Appendix B. Project Overview of Data Collection Outreach

^{Appendix B. Project Overview for Case Study Outreach}

Understanding Supply-Building and Sustainability Efforts of the Child Care and Early Education (CCEE) Market

Project Overview

The Urban Institute is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution in Washington DC, and has been contracted by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to better understand the types of child care and early education supply-building and sustainability efforts states, territories, and tribes are undertaking. You can find more information about the project here. One part of the project involved an environmental scan which included reviewing what is publicly available about state and territory efforts, as well as a survey of state and territory Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agencies about their efforts. As part of the larger project, we are now conducting virtual case studies of several states to learn more about a select group of supply-building or sustainability strategies we identified through the web scan or survey. 

Key Information about the Case Studies

What is the purpose of the case studies?

The goal of the case studies is to document and share information about child care and early education supply-building and sustainability strategies and to use the information to inform recommendations for future research.

A few important points:

• The case studies are designed to help us understand selected strategies to build or sustain child care and early education supply; we are not evaluating or monitoring your agency or any program you are implementing.

• Your participation in the case studies is voluntary. Even if you agree to participate, you can choose to skip any questions we ask during the interview or end the interview at any time. None of these decisions, or your answers to the questions, will have any effect on your funding from ACF.

What is involved in participating in a case study? What is the format?

The case studies will take place in [months] 2025. To collect data for the case studies we will conduct virtual interviews with key individuals who are integral to the design and implementation of the selected supply-building or sustainability strategy. We anticipate these individuals to include:

• CCDF Administrators

• CCDF Lead Agency staff involved in planning and decision-making about the strategy

• Individuals who lead/led implementation of the strategy

• Key people involved in collecting and analyzing data about and/or evaluating the strategy

This information collection is voluntary. 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 the described collection are OMB #0970-0356, Exp: 1/31/2027. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: Urban Institute, 500 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, DC 20037.

All interviews will be conducted virtually via Zoom. Most interviews will be one hour, and no interviews will be longer than one-and-a-half hours.

We also plan to conduct focus groups and interviews with other individuals who might have additional information to share with us about the strategy. For example, in some states, we may want to conduct a focus group with child care and early education providers to learn their perspectives. In other states, we may want to conduct interviews with representatives from community or other organizations who received grants to design or implement child care and early education supply-building and sustainability strategies. We will provide these focus group and interview participants with $50 to thank them for their participation. 

These focus groups and interviews will also be conducted virtually via Zoom.

What questions will be asked during the case study interviews?

The questions we ask during the interviews will be different depending on who we are speaking to and what their role is. Across interviews, we will ask questions related to the following topics:

• A description of the strategy including the goals and intended outcomes, key activities or components, and focus populations

• Planning and decision making involved in the initial adoption or adaptation of the strategy

• Ongoing implementation of the strategy

• Funding and resources required to implement the strategy

• Types of data collected about strategy implementation and outcomes and how data are used

• Successes, challenges, and lessons learned

During focus groups with child care and early education providers and interviews with representatives from intermediary or community organizations, we will ask questions about their experiences with the strategy, the benefits and challenges they experienced, and lessons learned.

What will the project team and ACF do with the information gathered?

All notes and recordings (if you or whomever we interview gives us permission to record) will be stored on Urban’s limited-access, encrypted cloud storage system. After each interview and focus group, we will summarize the information shared during the interview or focus group, including questions and responses, and report findings from the case studies. At the conclusion of this study, all interview and focus group recordings and transcripts will be destroyed.

We will share the summary and findings documents with our federal project officers and project specialists at the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, which is an office within ACF, as well as staff at the federal Office of Child Care within ACF. We may also use the information to develop a public report or brief that summarizes what we learned across all the states that participate in case studies.

We will identify your state in the documents we share with ACF. We will not identify the names of anyone we interview or who participates in focus groups. If we produce a report or brief that is available to the public, we will keep the identity of all individuals we interview and who participate in focus groups private. In addition, we may name the states that participated in the public report or brief but none of the information presented will be attributed to a particular state. Rather, we will describe themes across the states and strategies included in the case studies.

Has this project been approved by an Institutional Review Board?

The Urban Institute’s internal Institutional Review Board (IRB) has reviewed the interview and focus group questions, approach, and procedures to ensure they meet IRB standards.

500 L’Enfant Plaza SW
Washington, DC 20024

urban.org