OMB# 0970-0356 Expiration: XX/XX/XXXX
Appendix B: Recruitment for Licensing Administrator Survey to Prepare for Front-Line Staff Data Collection
Recruitment for Licensing Administrator Survey to Prepare for Front-Line Staff Data Collection
Attachments: Project flyer for licensing administrators (Appendix C) and Letter of support from OCC (Appendix D)
Subject: Please help with ACF’s front-line licensing staff data collection
Dear [Child Care Licensing Administrator Name],
We are conducting the first-ever nationwide survey of front-line child care licensing staff, and we need your help. We are asking you to please provide some information about the front-line staff in your state so that we can invite them to participate in our upcoming survey. We need to hear from every state in order to describe the national front-line child care licensing staff.
We are conducting this work as part of The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education (TRLECE) project, funded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, within the Administration for Children and Families. The attached project flyer provides more information about TRLECE’s activities. As you’ll see in the attached letter, the Office of Child Care (OCC) in the Administration for Children and Families also supports this work.
Please use the link below to answer some questions about your front-line child care licensing staff and provide their names and contact information (work email address and work phone number) so that we can invite them to participate in our upcoming survey.
[Unique survey link]
What do you mean by front-line child care licensing staff?
By front-line child care licensing staff we mean individuals who routinely conduct licensing inspections of licensed child care programs. They may have other responsibilities as well, as long as one of their jobs is to routinely conduct licensing inspections.
What will happen with the information I provide about front-line child care licensing staff?
The information you provide about your front-line child care licensing staff is solely so we can invite them to participate in our survey. It will not be shared with anyone outside of our research team. Once we reach out to them, each front-line child care licensing staff member can decide to take part in the survey or not. It’s completely voluntary. All information we collect will be private. Your front-line child care licensing staff members’ answers will be combined with those from other states before reporting. For instance, we will report things like, “X% of front-line child care licensing staff reported meeting with their supervisor at least once a month.” As another example, we might report findings like, “Front-line child care licensing staff reported spending an average of X% of their time receiving training or professional development, ranging from A% to Z%.”
Is this part of federal monitoring? What is in the upcoming survey for front-line child care licensing staff?
The survey we will send to front-line staff is not part of the federal government’s monitoring of states. It is for research purposes only. The information will not be used to judge states or compare states to one another. We will never share how individuals from any state answered. We think the upcoming survey of front-line staff is important because there is very little research about the licensing workforce, and that workforce is an important part of the child care system. We hope that this research will inform state and federal efforts to support and strengthen the child care licensing system.
The survey we will send to front-line staff includes questions about front-line licensing staff’s career paths, educational backgrounds, day-to-day roles and responsibilities, burnout, and professional development opportunities.
What if I have questions or concerns?
If you can’t provide names and contact information for any reason, we would like to talk with you about your concerns and other ways to include front-line child care licensing staff from your state in the study. It is important to hear directly from front-line child care licensing staff in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, so we want to talk with you about how we can include your staff. Please call or text us at [Phone number] or contact us by email at [Study specific email address].
What are the next steps?
If you’re willing to participate, please click on the link above. We plan to reach out again over the next few weeks to remind you about this opportunity if we haven’t heard from you.
Sincerely,
Kelly Maxwell, Ph.D., on behalf of the TRLECE team
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 and expiration date for this collection are OMB #: 0970-0356, Exp: XX/XX/XXXX. |
Attachments: Project flyer for licensing administrators (Appendix C) and Letter of support from OCC (Appendix D)
Subject: Reminder: Please help with ACF’s survey of front-line licensing staff
Dear [Child Care Licensing Administrator Name],
We are following up on our request for information about front-line child care licensing staff in your state so we can include them in the first-ever survey of front-line staff. We are conducting this work as part of The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education (TRLECE; see attached flyer) project, funded by the Office of Planning Research and Evaluation, within the Administration for Children and Families. As you’ll see in the attached letter, the Office of Child Care (OCC) in the Administration for Children and Families also supports this work.
Please use the link below to answer some questions about your front-line child care licensing staff and provide their names and contact information (email address and work phone number) so that we can invite them to participate in our upcoming survey.
