NonSub Change - Baseline Survey Updates and Site Inclusion

To: Jordan Cohen

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

From: Mary Mueggenborg

Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE)

Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Date: January 18, 2022

Subject: NonSubstantive Change Request –Supporting Youth to be Successful in Life (SYSIL) Study (OMB #0970-0574)

This memo requests approval of nonsubstantive changes to the approved information collection, Supporting Youth to be Successful in Life (SYSIL) Study (OMB #0970-0574).

Background

OMB approved the impact and implementation studies and instruments for the OPRE Study, Supporting Youth to be Successful in Life (SYSIL) on July 27, 2021. Since approval, the Federal Government increased funding to state child welfare agencies, which although time-limited will affect the services offered to youth. As part of the implementation study, the initial approval included two rounds of site visits and two “check-in” calls with 12 of the 16 sites¹ participating in the evaluation. However, interviewing all sites will allow us to document how their services expanded and contracted during our study period. Our original request indicated that we would drop survey items that we could collect through administrative data; however, at the time of submission we were still learning what information the administrative data captured. We have since identified survey items that we can drop.

Data collection for the implementation study has not yet begun. Baseline data collection with youth for the impact study began in September 2021.

Overview of Requested Changes

The current request is to add two rounds of 30-minute check-in calls with the 4 intervention sites who are not participating in the full implementation study data collection. The research team will ask sites the same questions during the check-in calls, which will enable the team to describe the services offered to all youth participating in the study, in particular to understand how the presence or absence of additional federal funding affected the services available during the study.

ACF requests a change to drop seven items around youth’s placement history included in the approved youth survey. The research team will obtain the information from administrative data sources rather than from youth completing the survey. The team removed the following seven items from the youth surveys: C8, C9, C14, C17, C18, C20, and C21. In addition, the team realized the approved survey includes a duplicate item which we are requesting to remove. The duplicate items are I8a and I10a, and we removed I10a.

Updated SSA and SSB documents and the revised instrument accompany this memo.

1 The YARH Summative evaluation includes 37 counties that form 16 sites (10 intervention and 6 comparison) due to coordination of services across small adjacent counties.