-person interviews.

In addition to project-specific training about study procedures, members of the data collection team will receive training that includes general security and privacy procedures. All members of the data collection team will be knowledgeable about privacy procedures and will be prepared to describe them in detail or answer any related questions raised by respondents.

The study has obtained a federal Certificate of Confidentiality that covers all information collected on NSCAW III. The Certificate of Confidentiality helps to assure participants that their information will be kept private to the fullest extent permitted by law. Prior to conducting surveys with agency directors, supervisors, and caseworkers, study approval will be received from the RTI Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Data Security and Monitoring

As specified in the contract, the Contractor shall protect respondent privacy to the extent permitted by law and will comply with all Federal and Departmental regulations for private information. The Contractor has developed a Data Safety and Monitoring Plan that assesses all protections of respondents’ PII. The Contractor shall ensure that all of its employees, subcontractors (at all tiers), and employees of each subcontractor, who perform work under this contract/subcontract, are trained on data privacy issues and comply with the above requirements. 

As specified in the evaluator’s contract, the Contractor shall use Federal Information Processing Standard compliant encryption (Security Requirements for Cryptographic Module, as amended) to protect all instances of sensitive information during storage and transmission. The Contractor shall securely generate and manage encryption keys to prevent unauthorized decryption of information, in accordance with the Federal Processing Standard.  The Contractor shall: ensure that this standard is incorporated into the Contractor’s property management/control system; establish a procedure to account for all laptop computers, desktop computers, and other mobile devices and portable media that store or process sensitive information. Any data stored electronically will be secured in accordance with the most current National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) requirements and other applicable Federal and Departmental regulations. In addition, the Contractor must submit a plan for minimizing to the extent possible the inclusion of sensitive information on paper records and for the protection of any paper records, field notes, or other documents that contain sensitive or PII that ensures secure storage and limits on access.  

The Contractor has established data security plans for handling data during all phases of the data collection, as follows:

• Field staff laptops will be password protected and disk encrypted. There are several levels of password‐protected access required to view the files on the laptops. Failure to provide a password at any of the levels denies access to the case files.

• Data will be transmitted and stored in a way that only members of the project team who are authorized and have need will have access to any identifying information. All project team members have been trained on data security procedures and have signed agreements that provide for termination of employment, civil suit, and financial and other penalties in case of violation. RTI field laptops and the data transmitted to and from the laptops are encrypted with Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140.2–compliant algorithms.

• All personnel working on the survey must sign affidavits pledging that the data they will collect or work with will not be disclosed. Penalties for disclosure include termination of employment and substantial financial fines.

• Access to project file shares, systems, and data is strictly controlled by role-based security in the form of Windows security groups. An individual’s security group membership is determined based on the minimum necessary access to perform their job function on the project. Staff are only added to security groups after completing the Project Confidentiality Pledge and any required trainings on data security. Security group membership is audited quarterly by project leaders to ensure that only those who still need specified access continue group membership.

As with all other data collected on NSCAW III, workforce survey data that has been de-identified will be made available to researchers via the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN). These dissemination plans are unchanged from those included in the Phase II NSCAW III submission previously approved by OMB.

A11. Sensitive Information ¹

The supervisor and caseworker surveys contain questions about the quality of employee-supervisor relationships and perceived support provided by those relationships. The supervisor survey contains questions about burnout and psychological distress. The caseworker survey contains questions about psychological distress, secondary traumatic stress, job-related stress, and organizational social climate. This information is necessary to address the study’s research questions and is not available from other sources. Respondents will be advised of the voluntary nature of participation and their right to refuse to answer any question during the informed consent process.

A12. Burden

Explanation of Burden Estimates

There are no remaining approved burden hours from the Phase I data collection of NSCAW III, previously approved under 0970-0202. This change request includes revised estimates to the average time per response to the child and caregiver follow-up information collections. The revisions are based on anticipated administration times for the remote data collection option. Table 4.A summarizes the remaining burden for Phase II. The data collection associated with baseline and 18-month follow-up data collection for Phase II is ongoing at the time of this submission. Table 4.B summarizes the remaining burden for Phase III. Phase III began in early 2021.