[Unique survey link]
It is important that we hear from every state and the District of Columbia so this first-ever study of front-line licensing staff will be accurate. If you have questions or concerns, please reply to this message.
What do you mean by front-line child care licensing staff?
By front-line child care licensing staff we mean individuals who routinely conduct licensing inspections of licensed child care programs. They may have other responsibilities as well, as long as one of their jobs is to routinely conduct licensing inspections.
What will happen with the information I provide about front-line child care licensing staff?
The information you provide about your front-line child care licensing staff is solely so we can invite them to participate in our survey. It will not be shared with anyone outside of our research team. Once we reach out to them, each front-line child care licensing staff member can decide to take part in the survey or not. It’s completely voluntary. All information we collect will be private. Your front-line child care licensing staff members’ answers will be combined with those from other states before reporting. For instance, we will report things like, “X% of front-line child care licensing staff reported meeting with their supervisor at least once a month.” As another example, we might report findings like, “Front-line child care licensing staff reported spending an average of X% of their time receiving training or professional development, ranging from A% to Z%.”
Is this part of federal monitoring? What is in the upcoming survey for front-line child care licensing staff?
The survey we will send to front-line staff is not part of the federal government’s monitoring of states. It is for research purposes only. The information will not be used to judge states or compare states to one another. We will never share how individuals from any state answered. We think the upcoming survey of front-line staff is important because there is very little research about the licensing workforce, and that workforce is an important part of the child care system. We hope that this research will inform state and federal efforts to support and strengthen the child care licensing system.
The survey we will send to front-line staff includes questions about front-line licensing staff’s career paths, educational backgrounds, day-to-day roles and responsibilities, burnout, and professional development opportunities.
What if I have questions or concerns?
If you can’t provide names and contact information for any reason, we would like to talk with you about your concerns and other ways to include front-line child care licensing staff from your state in the study. It is important to hear directly from front-line child care licensing staff in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, so we want to talk with you about how we can include your staff. Please call or text us at [Phone number] or contact us by email at [Study specific email address].
What are the next steps?
If you’re willing to participate, please click on the link above. We plan to reach out again over the next few weeks to remind you about this opportunity if we haven’t heard from you.
Sincerely,
Kelly Maxwell, Ph.D., on behalf of the TRLECE team
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 and expiration date for this collection are OMB #: 0970-0356, Exp: XX/XX/XXXX. |
Attachments: Project flyer for licensing administrators (Appendix C) and Letter of support from OCC (Appendix D)
Subject: Time is running out to assist with ACF’s survey of front-line licensing staff
Dear [Child Care Licensing Administrator Name],
Time is running out to help with our request for The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education (TRLECE) study. If we don’t hear from you soon, we will not be able to include your state in our upcoming nationwide survey of front-line child care licensing staff.
We are conducting this work as part of a project, The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education (TRLECE, see attached flyer), funded by the Office of Planning Research and Evaluation, within the Administration for Children and Families. As you’ll see in the attached letter, the Office of Child Care (OCC) in the Administration for Children and Families also supports this work.
We are asking you to use the link below to answer some questions about your front-line child care licensing staff and provide their names and contact information (email address and work phone number) so that we can invite them to participate in our upcoming survey. If you have questions or concerns, please respond to this message.
[Unique survey link]
What do you mean by front-line child care licensing staff?
By front-line child care licensing staff we mean individuals who routinely conduct licensing inspections of licensed child care programs. They may have other responsibilities as well, as long as one of their jobs is to routinely conduct licensing inspections.
What will happen with the information I provide about front-line child care licensing staff?
The information you provide about your front-line child care licensing staff is solely so we can invite them to participate in our survey. It will not be shared with anyone outside of our research team. Once we reach out to them, each front-line child care licensing staff member can decide to take part in the survey or not. It’s completely voluntary. All information we collect will be private. Your front-line child care licensing staff members’ answers will be combined with those from other states before reporting. For instance, we will report things like, “X% of front-line child care licensing staff reported meeting with their supervisor at least once a month.” As another example, we might report findings like, “Front-line child care licensing staff reported spending an average of X% of their time receiving training or professional development, ranging from A% to Z%.”
Is this part of federal monitoring? What is in the upcoming survey for front-line child care licensing staff?
