State child welfare records: data file submission - MIHOPE-3G

Dear [contact name],

My name is [MIHOPE staff full name], and I am a member of the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation (MIHOPE) research team at MDRC. MDRC is an education and social policy research organization, and MIHOPE is a national evaluation of home visiting programs funded by MIECHV (the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program). You can find additional information on MIHOPE here or below.

We are currently planning follow-up data collection when the MIHOPE children are in approximately third grade to measure the longer-term effects of home visiting programs. Part of our follow-up includes collecting individual-level child welfare records in states where MIHOPE children were enrolled in the study.

When MDRC conducted the initial follow-up with families in MIHOPE when children were 15 months of age, [state child welfare department name] provided data, for which we are very grateful. We would like to continue this relationship and speak to you about whether [state child welfare department name] can again provide follow-up data on families when the child is in approximately third grade.

Our team would like to schedule a 30 minute call with you for the week of [date of the Monday of the calendar week]. What is your availability for a call between [date of Monday of desired week] and [date of Friday of desired week]? 

If you are no longer the point of contact, please let me know who I should reach out to regarding child welfare data requests from [state child welfare department name].

Thank you! We look forward to hearing from you soon.

 

 

 

About MIHOPE-LT (Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation- Long Term)

As background, the federal government contracted with MDRC and its partners to conduct this national evaluation of home visiting programs focused on pregnant women or mothers with infants. MIHOPE is serving two critical purposes: informing the federal government about the effectiveness of the federally-funded Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV) in its first few years of operation, and providing information to help states develop and strengthen home visiting programs in the future. The evaluation uses a random assignment design to estimate the effects of home visiting programs across a wide range of outcomes, such as child maltreatment and child welfare involvement. This is occurring in your state and others around the country. In using this randomized design, MIHOPE will provide valuable information on how these programs can improve the lives of parents and children. To conduct this evaluation, women who were eligible for the home visiting services signed a consent form, provided some personal identifying information, and then were randomly assigned to receive either a) home visiting services or b) information about other services in the community. Both groups are part of the study, which means that we will collect follow up data on an extensive set of parent and child outcomes. The long term extension of MIHOPE allows us to trace children through approximately third grade. More information can be found at:

https://www.mdrc.org/project/mother-and-infant-home-visiting-program-evaluation-mihope#overview

 

Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation (MIHOPE)

www.mdrc.org

Home visiting programs operate around the country to prevent child maltreatment, improve maternal and child health outcomes, and increase school readiness.

 

The described collection of information is voluntary and will be used to learn how home visiting programs benefit families. 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 control number for this collection is 0970-0402 and it expires on XX/XX/XXXX. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to be up to 45 hours. Information collected on study participants will be kept private to the extent permitted by law.