Table 4.A Phase II Estimated Response Burden Remaining (Previously Approved; 0970-0202, June 2017)

`	No. of Respondents (total over request period)	No. of Responses per Respondent (total over request period)	Avg. Burden per Response (in hours)	Total Burden (in hours)	Annual Burden (in hours)	Average Hourly Wage Rate	Total Annual Respondent Cost
Child – Baseline	755	1	1.75	1,321	441	n/a	n/a
Caregiver – Baseline	1,117	1	1.67	1,865	622	$17.25	$10,730
Caseworker – Baseline	243	3	.75	547	182	$31.23	$5,684
Child – 18-month follow-up	3,217	1	.75	2,413	804	n/a	n/a
Caregiver – 18-month follow-up	3,179	1	.75	2,384	795	$17.25	$13,713
Caseworker – 18-month follow-up	624	3	1.0	1,872	624	$31.23	$19,488
	Totals:			10,325	3,443		$48,834

Table 4.B Phase III Estimated Response Burden (Previously Approved; 0970-0202, September 2020)

Instrument	No. of Respondents (total over request period)		No. of Responses per Respondent (total over request period)	Avg. Burden per Response (in hours)	Total Burden (in hours)	Annual Burden (in hours)	Average Hourly Wage Rate	Total Annual Respondent Cost
Agency Director	56	1		.58	32	11	$59.56	$655.16
Supervisor	130	1		.58	75	25	$34.49	$862.25
Caseworker	390	1		.83	324	108	$23.92	$2,583.36
Totals					431	144		$4,100.77

A13. Costs

There are no additional costs to respondents.

A14. Estimated Annualized Costs to the Federal Government

Phase III

The Contractor used formal budget templates with staff labor rates and itemized expenses to calculate the amounts. Costs include personnel labor hours and other direct costs such as field data collection expenses and equipment. Estimated annualized costs to the federal government over the requested three-year approval period are as follows:

Cost Category	Estimated Costs
Instrument Development and OMB Clearance	$201,000
Field Work	$131,000
Analysis & Publications/Dissemination	$13,500
Total costs over the request period	$345,500
Annual costs	$115,166

Previously Approved

Estimated annualized costs to the federal government over the same three-year period for Phase II is $3,434,219. These costs include personnel labor hours and other direct costs for remaining baseline and 18-month follow-up data collection, data processing and analysis, and preparation of reports and presentations.

Total Annual Costs

Total estimated annualized to the federal government for the current and ongoing previously approved data collection is $3,549,385‬ ($115,166 + $3,434,219).

A15. Reasons for changes in burden

There are no remaining approved burden hours from the Phase I NSCAW III data collection. Phase II burden was updated in Table 4.A to reflect remote 18-month interviews for children and caregivers that have lower average administration times than originally estimated.

A16. Timeline

As noted in Section A.10, deidentified workforce survey data will be made available to researchers via the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN). Data collected from agency directors will be merged with other agency-level contextual information available in NCANDS and AFCARS. Data from all workforce surveys will be analyzed in order to address the research questions provided in Section A2. Planned dissemination products include reports, research briefs, 1-page data spotlights, webinars, and conference presentations.

Remaining Phase II activities include baseline and 18-month follow-up surveys with children, caregivers, and caseworkers. Phase II baseline and 18-month follow-up data collection is scheduled to be completed in February 2022 and August 2024, respectively. The timeline for the current request for workforce survey data collection is as follows:

Activity for Current Information Collection Request	Time Schedule
Collect data	18 months
Clean and analyze data	About 6 months after data collection is complete
Disseminate findings, including reports and research briefs	About 12 months after data collection is complete

A17. Exceptions

No exceptions are necessary for this information collection.