The survey we will send to front-line staff is not part of the federal government’s monitoring of states. It is for research purposes only. The information will not be used to judge states or compare states to one another. We will never share how individuals from any state answered. We think the upcoming survey of front-line staff is important because there is very little research about the licensing workforce, and that workforce is an important part of the child care system. We hope that this research will inform state and federal efforts to support and strengthen the child care licensing system.
The survey we will send to front-line staff includes questions about front-line licensing staff’s career paths, educational backgrounds, day-to-day roles and responsibilities, burnout, and professional development opportunities.
What if I have questions or concerns?
If you can’t provide names and contact information for any reason, we would like to talk with you about your concerns and other ways to include front-line child care licensing staff from your state in the study.
It is important to hear directly from front-line child care licensing staff in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, so we want to talk with you about how we can include your staff. Please call or text us at [Phone number] or contact us by email at [Study specific email address].
Sincerely,
Kelly Maxwell, Ph.D., on behalf of the TRLECE team
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 and expiration date for this collection are OMB #: 0970-0356, Exp: XX/XX/XXXX. |
[We will use this script for the first phone conversation we have directly with the licensing administrator. Once we have spoken with them, we will conduct individualized follow-up as needed]
Hello, this is [Child Trends Researcher’s Name] from Child Trends and The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education study, funded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, within the Administration for Children and Families. Can I please speak with [Child Care Licensing Administrator Name]? [Confirm who you are speaking with]
I am following up on an email Kelly Maxwell sent recently requesting your help with our research. As part of our project, we are conducting a nationwide online survey of front-line child care licensing staff to better understand their experiences. We are hoping that you could help us invite the front-line child care licensing staff members in [STATE] to participate in our survey. Have you received this email?
[If no] Sorry to hear that! As I briefly mentioned, we are conducting the first-ever nationwide online survey of front-line child care licensing staff to understand their roles, backgrounds, experiences, and supports. We are hoping you could help us by answering some questions about your front-line child care licensing staff and providing their names and contact information so that we can invite them to participate in our upcoming survey. Do you have any questions or concerns about this? [Respond to questions/concerns]
Okay, I see that the email address we sent the initial request to is [administrator’s email] is that the correct email address for you? [confirm or update email address] Thank you, I will re-send the email following this call. The subject line will be [Insert subject line]. If you don’t get it in the next few minutes, you may need to check your email spam folder.
[If yes] Great! I want to check in to see whether you had any questions or concerns regarding our request.
[From here, find out what the concern is and figure out a solution. Possible issues/solutions include:
How will my responses to this survey be transmitted/secured/maintained?
The link we sent is fully secure.
We are only requesting work emails and phone numbers
We will only use the information you share to request that front-line staff complete the upcoming survey
What will happen to the information collected from front-line staff?
Front-line staff can choose to complete the upcoming survey or not. It will be optional.
Data from the upcoming survey of front-line staff survey will be aggregated across states and their state will never be identified.
Our report will combine responses across states.
Need permission from supervisor or a formal data sharing agreement
Find out what the steps are for that and who you/they need to talk with.
Front-line staff are not state employees, so I don’t have their names/contact information
Find out who does have that information and how to reach them.
We are not permitted to share this information under any circumstances.
Find out if they (or someone else in their office) would be willing to send links and reminders on our behalf. Emphasize that we will create the links and texts and just ask them to send them.
Be sure to find out how many front-line staff they have.
I and my staff do not have time.
Clarify that we just need a list, not any additional help.
Ask if there is a better time to call (maybe next week).
Hello, this message is for [Child Care Licensing Administrator Name]. My name is _____________ and I am calling from Child Trends on behalf of The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education study.
I am following up on an email Kelly Maxwell recently sent requesting your help with our research. As part of our project, we are conducting a nationwide online survey of front-line child care licensing staff to better understand their experiences.
We would like to talk with you about how we can get some information about front-line child care licensing staff members in [STATE] in order to invite them to participate in our upcoming survey. Please give us a call back at XXX-XXX-XXXX or email us at [email protected] with any questions. Or you can respond to the email Kelly Maxwell sent on [DATE]. We need to hear from every state in order to describe the national front-line child care licensing staff so if I don’t hear back from you in a few days, I’ll try you again.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Ying-Chun Lin |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2023-10-29 |