Appendix D Observation materials

Appendix D

Observation Materials

Contents

Appendix D.1 Observation measure D-2

Appendix D.2 Observation confirmation message D-4

Appendix D.3 Observation letter of notification for families D-6

Appendix D.1

Observation measure

D.1 Observation measure

Family Child Care Program Quality Assessment (FCC PQA)

About: The Family Child Care PQA is a validated instrument designed to measure the quality of family child care programs and identify provider training needs. It consists of standards for best practices that can be scored by outside raters or used as a self-assessment tool by providers. The Family Child Care PQA is appropriate for use in all family child care homes, both family care (smaller) and group care (larger settings):

Citation: HighScope Educational Research Foundation. Family Child Care Program Quality Assessment (PQA) Administration Manual. Ypsilanti, MI: HighScope Press, 2009.

Appendix D.2

Observation confirmation message

D.2 Observation confirmation message

NOTE FOR REVEIWERS: We plan to send this message by email, letter, or text, modified as appropriate for the mode.

IF EMAIL: EMAIL SUBJECT: Observation Visit Scheduled for [DATE]

Attach: Observation letter of notification for families

Hi [NAME],

Thanks again for taking part in the Home-Based Child Care Toolkit for Nurturing School-Age Children (HBCC-NSAC Toolkit) Study!

To confirm, someone from our team is scheduled to visit your home on [DATE] at [TIME]. We look forward to the visit! [OBSERVER NAME], will plan to be at your home for about 3 to 4 hours. We would like to see a typical day with school-age children, and you and the children do not need to change your routine. Information from the visit will be used to help us understand how providers like you care for children for this study and will not be shared or used for monitoring or assessment purposes. All information from this study will be kept private to the extent permitted by law.

[OBSERVER NAME] will call you one or two days prior to the visit to check in and go over any other questions you may have. Attached is a letter of notification about our visit that you may share with families.

As a thank you for scheduling and allowing us to visit, you will receive a $10 gift card at the time of the visit.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Sincerely,

[NAME] for the HBCC-NSAC Study team

The referenced collection of information is voluntary. Information will be kept private. 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 XXXX-XXXX and the expiration date is XX/XX/20XX

Appendix D.3

Observation letter of notification for families

D.3 Observation letter of notification for families

Hello!

Your home-based child care provider is taking part in the Home-Based Child Care Toolkit for Nurturing School-Age Children (HBCC-NSAC Toolkit) Study.

In this study, your provider is helping us test the HBCC-NSAC Toolkit. Providers can use this toolkit to reflect on how they care for children and to think about the things they would like to keep doing, do more of, or learn more about.

A trained observer is scheduled to visit and observe your child’s care location on [DATE] at [TIME]. The observer will be there for about 3 to 4 hours. They will try to stay out of the way and will not interact with children. Information from the visit will be used to help us understand how providers care for children for this study. We are not visiting to monitor or assess the provider or children. All information from this study will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. The names of child care providers, children, and family members will never appear in any published reports.

If you received a family survey to complete and have not already completed it, please do so. If you opt to complete it on paper, please send it with your child on the day of the observation. That way, the study team will be able to pick it up in person.

If you have any questions, please call [STUDY PHONE NUMBER] or email [STUDY EMAIL]. We look forward to our visit!

Sincerely,

HBCC-NSAC Study team

The referenced collection of information is voluntary. Information will be kept private. 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 XXXX-XXXX and the expiration date is XX/XX/20XX