Attachments: Added August 2021

Appendix A-1: NSCAW III Summary of Remote Interviews

Appendix B-1: NSCAW III Child Remote Interview

Appendix C-1: NSCAW III Caregiver Remote Interview

Appendix D-1: NSCAW III Caseworker Remote Interview

Appendix F-2: Remote Lead Letters and Fact Sheets

Appendix F-2a: Remote Adolescent Fact Sheet

Appendix G-2: Remote Consent and Assent Forms

Appendix H-1: Remote Data Linkage Forms

Appendix I-1: Remote HIPAA Authorization Forms

Previously Approved Attachments

Appendix A: NSCAW III Summary of Interviews

Appendix B: NSCAW III Child Interview

Appendix C: NSCAW III Caregiver Interview

Appendix D: NSCAW III Caseworker Interview

Appendix F: Lead Letters and Fact Sheets

Appendix F-1: Adolescent Fact Sheet

Appendix G: Consent and Assent Forms

Appendix G-1: Caseworker Telephone Mode Consent Form

Appendix H: Data Linkage Forms

Appendix I: HIPAA Authorization Forms

Workforce ICR Appendix A: NSCAW III Phase II Research Questions

Workforce ICR Appendix B: 60-Day Federal Register Notice

Workforce ICR Appendix C: NSCAW III Phase I-II Site Selection and Sampling

Workforce ICR Appendix D: Research Questions and Constructs by Respondent Type

Instrument 1: Agency Director Survey

Instrument 2: Supervisor Survey

Instrument 3: Caseworker Survey

Workforce ICR Appendix E Agency Director Lead Letter

Workforce ICR Appendix F: Supervisor Lead Letter

Workforce ICR Appendix G: Caseworker Lead Letter

Workforce ICR Appendix H: Agency Director Consent Form

Workforce ICR Appendix I: Supervisor Consent Form

Workforce ICR Appendix J: Caseworker Consent Form

References

Edwards, F.E., & Wildeman, C. (2018). Characteristics of the front-line child welfare workforce. Children and Youth Services Review, 89, 13-26.

Fluke, J. D., Corwin, T. W., Hollinshead, D. M., & Maher, E. J. (2016). Family preservation or child safety? Associations between child welfare workers’ experience, position, and perspectives. Children and Youth Services Review, 69, 210–218.

Graef, M. I., & Hill, E. L. (2000). Costing child protective services staff turnover. Child Welfare, 79(5), 517–533.

Hughes, S., & Lay, S. (2012). Direct service workers’ recommendations for child welfare financing and system reform. Child Welfare League of America. Retrieved from https://www.cwla.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/DirectServiceWEB.pdf.

Pietrowiak, D., & Gambino, J. (2003). HHS Could Play a Greater Role in Helping Child Welfare Agencies Recruit and Retain Staff (Child Welfare No. GAO-03-357). Washington, DC: United States General Accounting Office. Retrieved from https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-03-357.

Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development. (2019). Recent research to build knowledge of the child welfare workforce. Retrieved from https://www.qic-wd.org/blog/recent-research-build-knowledge-child-welfare-workforce.

Strolin-Goltzman, J., Kollar, S., & Trinkle, J. (2010). Listening to the voices of children in foster care: Youths speak out about child welfare workforce turnover and selection. Social Work, 55(1), 47–53.

1 Examples of sensitive topics include (but not limited to): social security number; sex behavior and attitudes; illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating and demeaning behavior; critical appraisals of other individuals with whom respondents have close relationships, e.g., family, pupil-teacher, employee-supervisor; mental and psychological problems potentially embarrassing to respondents; religion and indicators of religion; community activities which indicate political affiliation and attitudes; legally recognized privileged and analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians and ministers; records describing how an individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment; receipt of economic assistance from the government (e.g., unemployment or WIC or SNAP); immigration/citizenship status.

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