SSA - Survey for Staff Supporting Infants and Toddlers for NCECDTL’s TTA Offerings

Survey for Staff Supporting Infants and Toddlers for the National Center for Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning’s (NCECDTL’s) Training and Technical Assistance Offerings

Formative Data Collections for Program Support

0970 – 0531

Supporting Statement

Part A - Justification

September 2024

Submitted By:

Office of Head Start

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

A1. Necessity for the Data Collection

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks approval to collect feedback on infant/toddler staff who attend the National Center for Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning’s (NCECDTL) Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) offerings.

Background

The NCECDTL provides TTA to Head Start/Early Head Start grantees and Regional TTA Specialists. This professional development aims to yield improvements in program- and staff-level outcomes and lead to enhanced competencies (knowledge, skills, and practices) for TTA and grantee staff who focus on early child development and education services across the Head Start and Early Head Start program options. As part of the network of Early Childhood National Centers, NCECDTL collaborates with the ACF Office of Head Start’s Central and Regional Offices to provide a range of supports designed to benefit infant/toddler educators and the managers/leaders who support them. In the coming contract year, DTL plans to deliver a multi-day event for managers in the infant/toddler space. The proposed data collection would provide NCECDTL with a deeper understanding of which resources and supports are most beneficial to their ongoing work. This information is needed for the NCEDTL to provide TTA that is targeted to the needs of those receiving the support.

Legal or Administrative Requirements that Necessitate the Collection

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

A2. Purpose of Survey and Data Collection Procedures

Overview of Purpose and Use

This Generic Information Collection (GenIC) request includes a web-based survey that will be disseminated to infant/toddler educators and staff supporting infant/toddlers. The purpose of the survey is to understand current and anticipated needs that DTL can address during the event for staff who support infant/toddler educators. Results from the surveys will be used to identify participant needs, design training sessions and materials that speak to those needs, and inform an event designed for the surveyed population.

This proposed information collection meets the following goals of ACF’s generic clearance for formative data collections for program support (0970-0531):

• Delivery of T/TA related to program implementation and the refinement of program and grantee processes.

• Planning for provision of programmatic T/TA.

Processes for Information Collection

Those receiving services from NCECDTL can subscribe for eblasts that are sent out regularly with information from NCECDTL. Information about the survey will be sent through an e-blast that includes a link to the web-based survey.

Surveys are expected to take approximately 20 minutes per respondent and include multiple choice, scale ranking, and open-ended questions to collect feedback on the current activities and needs of infant/toddler educators and those who support infant/toddler educators. The web-based survey includes questions that focus on the following topics: education environments for infant/toddler educators, critical competencies for working with infants and toddlers, and professional development interests.

A3. Improved Information Technology to Reduce Burden

The survey will be web-based, and respondents will be able to complete the survey at their convenience during a period of about two-weeks. NCECDTL will provide an active link to the web-based survey in the recruitment emails and e-blast.

A4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

This is a one-time needs assessment to inform future work of the NCECDTL. This information collection does not duplicate any other data collection efforts or request information that is currently available elsewhere.

A5. Involvement of Small Organizations

Not applicable. No impact to small organizations expected.

A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection

Not applicable. This is a one-time data collection effort.

A7. Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances for the proposed data collection efforts.

A8. Federal Register Notice and 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 request to extend approval of the umbrella generic with minor changes. The notice was published on January 28, 2022, (87 FR 4603), and provided a sixty-day period for public comment. ACF did not receive any comments on the first notice. A second notice was published, allowing a thirty-day period for public comment, in conjunction with submission of the request to OMB. ACF did not receive any comments on the second notice.

Consultation with Outside Experts

No consultations have taken place with experts outside of the project team.

A9. Tokens of Appreciation for Respondents

No tokens of appreciation for respondents are proposed for this information collection.

A10. Privacy of Respondents

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.

A11. Sensitive Questions

There are no sensitive questions in this data collection.

A12. Estimation of Information Collection Burden

Burden Estimates

The NCECDTL e-blast list includes 22,694 subscribers. Based on current (2023) Program Information Report data (OMB #0970-0427), approximately 16.4% of Head Start staff are infant/toddler educators and an additional 7.6% are leaders who directly support infant/toddler educators. Therefore, the expected population from the e-blast list that would be eligible to complete the survey is approximately 5,446 respondents. If applicable, we plan to stop data collection once 600 responses have been received, as this level of response would provide useful information to fulfill the purpose and use of this information collection without being overly burdensome. See Supporting Statement B for more information.

The survey is estimated to take an average of 20 minutes to complete. Data collection will take place over about two-weeks.

Cost Estimates

The cost to respondents was calculated using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) wage data from May 2023 for the following job codes:

• Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education [25-2011] ($19.91 per hour)

• Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare [11-9031] ($29.48 per hour)

To account for fringe benefits and overhead the rates were multiplied by two, which are $39.82 and $58.96, respectively.

https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_stru.htm

Instrument	Total Number of Respondents	Total Number of Responses Per Respondent	Average Burden Hours Per Response	Total Burden Hours	Average Hourly Wage	Total Annual Cost
Survey for Staff Supporting Infants and Toddlers – Educators	300	1	.33	99	$39.82	$3,942.18
Survey for Staff Supporting Infants and Toddlers - Staff Supporting Educators	300	1	.33	99	$58.96	$5,837.04
Totals:	600	1	.33	198		$9,799.22

A13. Cost Burden to Respondents or Record Keepers

There are no additional costs to respondents.

A14. Estimate of Cost to the Federal Government

The total cost for the data collection activities under this current request will be $2,028.00. Federal staff costs are estimated to be about 20 hours of the time of a staff at the GS-12 labor category to oversee the activities of this data collection.

A15. Change in Burden

This is for an individual information collection under the umbrella formative generic clearance for program support (0970-0531).

A16. Plan and Time Schedule for Information Collection, Tabulation and Publication

Data collection will begin following OMB approval and we anticipate keeping the survey open for about 2 weeks, or until 600 responses have been received. The data is only intended for internal capacity building and no publications are expected as a result of this data collection.

A17. Reasons Not to Display OMB Expiration Date

All instruments will display the expiration date for OMB approval.

A18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

No exceptions are necessary for this information collection.

Attachments

Instrument: Survey for Staff Supporting Infants and Toddlers

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